As part of her work as a CTEP here at SPNN, Ariel made this great map interface for our NVP page.  Now you can see what we've been up to in each of our target neighborhoods by clicking the map.

In the future, we'll include links to our partner organizations from each neighborhood as well as information about community screenings of media created during each NVP session.

Don't worry about updating your bookmarks for our blog. It still displays on the NVP page, it's just below the map. 

With three classes left to go, the Connections Stop Motion Animation class is well into production on our final projects. Crews are using a variety of materials and techniques ranging from animating toys and action figures from childhood, folding origami boats, and mixing human and clay characters in the same piece.

The youth animators are also testing prototype animation rigs designed for us through a partnership with the Science Museum of Minnesota's Invention Crew 2. The Invention Crew is a group of high school students working through the museum's Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center to design solutions for community partners. The crew will take feedback given by students in this class to refine their rigs and come up with a final design.

You can see our first projects and read posts about different important stop motion animators by class participants on our class blog: http://spnnanimation.wordpress.com. We will be screening our final pieces on Saturday, March 20 at 11AM in SPNN Studio 1, come join us!

Youth Action Committee meets every other Tuesday from 5-7pm (dinner provided) to plan community screenings and promote youth media. If you are or have been a part of SPNN programs in the past and want to get your media seen and heard, Come to YAC!  The next few meetings will be devoted to planning a screening at one of the cool locations featured in the 2010 Season Premiere, Teens in the City of the episode and any other youth media YAC decides should be shown!  If you have any ideas, or if you more information, contact Rachel at 651-361-8152 or delange@spnn.org.  

This month of Set It Up marks a few important events in the season: The crew finished their first episode, making the "Teens in the City" Season Premiere a great hit! Seeds of Change and Eclipse Records segments were both voted to be featured in the “Best Of” episode in the final episode, thanks to the audience vote and participation. Thanks for coming and congratulations to all of our talented youth producers: David, Niambi, Kristen, Angie, Mariana, Khristine, Samrawit, Ekemini, Manee, Justin, and Vermul. Set It Up welcomes our newest crewmember, Karheem.

Set It Up also said goodbye to Andrea Lehmann, Lead Set It Up coordinator as she takes maternity leave for the rest of this season. Thanks Andrea for all your great work and leadership in this episode. We’ll miss you! Rachel will be taking on new leadership roles and Set It Up welcomes new staff member Kevin Kalla to the team!

Make sure to check out "Teens in the City" on Channel 16 in St. Paul, Mondays in March at 3pm and 7pm, especially if you missed the season premiere! Hope you're all looking forward to another great episode as we begin work on our second episode, "True Teen Life."