EXPRESS YOURSELF: Pulse Exhibit at Endicott

Beverly, MA - The Walter J. Manninen Center for the Arts is pleased to announce the exhibit EXPRESS YOURSELF: PULSE running now through January 4, 2013 in the Manninen Center for the Arts, Endicott College, 376 Hale Street, Beverly. Gallery hours are:  Monday – Thursday 9 a.m. – 8 p.m.; Friday: 9 – 5pm; and Saturday and Sunday:  2 – 4 p.m.  The reception for this exhibit will take place on Thursday, November 8 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.   Please join us as we celebrate the artwork by the Express Yourself youth, and the Express Yourself drummers.  The gallery exhibit and reception are free and open to the public. 

Express Yourself, a Beverly-based arts and education organization, immerses young people in the creative world of music, dance, and visual arts and empowers these youth with life changing results. Since 1989, over 2,600 underserved youth in the community and young people in Department of Mental Health facilities have worked collaboratively with artists and celebrities, spending a full year creating set designs, visual art, and performance pieces for their grand celebration and exhibition. These artistic creations make up the PULSE exhibit and reflect the year long process by the 600 youth. The artworks were part of the set design and backdrop for the culminating, grand performance at the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theater last May which featured 150 youth and celebrity artists.  Also included in this exhibit are the Mali mud cloths that were created by the youth from Express Yourself and the youth from Mali, and four other original works from Mali, Africa. 

Express Yourself has won numerous awards and recognitions for their work with young people. Most notably, they were a recipient of the 2009 Coming Up Taller Award, presented by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities at the White House by First Lady Michelle Obama.  The Coming Up Taller Awards recognize and support outstanding community arts and humanities programs that celebrate the creativity of America's young people and provide them learning opportunities and chances to contribute to their communities. Express Yourself was one of only 15 organizations nationally and internationally to win the award in 2009. Express Yourself drummers were the only youth chosen to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. before noted celebrities including Kal Penn, Edward Norton, Alfre Woodard, and George C. Wolfe. In June 2012, Express Yourself received the Robert F. Kennedy Award at the Kennedy Center in Boston. 

Endicott College is a collaborator and supporter of Express Yourself. The Co-Directors, Stan Strickland and Paula Conrad, are instructors in Endicott’s Master of Education in Arts and Learning degree program, and  they have provided visiting artist lectures and performances for the Endicott community and the School of Visual and Performing Arts.  The Creative Arts Therapy Students at Endicott work on a special project with the artists and youth of Express Yourself creating a set piece that is included in the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theater, and in this exhibit. 

The Express Yourself Artists include: Stan Strickland, Co-Director, Paula Conrad, Co-Director, Barbara Keiter, Visual Arts Coordinator,  Kristi Jeffers, Program Manager, Emily Getchell, Everardo Garcia, Shawn Paul Filtranti, Shayla Kaufman, Neil Wilkins, Miles Herter, Carla Hollett and Kara Fili ( Endicott alumni). 

The exhibit has been made possible with support from the Bruce T. Halle Family Foundation. 

For more information on the Express Yourself: PULSE exhibit and reception, and gallery hours, please contact Kathleen J. Moore, 978-232-2655 or email kmoore@endicott.edu. Our website is:  www.endicott.edu/centerforthearts   For more information about Express Yourself please contact Director Paula Conrad 978-852-7947 or info@expressyourselfinc.org