Exciting news! For fall 2023, Squeaky Wheel is accepting applications for Saturday Cafe!

Are you a high school student who is passionate about film and/or media art? Do you love making things, and experimenting with new ideas, new software, and new equipment? Do you already have some experience with media art? (Including but not limited to video, animation, digital illustration, sound editing, creative coding, game design, digital photography, etc etc!) Do you want to spend your Saturday afternoons working on exciting new projects, meeting other teen artists, and working with amazing guest artists and mentors? Then Saturday Cafe might be the place for you!

Apply by October 8, 11:59 pm

Fall 2023 dates:

October 7 – December 16 (no class Nov 25)

Saturdays 1:30-4:30 pm

The October 7 class will be an info session for new applicants.

We will also attend the Next Gen youth screening of the Buffalo International Film Festival.

All interested applicants are strongly encouraged to join us Oct 7, 1:30-4:30!

Email caroline@squeaky.org to confirm your attendance!

Daily bus passes available

FREE to participate

Stipends for completing the program!

Field Trips!

Final screening at the Burchfield Penney Art Center!

In addition to working on a range of smaller media art projects and building new skills, this year’s Saturday Cafe participants will work on a longer term project called Stepping Into Your Light. For this project, students from both Saturday Cafe and Just Buffalo Literary Center will work in response to the work of Buffalo-based artist Julia Bottoms, whose work is on view at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Bottoms uses portraiture to express the nuance and complexities of Black identity beyond limiting, reductive stereotypes. She has also been selected to fabricate a sculpture of Shirley Chisholm. As the first Black woman to be elected to Congress in 1968, and the first Black woman to run for President of the United States, Chisholm’s life and legacy are rooted in carving a place for her voice to be heard and to advocate for her community.

Through sessions at the Burchfield Penney and at Squeaky Wheel, students will be inspired to imagine what it means to dream beyond imposed societal limitations, and to define how they see themselves in history on their own terms. Through creative writing and multimedia video, students are encouraged to consider how they find their voice, to think through how the visual arts can be a catalyst for more expansive and meaningful representation.

Apply online at this link.

Click here for more info about Saturday Cafe

Questions? Email caroline@squeaky.org