Jacob Burns Film Center Awarded MacArthur Grant

We are excited to announce that JBFC was awarded aHASTAC/MacArthur Foundation Project: Connect – Summer Youth Programming Competition grant for Reel Change: Community Visions!

We were one of only 16 museums, libraries, and other nonprofit organizations, selected from a pool of over 250 applicants from around the country, to be awarded this grant. The goal of the competition is to inspire projects that engage young people to build the tools that make the internet a safer and more informative place.

Reel Change: Community Visions is a collaborative learning experience where students imagine, share and create media that describes a new vision for a community they value. During this interactive workshop, high school students will articulate their understanding of community, develop a vision for their neighborhood, and utilize collaborative mechanisms of the internet to create infographics and advocacy videos to inspire change. Participants research and explore questions such as: How do you define “community”? What matters most in your community? How can we collaborate to develop a vision for the future? Using their social networks to invite input from friends, family and neighbors, students share their projects through online community-building platforms

Students will be affiliated with the Chappaqua Summer Scholarship Program (CSSP), a nonprofit that invites students from underserved neighborhoods in the Bronx to spend 4 weeks exploring educational opportunities in our community. This will be our fifth summer partnering with CSSP.

Read more about the grant and the other winners here!