Museum of the Moving Image and The Motorola Foundation + Literary Tuesday Reading with open mic to follow

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE FUTURE LAB TO TEACH
COMPUTER PROGRAMMING SKILLS TO GIRLS IN NEW YORK
PUBLIC SCHOOLS, WITH HELP FROM THE MOTOROLA FOUNDATION

After-School Program Will Benefit Girls from Underserved Communities in Queens and Brooklyn


ASTORIA, NY, July 20, 2009 – Building on students’ fascination with visual storytelling, computer animation and video games, Museum of the Moving Image will offer its Future Lab after-school program in select New York City public schools during the 2009-2010 school year, helping spark an interest in computer science among young women from underserved New York City communities.

A newly announced Innovation Generation grant of $50,000 from the Motorola Foundation will enable Moving Image to offer Future Lab to some 60 young women in grades 6 through 12 at schools in Queens and Brooklyn. At the end of the 12-week course, each student will have designed her own 2D or 3D computer animation or video game—and in the process will have learned the principles and practice of working with advanced software from designers at the MIT Media Lab and Carnegie Mellon University.

“In a world that now runs digitally, it simply is not acceptable that women make up fewer than 10 percent of new undergraduates in computer science,” stated Rochelle Slovin, Director of Museum of the Moving Image. “We absolutely must get young women excited about math, science and engineering, and give them the confidence to succeed in these fields. That’s exactly what we’ve been able to do with Future Lab, thanks to our partners at the Motorola Foundation and the Young Women’s Leadership Foundation.”

The 2009-2010 Future Lab program, taught by Museum of the Moving Image educators, will be offered at the Young Women’s Leadership Schools of Astoria, Queens and Brooklyn. Students will alternate between sessions in their schools and at the Museum. Museum educators will work closely with program staff of the Young Women’s Leadership Foundation, which oversees the after-school partnerships at each of the organization’s network schools.

Education is at the core of Museum of the Moving Image mission. Each year, 30,000 middle- and high-school students and their teachers depend on the Museum's curriculum-based education programs to enrich their classroom studies. Education programs include exhibition tours, workshops, screening programs, professional development for teachers, and after-school programs for middle and high school students, including Future Lab. Online education resources provided by the Museum include the highly praised and popular website The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2008 and Moving Image Source, a website devoted to the history of film, television, and digital media, which have received more than one million unique visitors.

About Museum of the Moving Image
www.movingimage.us
Founded in 1981, Museum of the Moving Image is the only institution in the United States that deals comprehensively with the art, technology and social impact of film, television and digital media. It houses the nation’s largest collection of moving image artifacts; screens hundreds of films annually; and offers education programs to thousands of New York City students and teachers. Its exhibitions—including the core exhibition, Behind the Screen—are noted for their integration of material objects, computer-based interactive experiences, and audiovisual presentations.

Moving Image is currently conducting part of its program off-site as it carries out its first major expansion project, designed by architect Thomas Leeser, which will double the size of the building, completely redesign the first floor and add a new theater, new galleries and an education center. When completed in 2010, the new Museum building will be ideal for showcasing the moving image in all its forms, ensuring the Museum's place—creatively, intellectually, and physically—as one of the great moving-image institutions of the world.


About The Motorola Foundation
www.motorola.com/giving
The Motorola Foundation is the charitable and philanthropic arm of Motorola. With employees located around the globe, Motorola seeks to benefit the communities where it operates. The company achieves this by making strategic grants, forging strong community partnerships, fostering innovation and engaging stakeholders. The Motorola Foundation focuses its funding on education, especially science, technology, engineering and math programming.

• • • • •

LITERARY TUESDAY
at
The Perch Cafe
7:30pm
with an open mic to follow

July 21 – Welcome back to Evie Ivy. Evie is a multi-talented dancer/poet who runs the Green Pavilion Poetry Reading in Brooklyn, one of the longest running poetry readings in NYC. She produces the season¬al Dance of the Word dance and poetry series. She has two chapbooks out and the book The First Woman Who Danced, as well as editing Dinner with the Muse, an anthology of some of the finest poets in the metro area. She will be joined by special guests.

365 5TH AVENUE PARK SLOPE

F/R Train to 4th Avenue/9th Street (btwn 5th and 6th St.)
WWW.THEPERCHCAFE.COM
$5.00 Cover at the Bar for a drink or snack