MCG Youth

In observance of the holiday, MCG Youth will be closed today.

In observance of the Juneteenth holiday, which marks the emancipation of enslaved African Americans, MCG Youth will be closed. To learn more about the Juneteenth celebration, please visit https://www.juneteenth.com/.

MCG Youth would like to thank everyone who attended the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild Invitational last Thursday. This is a truly special occasion where we get to highlight the extraordinary talent student artists in the area have to offer. Congratulations to our winners and thank you to all who attended.

You can relive this momentous occasion by visiting our gallery page at https://www.mcgyouth.org/2024-mcgi-event-photos

Before the rain struck this week, our Tuesday Design class got to enjoy their Figure Drawing & Fashion class in the fresh air of our courtyard! They each took turns posing for five-minute sketches amongst each other and the flowers.

MCG Photo students will be featured in an exhibition this Sunday with the Pittsburgh Photography Club .

To learn more, visit: https://www.mcgyouth.org/post/pittsburgh-photography-club-annual-salon-exhibit-open-house

This past Winter, students in MCG Youth's Digital Arts studio learned the fundamentals of animation. Check out this compilation of their 8 second clips!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agqDEPdhSPU

Animation Station MCG Digital 2024 This is the final project compilation for out frame-by-frame animation class at MCG!

Happy Friday from MCG Youth!

While the deadline was previously today at midnight for MCGI submissions, we've decided to EXTEND the deadline through next Sunday, March 17th. We can't wait to see what your students and peers submit this year- so far, the work is looking beautiful!

To submit for yourself or on behalf of a student, click here:

MCGI Submissions | MCG Youth For more than 50 years, the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild has been a champion for youth, art and education in Pittsburgh. Historically, MCG has hosted an annual juried arts exhibition where talented students from Pittsburgh Public Schools competed for accolades and awards. The MCG Invitational cont...

Last night was our closing reception of fiber artist, ‘s Ephemeral Edge exhibition. She ended her time at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild with an insightful artist talk with MCG Youth’s executive director, Justin Mazzei and Q & A from the audience.

View our event gallery at https://www.mcgyouth.org/post/ephemeral-edge-closing-reception-and-family-night-gallery .

You can also view a livestream of Stefanie’s artist talk on our Instagram page at .

We also commemorated the end of our winter trimester with our Family Night celebration. Thank you everyone who joined us for a truly special evening!

Good morning, students! This is a friendly reminder that there is a half day for PPS students today- as we follow the PPS schedule for programming, the after-school program will run from 12:00-2:00. Thank you!

Are you a high school student with some incredible artwork to share with the world? Submit your artwork to the MCG Invitational, our yearly exhibition showcasing artwork from high schoolers in the Pittsburgh region!

Apply through March 8th to be considered for over $60,000 in scholarships, workshop opportunities, and cash prizes!

MCGI Submissions | MCG Youth For more than 50 years, the Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild has been a champion for youth, art and education in Pittsburgh. Historically, MCG has hosted an annual juried arts exhibition where talented students from Pittsburgh Public Schools competed for accolades and awards. The MCG Invitational cont...

Join MCG Youth in celebrating our public schools! It's Public Schools Week, running from Feb. 26 - March 1, 2024. Let's showcase the amazing work happening in our schools! ❤️📚

https://www.publicschoolproud.org

This week, MCG Youth visiting artist, Stefanie Zito, hosted three workshops for our After-School Apprenticeship Training Program (ATP). Students learned a variety of fiber arts processes including making dye baths of different hues with natural ingredients, loom work with natural fibers, bundle dyeing and the Itajime method of dyeing fabrics.
 
On her final day with students, Zito delivered an artist talk in MCG Youth’s Kerr gallery, discussing her current show, the Ephemeral Edge. This exhibition is on view now through March 8, 2024. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 8am to 8pm, with a closing reception and artist talk on Thursday, March 7, 5:30-8:30pm.
 

This month our Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild programming collided! MCG Youth’s ATP photography students practiced light painting in our concert hall, capturing MCG Jazz’s Tell Your Story students mid rehearsal. This resulted in some stunning images!

It's hard to believe we are already HALFWAY through our Winter ATP session! Our students are hard at work finishing projects for our Family Night on March 7th, 2024.

These next few weeks, we’re going to be highlighting a few key pieces of our current exhibition, The Ephemeral Edge, from our visiting artist, Stefanie Zito. For the first work of this virtual walkthrough, Stefanie chose “Margin Expansion.” Here’s what she had to share:

“Part of my practice involves the use of natural dye, as well as the use of found objects or common domestic waste. And judging from these images, part of my practice is also clearly to trust the very messy and cumbersome process of both art and life! I mean, just look at that wild and unruly heap passing through my sewing machine… “

“This piece was made with natural dye derived exclusively from kitchen scraps. As a mother to young children, I think a lot about the filling up of time as well as the passage of time. The form of this work is meant to reference that of the margin of a notepad. On such notepads, I tend to oscillate between scribbling out my morning pages and writing out my tasks and to-dos. As the page becomes quickly full, I pivot to flood the margins. I find myself so often thinking about margins and buffers to time– reliable arenas to extend and expand into… perhaps even to soften into. As I want to discover, stretch, and maximize that space, I began to think of the margin of a page, and opted to make it from wide materials of rest– worn bedsheets. The margin is thus created by scraps of both time and materials. Avocado pits, chopped cabbage, and spent turmeric tea bags were cooked down to create the natural dyes, breathing new life into the leftovers of retired bed linens, old pillow stuffing, and empty cans. Turmeric, as the most prominent color in the work, is inherently less stable in nature and will fade over time. Stitched and stretched together, the materials culminate in a work that is both linear yet dimensional, expansive yet hanging by threads in a precarious sense of presence.”

Margin Expansion
natural dye on yarn and retired bedsheets, with found objects
2021

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THE EPHEMERAL EDGE
Stefanie Zito
01/16/24 – 03/08/24
Gallery hours: M-F, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Closing Reception & Artist Talk March 7th, 2024 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.



https://www.mcgyouth.org/the-ephemeral-edge

Be sure to swing by the gallery and check out our current exhibition, The Ephemeral Edge, by visiting artist Stefanie Zito. This exhibition is on view now through March 8, 2024. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday from 8am to 8pm..and mark your calendar for the closing reception and artist talk on Thursday, March 7, 5:30-8:30pm. See you there!
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THE EPHEMERAL EDGE A weaver, sculptor, painter, and certified permaculture designer, Stefanie Zito’s creations go beyond mere aesthetics. Her artistic process involves the interplay of fibers and an intentional cultivation of materials.

MCG Youth MCG Youth is a program of Manchester Craftsmen's Guild (MCG).

Don’t forget to stop in to to check out the holiday sale! Today through Friday only, from 10-2! 🌲🎨🥰

Guess what, friends? We’re extending Gifts from the Guild for another week, with new times! See us from 10-2 every day next week!

A heartfelt thank you to the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation for their generous $7,500 grant supporting MCG Youth's After-School Apprenticeship Training Program. Your contribution enables us to continue inspiring creativity, learning, and personal growth through the arts. We're grateful for the impact your commitment has on empowering youth and communities.