D&R Greenway to Hold Ennis Beley Teen Art Exhibition in Olivia Rainbow Student Gallery

D&R Greenway Land Trust invites the public to view the 2011 Ennis Beley Photography exhibition, from Aug. 8 through Sept. 15, in their Olivia Rainbow Student Gallery.  

These stirring works are the fruit of the Young Audiences New Jersey [YANJ] Project, with The Lawrenceville School and HomeFront, a Trenton-area non-profit serving needy Mercer County families.

"It seems especially appropriate that we showcase these young Trenton artists for the third year," says Linda Mead, President & CEO of D&R Greenway Land Trust.  "Our recent work in Trenton's Cadwalader Park culminated in a beautiful wildflower meadow and stream bank restoration.
This area had been a zoo at the turn of the 20th century.  The land had become depleted and compacted.  Our restoration work has created a beautiful outdoor site where these young photographers can find the natural world in
the midst of the city."

Each summer, homeless and in-transition Trenton-area boys and girls are given cameras to keep, throughout and after the four-week project.  The boys and girls are taught to use the cameras, then coached to view themselves and
their world newly through the lens.  They have been welcomed to D&R Greenway's 1900 barn, the Johnson Education Center, and Greenway Meadows, where they have learned about the preservation of nature, before going outdoors to photograph the land trusts meadows, native plant gardens, its hills and wooded stretches of the Stony Brook.

Urged to photograph their own lives, the students are also taken on location.  Professional photographer William Vandever, teaches them development and enlargement, other areas in which artistry enhances what was
captured through the lens.  Mr. Vandever has mentored over 160 students in his 11 years of service.  Ennis Beley photographers carry on the artistic legacy of Ennis Beley, gifted African-American photographer, gunned down in
Los Angeles gang violence before his 15th birthday.

"This program gives the participants a powerful way to express themselves through art," declares Liz Winter-Kuwornu, Director of Residences at Young Audiences, New Jersey.  "They also experiment with different photography
techniques, as well as being given hands-on experience developing their photographs in the darkroom."

 Drama, surprise and beauty suffuse this art each year in D&R Greenway's Olivia Rainbow Student Gallery, named in memory of young Olivia Kuenne, who, in her brief life cherished both nature and art.

YANJ is the first arts education organization designated a major service group by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.  Part of the national network of Young Audiences, Inc., President Clinton awarded YANJ the National Medal of Arts. Their 4,500 annual programs are made possible in
part through a grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, and funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. www.yanj.org.