Delta Center for the Arts

LH Horton Jr Gallery presents

Street Photography: A Portrait of Stockton

An Exhibition of Photographs by Ilona Sturm and Stockton Youth

Exhibition:   July 9 – 30, 2009

Reception:  July 9th  5 – 7pm

Delta Center for the Arts LH Horton Jr Gallery presents the culminating exhibition from Photographer Ilona Sturm’s summer photography workshop—Street Photography: A Portrait of Stockton.

The Gallery was awarded an Arts Endowment Grant from Stockton Arts Commission to produce the work-shop. The Gallery partnered with Delta Kids College to recruit 15 students to participate in the workshop and culminating exhibition. The project engaged students to express themselves through the visual medium of photography, and to learn how to engage critically in an urban space in order to better understand their environment, and how people interact within it.

The instructor presented the history and present practice of fine art and documentary photography, while teaching basic skills of digital photography. Participants were exposed to photography genres, such as: portraiture, landscape, documentary, and, most specifically street photography, which uses the photographic medium to document life in public spaces.  They also learned critical thinking skills in order to help them better distinguish between commercial photography, art photography, and documentary photography – all done with different purposes in mind. Students also learned basic curatorial techniques of exhibition installation and design from the Gallery Director, Jan Marlese.

Ilona Sturm is an artist-photographer who holds a B.F.A. in painting and photography from the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA. She also received an M.A. in Creativity and Art Education from the San Francisco State University, Inter Arts Center. Within the past year, she has had three solo exhibitions of her street photography work, including work done in recent trips to India and Mexico City. Though originally from New York, Sturm resides in Berkeley California, and has exhibited extensively throughout California, as well as in Spain and Italy.  She is also the author of a photography book with text entitled Breastfeeding Success Stories: Twelve Mothers Tell it Like it Is published by the State of California in 2004.

Gallery Director, Jan Marlese, collaborated with Sturm in the development and implementation of the workshop and exhibition. Marlese received a Bachelor of Science in Arts Administration from the University of Minnesota, and has administered the Gallery exhibitions for Delta College since May of 2007. Her previous experience includes Executive Director of the Napa Valley Arts Council, Administrative Manager for Zeum – a youth arts and technology center at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco, and Public Art Program Manager for the Minneapolis Arts Commission.

Participating Youth

Arianna Arelis

Xander Bell

Aleasha Berger

Kendra Coburn

Emily Coston

Casey Frankel

Amrit Gill

Tyler Good

John Gubuan

Sarah Leary

Sammy McKee

Kyra Morrissey

Quinn Morrissey

Faith Wang

John Wooten