Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts and Viewers Like You AT KEI & MOLLY TEXTILES, HAND-PRINTED DESIGNS AND A DEEP COMMITMENT TO DIGNITY AND INCLUSION CREATE MEANINGFUL WORK AND A HOME FOR IMMIGRANTS AND REFUGEES IN ALBUQUERQUE.

“AMINAH ROBINSON: JOURNEY'S HOME” TRACES THE LIFELONG QUEST OF AN ARTIST WHO TRANSFORMED MEMORY, HISTORY, AND EVERYDAY LIFE INTO A VISUAL LEGACY OF BELONGING.

THE UTAH FILM CENTER BRINGS HANDS-ON MEDIA ARTS WORKSHOPS TO RURAL SCHOOLS, EMPOWERING STUDENTS TO CREATE, QUESTION, AND IMAGINE, THROUGH ANIMATION AND FILMMAKING.

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

HANDMADE HOPE [Uplifting Music] >>Tsuzuki: My name is Kei Tsuzuki, and I am the co-founder and current owner of Kei and Molly Textiles.

So when we started in 2010, Molly and I wanted to create a social enterprise that would create meaningful jobs in the International District.

We are a print studio.

We have beautiful hand - printed products that we make every day, but at the same time, we're creating great jobs for refugees and immigrants in our community.

The designs that we have here are really influenced by what we see in our lives in New Mexico designs.

Also, I'm Japanese, grew up in Canada.

A lot of that comes into our design work as well.

So we start off with what we're inspired by in our lives, Often -- do paper cuts to have that kind of folk art feel to that art that we make.

Everything is hand-printed in the studio.

Nothing is automated.

We don't do digital printing.

So there is a hand feel to everything that we do.

I understand the difficulties of starting in a new place, especially if you don't speak the language.

My parents came to Canada and had no real functional English, and so as kids when we were growing up, we really helped our parents understand systems -- read documents for them, all these things.

And I know that that is still a barrier for immigrants coming to America.

So all these things make it easier for us to work as a group when we all understand that the experience of being an immigrant.

One of the things that we really believe is that everyone has something to contribute.

So regardless of what language you speak, what religion you practice, or what level of education you have, I do believe that we all should be treated with dignity and respect.

And so when people come here and they have some barriers they're facing, whether it be language issues or not understanding the health care system or the education system, we really offer support so that people can have a softer landing when they come to America.

I think our staff are really committed.

They come to work on time and they work hard when they're here, and they really contribute to what we're trying to build and they're thankful for what they get working at Kei and Molly Textiles.

So, currently we have people from Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Sudan.

That's just the studio today.

Over the last 15 years, we've had probably 18 countries represented by the immigrants that have come through Albuquerque.

They want to come and have a good work experience, but really their goal is to have a better life for their kids.

For us to be able to provide a stable, reliable paycheck -- that is just amazing, that is foundational for them.

>>Barnada: My name is Amani Barnaba.

and I'm from South Sudan.

I'm working at Kei and Molly Textiles as a printer.

I've been working here, at Kei and Molly one year and three months.

Working with Kei and Molly, [Has] helped me to sustain my family.

Kei and Molly is for me, like my second home.

We love each other.

We treat each other with respect.

This means a lot for me.

>>Peña: My name is Claudia, and I'm a coordinator in here.

I've been working for Kei and Molly for four years.

My favorite part working in Kei and Molly is -- the potlucks that we do here.

[Laughs] [Laughs] We bring all kinds of different food because we're from different countries.

And that's the awesome thing from here.

And the work to.

This is my second family -- because they're like my aunties.

[Laughs] Kei and Molly.

And it's like my sisters, like -- I can talk to them whenever we want and just like -- we have a little problems we can fix it and we just talk like a family.

>>Tsuzuki: This year is our 15 year anniversary.

So we've kind of compiled 15 lessons for 15 years.

And the number one lesson for us; is that we lead with love.

And to me, that means everything we do, we keep the person in mind, and we try to respect their dignity.

I'm hoping the legacy of Kei and Molly Textiles is not necessarily the designs that we have and the tiles that what we make, the products that we put out.

But this legacy of being great for people and having a business that can be a role model for other social entrepreneurs.

So I would love to see younger people take on the mantle of creating business that treat people really well.

I would love it -- to see more businesses be concerned about the environment in a way that is sustainable.

I would love for our community to have real connections with new immigrants coming in.

And I think Kei and Molly Textiles is a great, great model for that.

Journey Home [Robinson reads] I never thought I was young because I've always thought I lived in the timelessness.

I knew what I wanted to do.

