Newark New Media (NNM) Artist Residency and Apprenticeship Program focuses on training selected underserved high-school students from inner-city Newark, NJ and its environs in the creative nexus of visual art and high-technology. NNM is a collaboration of cWOW, Newark Public Schools, and the Prudential Center arena. NNM is a semester-long after-school program. Students from Newark high schools apprentice under an artist-in-residence’s supervision during weekly two-hour training sessions that help “give voice” through creative expression to underserved children. The artist-in-residence presents an in-school lecture for Newark high school students to learn more about pursuing a career in new media arts. The program culminates in the professional exhibition of a major new work of new media art on the giant display board on the side of the Prudential Center arena. The student apprentices gain skills in the professional use of new media technologies (electronic, digital, and audio/video, depending on the particular art work they create) in the context of creating a sophisticated work of art for public exhibition.
Video: Manuel Acevedo & apprentices from Barringer High School, 2012-2013