A Long-Term Partnership that "Lights Up" Boston
Our Creative Technology studio collaborated with Illuminus to design lighting and animated projections on Boston’s newly renovated City Hall for their grand reopening. Hosted by the City’s Arts and Culture Cabinet, the three-hour event emceed by Poet laureate of Boston Porsha Olayiwola included music by DJ WhySham and a lineup of local poets, including AFH Alumna Jennifer De Los Santos. Our collaborative digital projection and lighting installation lit up both the building and the performers, inaugurating a new era dedicated to public art installations and new opportunities for art in the public realm. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu declared, "City Hall Plaza is a space to bring people together and build community."
With no prior experience, teen Asha Hussein joined AFH after being encouraged by her brother, who shared his experience not only working at AFH, but how AFH helped him with his college selection and application process after studio work. Two years after joining AFH, Asha is now an animator in our Creative Technology Studio contributing to important client projects, and in particular, the Illuminus public art project.
“I contributed to a timelapse of drawings based on the poets work…one of the poets was talking about Boston, so the time lapse was about Boston, red line, trains, landmarks…I focused on [animating] the red line. It was exciting listening to new ideas [from other teens] and getting more comfortable meeting people [at this public event]. The animation brought people together…I like that people get happy from my art.”
—Asha Hussein, AFH Teen Animator
Founded as a projection-based digital arts festival that empowers local emerging creatives to transform Boston, Illuminus will embark on a new mission to collaborate with curators, creatives, and communities across Boston to produce festivals in every neighborhood of the city. AFH's Creative Technology Studio will be a key partner in rolling out their mission, manifesting positive change across Boston’s neighborhoods—home to our teen artists and designers—through the art of projection mapping and animation, as we grow our Creative Technology studio.
“[At AFH] you have this open, wide variety of artists all around you and you learn from each other.”
—Garvin Santiago, AFH Teen Coder