COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS (aka COCO) is a Photography & Imaging course offered every spring semester at NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Sudents collaborate with teens in Lower Manhattan in digital photography workshops in the Department of Photography & Imaging's labs. Working in teams of three, the NYU students facilitate small workshops with teens from East Side Community High School, the Lower East Side Girls Club, and Norman Thomas High School.

Digital cameras are provided for the teens to photograph their families, friends, and communities in order to create images exploring their day-to-day lives, dreams, concerns, and socio-political challenges. During the course time for NYU students, we focus on what it means to teach photography outside of a university/art school setting, brainstorm ideas for curriculum, discuss challenges and triumphs, look at other community-based arts programs, explore what particpatory photography means, and support each other's work. As workshop leaders, the NYU students gain valuable teaching experience. They have all expressed a desire to continue teaching

Founded in 1996 by Lorie Novak, Community Collaborations is co-directed by Lorie Novak and Erika deVries. We are funded by a Service Learning Grant from the NYU Office of Community Service, camera donations from Olympus Imaging America, and the generosity of the Department of Photography & Imaging.

2008 Workshop Leaders: Read their bios
Max Andrews, Nicolle Bennett, Anne Mishkind at East Side Community High School
Alicia Baird, Nathan Lothrop, and Megan Fingleton at The Lower East Side Girls Club
Melanie Glass, Sophie Lvoff, and Natalie Olczak at Norman Thomas High School

THANK YOU TO our guest speakers Jessica Ingram, Alice Proujansky, and Bobby Sukarand for their inspiration and generosity; Deb Willis, Erika deVries, Patricia Snavely, Karl Peterson, Irene Cho, and Edgar Alonso Castillo in Photo and Imaging; Desiree Borrero at East Side Community High School; Lyn Pentecost and Lou Dembrow at the Lower East Side Girls Club; Brenda Naliboff at Norman Thomas High School; Gloria Cahill and Lisa Kail at the NYU Office of Community Service; and Jen Colucci and Jo Ann Hammerstone at Olympus.