Family Gala, November 14, 2009

Alright, May is here to talk about the Family Gala on November 14th. There were activities for parents and their little ones. Activities such as drumming, art-making, dancing, story telling, other entertainments, and of course amazing food. Most of the TACS helped out with the event, making sure everyone had a great time.

BUT if you ask me, the highlight of the night was Mandy, Nancy, and I dressing up as the characters from "Where The Wild Things Are". I dressed up as KW, the monster with spaghetti looking hair. Boy, was it boiling hot inside the costume. I had to dance and run around the museum the whole night. I got really sweaty, which wasn't pleasant. There were even times when some kids tried to take off my mask and hit my stomach. But what made it all worth it were those good, adorable little kids that kept giving me the biggest hugs. I remember one little girl that kept coming up to me, and asking me if she can take me home. I didn't wanna break her heart, so I just said yes. She was really sad when I had to go.
It was such a great experience. I'm glad I did it. Would I do it again? Probably not. It's one of those once in a lifetime things.
But the sweat and achy back was absolutely worth it.

Here's a picture of me as KW:

A picture of Me(left), Nancy Chan(middle), and Mandy(right).
Beginning of the night. Full of energy.

Picture of us at the end of the night. Exhausted.

Some more pictures. ENJOY!

May here, I'm also one of the newbies at the CJM. Alright, so let me fill you in with what's been happening. So like Nancy mentioned on the previous blog, we got a new boss last month. Her name is Leah, and she is honestly one of the nicest person I've ever met. The first training with her was really fun and weird, in a good way. Not only did she provide us with delicious snacks, but she also did a very unique activity with us. The ritual is called Tashlich, I don't really remember what it means, but it is done for the Jewish new year, Roshashana, and was pretty awesome, I must say. So what we did was, think of something negative that's happening with our community and our personal life. After thinking about all the negativity in our lives, we walked outside to the fountain, we grabbed a piece of bread. Then silently threw a piece of bread in the water to represent letting go of the negativity. Then, everyone had a turn to call out community problems and struggles and throw a piece of bread to represent those. I thought the exercise was engaging. It was a good way to start our fall shifts. Just to let go all of the negativity, you know, it was really refreshing. So yeah, that was a cool start.

Then about few weeks ago we went to a printing press in Oakland, Painted Tongue Press, where we made our invitations for our architecture tours. It was soooo nifty. Yeah, I said nifty. The owner actually put us in action, so we got to work with different kind of letterpress machines, which was exciting. And it was also a bit of a work out. It was a lot of hard work but I feel so proud of our products.

AND then last Sunday was the Target Family Day, which I missed. I feel so terrible about it, cause I heard it was so much fun. They told me the museum line was so long it hit the streets. That's something you don't see everyday, so it must've have been crazy. Some of the TACS had the chance to work with little children, which I am so completely jealous about. I love children and I heard the children were dancing and making art. Seeing that, my heart would just melt. Kids are too adorable. There will be a next time though. And you can count me in for next time!

Here's some pictures of our super dooper cool invitations. And props to Vanessa for creating the artwork.



































So now that you've seen our wonderful invitations you should mark your calendar for these days: Oct/25, Nov/8, Nov/22, and Dec/6. Support our TACS by joining us on these Sundays. It's a great experience to see youth become leaders. I'm giving a tour on Dec/6, so you should definitely come to that cause it's gonna be amazing. =)

Here's some photos of TACS in action at the printing press:














































































































































There you have it folks. Until next time. Toodles!

TAC Trainings

Heyyy!

Nancy L. here to talk about the amazingg trainings we, TACs, have had at the CJM since June 2009 until now (October 2009). =)

During the summer, we all met each other on our first training...I think it was on June 15, 2009. It was a little weird at first, cuz we didn't know each other and didn't know what to expect. But the people are all hella chill so we hit it off pretty well. Our old supervisor, Emma, was one of the coolest adults everrr. She helped us learn the ropes here at the museum during the two weeks we had with her, and then she moved to L.A. We miss her sooo much, but weeks later, we got a new boss, Leah (who's also greaaatt). By then, we already knew about the basics of the museum and the galleries, the information needed to give architecture tours, and have worked in the museum for months already...so it wasn't a HUGE adjustment having to meet a new boss. Leah's also super nice which made the transition a lot easier.