>>Jones: The Springfield Museum of Art has been so honored to be the first stop on the tour for “Aminah Robinson: Journey's Home, A Visual Memoir”.

So this opportunity came to us through the Columbus Museum of Art and through the Art Bridges Foundation.

>>Hamlar: As an artist, Aminah was unconventional.

She found art in every aspect of her life.

She could walk down the street and pick up a leaf and see the beauty.

>>Minto: Aminah Robinson holds a central place in our community here in Columbus, and especially at the Columbus Museum of Art.

When Amina passed away in 2015, she entrusted her -- life's work to the Museum, and now we're fortunate to be stewards of her home studio, her archives, all of the work that remained, as well as her writings and her library.

>>Jones: The title of this exhibition, “Aminah Robinson: Journey's Home, A Visual Memoir” is a perfect title for this exhibition.

Aminah's work focused so much on exploring her history, her past, her communities, her family, her family's histories, and the way that she communicates to the world is through her works of art.

>>Hamlar: I would describe her as regal -- yet humble.

As deeply thoughtful, but also engaging.

As a genius who recognized the genius in others.

As someone who lived in the moment and was ahead of her time.

>>Wenker: So the four different sections were, Childhood Home and then, Ancestral Home, and then, Spiritual Home and, Journeys Home , and -- Deidre organized artworks that she felt belonged in each of those sections.

Really big RagGonNon pieces, the panoramic pieces, I really wanted on our most visible wall.

And so it was a lot of moving pieces around and trying to understand how to tell the story and keep things in some chronological order.

>>Hamlar: We had an opportunity through Art Bridges Foundation to create an exhibition based on works that were in our permanent collection, and Aminah Robinson's works rose to the surface as the first idea.

So instead of 240 works, we have 60 works, and 60 works come out of our permanent collection.

This we decided to create about home, her search for home in every aspect of her life.

>>Wenker: Because of the value of the work and the delicateness of the work, we are working closely with Columbus Museum of Art and their courier, making sure that the work is handled carefully, uncrated exactly as it needs to be, and re-crated.

Aminah's work is a really important part because she made work for seven decades and her work is so deeply - rooted in African storytelling and ideas around community, ideas around resourcefulness and scrappiness and resilience.

And I think their stories need to be told.

>>Hamlar: Robinson's art, rooted in history and storytelling, offers a powerful entry point for engaging younger audiences.

>>Wenker: Where Aminah started, like she -- she really does credit her -- early upbringing in Poindexter Village, which was a publicly-funded housing complex, one of the first of its kind in Columbus, Ohio.

So some of her early influence as far as her artmaking came from her family and from the Poindexter Village community in Columbus, Ohio.

>>Hamlar: She was an artist, but didn't see herself as an artist.

She said, “I'm just walking through life.

I just walk.” She enveloped her community and she became her community.

And when she expressed it in her art and in her writing, we knew she was ahead of her time, she did seven decades of work.

We did not know how important -- what she was doing then would be to us now.

But she knew, because she also created her future for us to be able to live in.

>>Wenker: I recall hearing an interview where she talked about how she had spent a lot of time in the public library and even worked in a public library for a while, and she became absolutely mesmerized by maps.

I don't know, sort of a bird's eye view, looking over a streetscape or a city or something like that.

So paying attention to all those signs and the people that she sees on the streets, I think is really fascinating, and definitely very Aminah.

>>Hamlar: When Aminah traveled, she -- was known to have an intention.

She would learn the language before she left in order to be able to communicate with the people she would encounter.

When she would go into the spaces, she would sit in the quarters outside, she would just become part of the community.

She had gone to Egypt, she had gone to Africa, but in this particular case, she was in the Middle East, she was in Jerusalem, Herzliyya, and she sat in the quarters and watched the people -- the diversity of the people.

>>Wenker: I think there's such a strong sense of community, which I think is -- tends to be such an important part of African-American culture, but she radiates that sensibility and I think that's really evident.

>>Jones: Aminah was such an inspiring presence.

She really is a larger than life presence, and you would feel that when she would come into the Museum, and you'd have the opportunity to meet her.

As part of this exhibition, “A Street Called Home”, that piece, I walk by every day in Columbus, is here, and it's highlighted at the Springfield Museum of Art.

>>Hamlar: I think she would be so -- humbled and proud, but not proud in a -- haughty way at all.

She would have -- believed that a dream of hers had come true.

Something she set intention upon actually came to life.

And her whole life was about nurturing others, nurturing community -- giving voice to all of humanity, not just one group, not just one race, creed, color, none of that.

She was about bringing people together, uplifting people -- giving voice to people, and I think she believed in -- it's true, that her art did that.

And the fact that she could -- continue that legacy through -- this project, I think she would be very, very happy.

