Final Project

I have decided to do my final project on the hopefulness that the escuela vieau boys and girls club brings to the south side of Milwaukee. While it is a beautiful neighbor hood it is sometimes not the safest of places to be. I remember during an internship I was walking to a house to do a home visit and my partner and I found out that right across the street there was a man transporting large amounts of drugs who while running from the cops in his jeep slammed into three cars and destroyed them. There are other stories like this from the south side and for my final project I want to showcase these stories and then show how Escuela Vieau helps to give hope to the children and ensure a better safer future for this neighborhood.

Multimedia Essay and Artists Statement

Multicultural America Media Essay Project

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Artist’s Statement
Ryan Feldman


The aim of my media essay was to bring attention to the key factors involved in building and maintaining a strong and prosperous community. At times the behind the scenes effort that is put forth in improving a community is overlooked and it seemed a showcase of the key contributors would be due credit at the least. Before I began this project I thought I was familiar with the south side of Milwaukee. I had spent a great deal of time on the south side during an internship that often held weekly meetings at café el sol, a restaurant and community center that is only a few blocks away from the school. I soon discovered that I really had very little knowledge of the intricate community that has been built.

To begin the process of my presentation I began to explore and photograph the neighborhoods surrounding Escuela Vieau. The architecture and design was truly beautiful and intriguing. On one side of the street there would be beautiful houses with grand entrances and gates yet on the other side there were abandoned office buildings and industrial areas, memoirs to the establishment of the now thriving community.

After photographing the surrounding community I took my camera into the school to try and capture some of the ways that the members of the community interacted and show my experiences volunteering there. Service learning at Escuela Vieau taught me that a strong community does not develop overnight, nor will its foundation stay solid without the help and dedication of its members. Watching the devotion and hard work of the community members as they planned their lives around ensuring that they were present every day for the boys and girls club was very inspiring. As much as I tried I discovered this was not the sort of thing that could be capture with a mere camera. I decided instead to photograph the children; I believe that the potential for good things that they show is a direct reflection of the effort that the boys and girls club gives everyday.

A power point slide presentation was the end result of my media essay. It attempts to show the strong community that has been built and the people who helped build it. The pictures in the presentation start off displaying the external community as a whole and then slowly move to its inner workings and the people who make it possible. Escuela Vieau doesn’t just provide a safe and developmentally encouraging environment for children. It provides an invaluable resource for working families that want to know their children are safe and being driven to success while they are away at work. This whole experience has taught me that communities are not just a place to live and work; they are a place experience life and guide others through it.


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