The first training, as I said before, was a little awkward. The museum actually served us food from the cafe that day, and lemme tell you, it was DELICIOUS. But after that day, we had to start bringing our own food...which sucks, yeah. But it also gave us a chance to go out for lunch together and bond. I remember eating lunch on the hot summer grass in a huge circle and having hella random conversations. Those two weeks of summer training FLEW BY. I swear. We learned so much about the architecture, the galleries that were present at the CJM during the trainings, and just a bunch of basic info required to work at the museum. ANNDDD, we got to meet each other. =)

We basically use trainings now to review our recent experiences working at the museum, going over some information, learning about the new galleries, etc. We meet once a week, unless said otherwise. So we, TACs, don't get too see each other as a whole group that often, but when we do, we have a blasttt. <3

New Beginnings.

Hey, Rina C. here, and i'm one of the new TACs at the CJM.
I'm a senior at this small french school in San Francisco and i applied last April for the job and now i'm working with 14 other high school students from the Bay Area.

Here are the cool new TACs i work with:
Nancy L. --> Lowell
Nancy C. (r)--> SOTA
Nancy C. (yes there are two with the same exact name)--> George Wash
Vanessa C.--> SOTA
Olivia S.--> Miramonte
Seth G. --> Bishop O'Dowd
Rafael A.--> Berkeley High
Beverly L.--> Lick
May B. --> Balboa High
Karni Z.--> Lowell
Doug A.--> Ida B. Wells
Mandy L.--> Redwood High
Liana D. --> George Wash
and Zach R. --> Lowell

Basically, what we do here as TACs is make the museum a place for teens to come and enjoy visiting a "not so typical" museum. Every other Sunday, we're planning on giving architecture tours of the building which was designed by Daniel Liebskind, a famous Polish artist. We're also planning teen nights (i promise they'll be cool) because trust me, once you see the museum at night, you'll want to come in and see whatsup.

Hit us up on facebook any time.
Better be seeing you soon,
Rina <3

Love and Listening

Love and Listening StoryCorps, one of many of the new additions to the Contemporary Jewish Museum, knows plenty about love and listening. But what IS StoryCorps? StoryCorps, according to their flyer, is an "independent, nonprofit project whose mission is to honor and celebrate one another's lives through listening." StoryCorps is a place people go to share their stories, to be interviewed by loved ones, to tell of their life experiences. Each conversation is recorded on a CD, and preserved at the Library of Congress. The Contemporary Jewish Museum opened its Story Corps booth October 12th, 2008, and more than 400 people have come in to interview and be interviewed. I fortunately got the chance to be part of one of the many interviews, what StoryCorps employees call shadowing. I sat quietly in the booth while a very-in-love couple talked about how they met and what they planned to do with the rest of their lives. StoryCorps showed an example of their committment to love on February 12th with their listening event, which was sold out, and was themed on love. The event was very popular (so much that they ran out of chairs a couple times during the event) and went very well. Teen Art Connect threw their own StoryCorps-like event in March, where we at Teen Art Connect and the other teenagers and young people who came got a chance to learn about the lives of a complete stranger. The event moved many, but could not compete with the mastery of StoryCorps.

New Jewish Filmmaking Project Free Screening Party at CJM!!

The SF Jewish Film Festival and the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s Teen Art Connect program present a screening of documentary shorts produced by Citizen Film. On March 19, 2009 at the Contemperary Jewish Museum. From 6:30-8pm!

Enjoy FREE popcorn and refreshments, watch films and discuss them with teen, young adult and pro filmmakers.

Then, stick around to workshop your own film ideas with award winning filmmakers.Want to tell your own story in a film shown to thousands of people?Visit the New Jewish FIlmmaking Project's group to view excerpts from the evenings 90-minute program of shorts called "inspiring" (San Francisco Bay Guardian), "memorable snapshots of teenaged Jewish Life" (Youth Radio) and a "well-crafted gem" (SF Arts Monthly).

Pleas RSVP on our facebook even page!! http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=72282641468&ref=ts

Earth Girl

Earth girl joyously picks the flowers off your frigid, gray, tombstone,
carefully plucking and collecting your decomposed thoughts and dreams and wishes
Stealing them for her own strange uses

Hippie dreams, rainbows, and peace signs
these distractions keeps us from our never ending truths

Organic peanut butter, flax seed, tofu
all just to keep us placated
to keep us thinking that we are balanced

Handmade clothing, hemp bedding, biodegradable shampoo
Earth girl slyly cons us into thinking were saving the world
when really, we are just turning our heads

And all the while the bloody money, the sewage, piles up
clogging the streets, blocking the gutter

We drown without knowing,
looking to Earth Girl as blood pools around our bony vegan ankles
as gore soaks our bodies clad in patchwork skirts and second hand slacks

we sink still convinced,
that we are saving the word

-Alison S. Rabbit