Shan, Journey, Cajon Valley Middle School, 2017
THE AJA PROJECT
2014-2022
PHOTO EDUCATION CAN CHANGE LIVES. The AjA Project is a compassionate space for young people, activists, visual artists and educators to engage critically with issues that affect our community and realize our collective liberation through participatory storytelling and the documentary arts.
To learn more visit: www.theajaproject.org
8 WEEKS OF INSTRUCTION.
11 STUDENTS.
4 GUEST ARTISTS.
INFINITE POSSIBILITIES.
AjA OnDemand is a professional development series for Teaching Artists facilitated by Rizzhel Javier, Summer 2020.
ALEJANDRO ARREGUIN VILLEGAS AND BETO SOTO
JEFF VALENZUELA AND INGRID LEYVA
JOHNNY NGUYEN AND IAN CUEVAS
INGRID HERNANDEZ AND JULIO M. ROMERO
MELISSA DUEÑAS AND VALERIE BOWER
HYPERLOCAL VISIONS is a guest speaker series where two photographers are paired together to compare and contrast their work in relationship to community. A public, live Q&A session with each artist pairing is hosted every Wednesday at 6pm PST, from October 28th to November 25th, 2020.
FOOD JUSTICE
Partnership with the San Diego County Office of Education, providing photography programming in conjunction with Food Justice curriculum. Participants participate in workshops learning about resources available at the school garden. Photography is used to memorialize the different concepts that were learned to create art work about their experience in the Food Justice program.
San Diego Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American students capture the origin stories of Vietnamese refugees and immigrants that make up San Diego’s Little Saigon District.
Journey is an after-school program that utilizes participatory photography methods to address the behavioral health, linguistic ability and social capacity of middle and high school refugee youth. Each year the program serves approximately 100 youth over 27 countries.
The Civil Liberties Project at AjA explores the socio-political climate in which Japanese-American incarceration occurred in the United States. While exploring historic and archival photographs taken in camps, participants had the opportunity to make personal connections to the idea of freedom and identity under our current administration. Participants in the project produced photography in response to or were inspired by the original documents and photographs from the time period.
In partnership with the Barrio Logan Collage Institute, builds on the national movement to integrate art into STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. Using photography as a platform to explore and learn about the principles through historical and contemporary hands-on activities.
In partnership with the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation, teach students to turn the lens outward an critically examine issues that affect their lives and communities. Students explore potential solutions and turn research into action. This exploration helps them to gain access to the power of their voice as well as personal investment in their communities. The program is designed to connect with larger community efforts in the area and provide a platform for cooperative solution making between youth, school, administrators, community organizations and policy makers.
In partnership with the San Diego County office of Education, provide photography curriculum to incarcerated youth, pregnant youth, foster youth, expelled teens, chronically truant youth, students in drug treatment centers and group homes for neglected or abused children.