Art Under a Minute

In the fall of 2020, Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences put out a call to young artists, ages 16-25, to create short-form videos designed for viewers younger than themselves. We think of them as “brain breaks” – they are moments to interact and shift our thinking, to move or change our perspective.

Prompt: Depict the future. Show us what’s to come, as you see it. What happens on the other side—of 2020, the pandemic, or beyond? The future is uncertain, but is there something you hope for—or something to you want others to know? Is there a new world that you know about that we haven’t imagined yet? What do you have to look forward to and what makes you want us to keep moving forward?

Check out the work that these young artists created below, and visit their social media channels to see this and other work that they have created. Inspired to create your own video? Use @kencentya to tag us on Instagram or Facebook!

Some artists’ social media handles may have content unsuitable for young people under the age of 16. Parental discretion is advised.

If our future selves could let us know what's to come, what would they say? What would you want them to say? This piece explores the need for insight, reassurance, and guidance. Past and presence merge together to bring a simple message: everything is going to be alright.

Find more work by this artist on Instagram @jac_santos23

Jacob Santos talks to the camera over Zoom. The video distorts into a bright orb of light, followed by a series of outdoor clips of foliage, a tunnel of lights, a wall with the words “Stop Gentrifying,” smoke rising, a red brick apartment building with a mural of people uplifting each other, the sky though bare trees, and Christmas lights. Interspersed are close-ups of Jacob’s face and a hand reaching for the bright orb of light. The video returns to Jacob over Zoom. He has a look of wonder on his face.

We Are Ghosts is a 45-second vignette briefly addressing the perpetual suppression of Black women in the United States. The short film takes place in Maryland’s Fort Washington Park, where confederate soldiers fought for their perceived right to own enslaved people in the Second World War. The film is edited to appear aged and worn, which was my attempt to convey that Black women and girls have been placed in the margins since America’s inception. The film also utilizes tarot imagery, specifically that of some of the most widely celebrated tarot cards–commonly known as “Rider-Waites”– illustrated by Pamela Coleman Smith, a Black woman whose contributions to tarot culture is often overlooked.

We Are Ghosts stars Dejah Holcomb, Dainicia Bentham, Victoria Davies, and Jade Barnes. It is narrated by Gabrielle Vincent and is directed, written, produced, and scored by Khari Dawson.

In a sepia toned video, women appear in different scenes in a park. The women are sometimes in motion and sometimes still. Three wear all black and are seen in brief clips on their own or together in stairwells or on the grass, sometimes wearing a gold crown, holding a mirror with a gold frame that looks like the sun, or kneeling on a blanket and laying out tarot cards. Interspersed with these scenes, another woman wearing a white leotard and the same gold crown basks in the sun and stands on sandy shores of the Potomac River. She drops down out of frame in as the video ends.

We are Balagan, an interdisciplinary multimedia artist cohort sharing our individual voices through one cohesive, chaotic, creative narrative. With this project, we invite you to take one big collective breath with us.

To breathe is to embody, to ground, to live, to choose presence. In a time where dissociation has taken on a wildly new meaning for many of us, we built this minute as a space to find some comfort, some reassurance, and an extra breath. This is our reminder that there will always be landscapes to create, movements to make, and music to play.

Eloise Fassler, illustrator/animator
Audrey Maxner, composer/violinist
Jillian Sinko, choreographer/dancer
Infinity Willner, composer/guitarist

Find more work by this artist on Instagram @wearebalagan

In an illustrated, messy bedroom, a girl with dyed silver hair dances, moving her body as though she is just waking up. A skylight is the only source of light in the room. The girl stands and looks out of the skylight before the bedroom fades into white. She appears in the center of the frame, visible from the shoulders up. Animated images of scribbled lines, a barred window, a text message bubble with ellipses, a person in a fetal position and a face melting to a skull appear around her. She flicks them away, raising her hands to her head and shaking it as the tension increases. The background and images fade and the girl is standing outside next to a lake. As she opens her eyes, she spots two people and waves. The word “Breathe” appears above her head.

Jiggy M is a Hip Hop artist and music producer that uses his talents to bring the craftmanship to rap music. In this video, not only does he poetically tell a story of struggle of perseverance, but he also plays the instrumentation live.

This is You Can Make It by Jiggy M.

Find more work by this artist on Instagram and TikTok @jiggymofficial

Listen to the song: https://ffm.to/youcanmakeit

Jaylin “Jiggy M” Randolph performs against a brick wall wearing a blue shirt with the word “Smile.” Framing the top and bottom of his video are five close ups of Jaylin’s hands playing keyboards. On the top center is his logo: the word “Jiggy M” in-between illustrated smiling lips. At the end, he puts on a blue cloth mask with the word “Smile” between smiling lips and turns around to reveal the same image on the back of his shirt.

Feat. Danielle Haase and Jack Justice

Videography by Zac Cornfield with Chocolate Strawberry Productions

Audio Engineering by Clarke Rigsby with Tempest Recording

Find more work by this artist on Instagram @sme11iana and @crapicrafted

The Future's Footprint is a digital "shop" launch where you can step into the shoes of the Black women who have made today possible. This Instagram Story offers insight into a minute of history featuring Harriet Tubman, Ma Rainey, Black Feminists (particularly in the 1970s), Mae Jemison, Serena Williams, and Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris. Only a fraction of changemakers and innovators are captured within this post. Knowing this, I challenge you to step into the shoes of these women and any woman that you admire, and to ask yourself, what can we carry forward from them and what footprint are you leaving behind?

Do you want more than a minute? Visit http://www.futuresfootprint.weebly.com

A pair of illustrated feet and the text “The Future’s Footprint Digital Store: Shop your legacy. Step into your future.” Next, a montage of polaroid portraits, each paired with a photo of a different kind of shoe, plays: Harriet Tubman with the DIY; Ma Rainey with the Passion Pump; Black Feminists marching with Fact Flats, Mae Jemison with the Boundless Boot, Serena Williams with Strength Trainers, and Kamala Harris with High Bar Low Tops. The video ends with the image of illustrated feet and the message: “Coming Soon Your Footprint”.

When you close your eyes, what do you wish the world to be? Yesterday was yesterday, today is now, and tomorrow may be. In order to depict the future, we must acknowledge the present. All we have is now; here in this instantaneous, present, moment in time. The world is at a standstill. We can either restore the world that existed before or take this as an opportunity to build anew. I vote for the latter; let us build our own utopia. I offer a way to shift perspectives while staying in the now. Time is precious, and instead of putting our lives on hold, it is important to live through the present. In under a minute, I encourage the viewer to consider what they wish the world to be. What can you do right now to create the world you see when you close your eyes?

Find more work by this artist on Instagram @maya_lam and @collective.wonder

Maya Lam lies upside down in the grass, her hair fanned out against the ground. She closes her eyes and the scene changes to Maya dancing in Central Park with bare trees and the cityscape in the background. Large illustrated hands at the bottom of the frame appear to hold the scene up while a series of translucent moving images of people plays over Maya’s dancing. The hands come together, obscuring the dancing before pulling apart to reveal Maya as she was at the beginning: lying upside down on the grass with her hair fanned out against the ground. She closes her eyes.

C McCabe’s Push is a short video about how mistakes are necessary in order to find joy, success, and freedom. C talks about this through the method of teaching the viewer how to push on a skateboard (no board required!). This movement of pushing centers the body and allows us to look ahead at what is to come. This video is a calm ode to the joy of failure and the importance of getting up after a fall. They hope that this piece brings joy and peace to your day!

Find more work by this artist on TikTok @c.liketheletter

Curious to know how you can connect with classical music? Classical music is all around us, but it’s easy to feel like it’s boring, exclusionary, or simply one-note. Luckily, there are a number of easy things you can do to engage with classical music in new and exciting ways, and all without any musical training. In this video, you’ll learn five tips on how to connect with this art form on a deeper level. Tip number one? Expand your definition of classical music.

Find more work by this artist on TikTok @notshortforevelyn

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Kennedy Center Education

Generous support for educational programs at the Kennedy Center is provided by the U.S. Department of Education.

Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by A. James & Alice B. Clark Foundation; Annenberg Foundation; the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Bank of America; Bender Foundation, Inc.; Carter and Melissa Cafritz Trust; Carnegie Corporation of New York; DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; Estée Lauder; Flocabulary; Harman Family Foundation; The Hearst Foundations; the Herb Alpert Foundation; the Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The King-White Family Foundation and Dr. J. Douglas White; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation;

Music Theatre International; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; the National Endowment for the Arts; Newman’s Own Foundation; Nordstrom; Park Foundation, Inc.; Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Prince Charitable Trusts; Soundtrap; The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; and Volkswagen Group of America. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts.

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