THE POWER OF FILM >> Click.

All right.

If you can't click.

>> I like that.

That's good.

We're going to need some sort of storyline.

Now, that's kind of a big -- that's a big idea there.

>>Gale: What do you think?

If you have one word to describe t his movie, what would it be?

>>Student: Happiness?

>>Gale: Happiness?

>>Gale: The Utah Film Center Media Group Education program has been around since 2015.

And what we provide is free media arts education for teachers as well as students.

And that's K through 12.

We like to take professionals working in the industry to actually teach kids about things from different variety of topics, whether it's animation, writing screenplays, how to make movies, and also how to watch movies.

Because one of the biggest things that we anchor in all of our programs is building media literacy skills.

And that is not only being a responsible movie maker, you know, actually thinking about what am I making when I'm making content?

What is its intended message?

What is the consequences of me making this media and making sure that you're making wise choices about what you put in your content?

You know, after you answer those questions, and then also we want them to become better media watchers.

And so that's another reason why we, do these types of workshops.

we select topics that kids are interested in right now.

Kids are very much more creating content and consuming content more than they have in in generations past.

So we're also looking at what are some emerging trends that are happening.

and that's why stop motion animation is - is a very popular workshop.

But also there are so many young people that are also drawing -- very much like character based -- individuals and creatures with their work.

So that's why we really try to incorporate -- things such as character design for animation, because it helps them see -- okay, people think about that in the same way, but for the storytelling medium of a movie.

And so those are some of the ways that we pick the different content that we're doing for these in classroom workshops, like the ones we're teaching right now here at the schools.

In prior generations, we didn't watch as much media, and now kids have such easy access to media in so many different forms, not only story forms, but shorter forms that are in social media.

And so understanding kind of the -- the art behind it, but also understanding what is the short TikTok actually telling me?

Is it entertaining me?

Is it trying to teach me something?

Is it valuable?

Is it not valuable?

And so kind of taking those things and being able to look at it with -- you know, through the eyes of asking questions rather than just, "oh, I'm just consuming and I'm not really thinking about it."

They can understand and it can actually enhance their appreciation of that work that goes into it as well.

- I say a background, I mean a scene, like maybe it's a farm, maybe it's a planet far away -- >>Julian: I accepted the invitation for the Utah Film Center and UEN to come and do the workshops in our elementary school, because I think it's important that students in rural areas have exposure to -- similar content, experiences and opportunities as all students in public schools.

And I think especially with bringing in the arts and media that is something that the students connect to but they don't always see the other side and when you are in a small role environment, you don't necessarily have the access to know people that do these things or have the exposure and you're relying on a very small staff team and what their interests and what their experiences are and so anytime that we can bring professionals in to teach children at a young age.

What is possible, and especially something that's as engaging as film that they are excited about, and it takes very little for -- the buy in right away for them to see the joy and the excitement as soon as it started.

They're just fully engaged just exposure to the arts is just such of value to young people and to see that there's different ways that they can see themselves as artists and so one of the things that I noticed right away in the stop motion, the student that doesn't see themselves as an artist that really does sometimes struggle in our enrichment when we're doing visual arts she was just shining in it because it was something she could just move things, and she had a product that she felt proud of that she wanted to show off and so it allows different kids to have success and that internal sense of accomplishment, which is important and I think the arts and film and the the workshops that the Utah Film Center knew and brought to our school allowed that opportunity for the students, especially some of the students that struggle in a traditional academic setting -- but then just listening to the conversations and the connections that they were able to make with themselves and with other film and then to the outside bigger picture of the world of listening to students say, "oh, when I grow up, what I want to be --" and then figuring out how there's new pieces in that.

And to have a kindergarten say that they want to do something is pretty awesome.

- That's considered 3D animation.

Now we're going to watch a clip of what animation looks like behind the scenes.

And when you're watching this, I want you to pay attention to how the animation changes over time.

>>Ott: I feel like the most important reason why they should be taught about media education is because of the opportunities of jobs out there.

A lot of times, I feel like we beat into kids heads that, you know, they have to be into -- the specifics like math, science, healthcare, and there's so many other opportunities out there, and they're not familiar with a lot of the jobs that filmmaking has to offer and their creativity and technology nowadays.

And they can use their creativeness in different ways.

Their overall experience with the different workshops have always been positive they've always came away with "wow I didn't realize that that's how that was made or I didn't know that's how you did that."

and so I feel like it's given them an insight to the backgrounds of things that they love the movies they love and the computer games they love and the books and the art projects that they love and so it helps them realize how they were created and the people do that for a living sometimes you get in what they called a so-called, rut but you know you do things the same way all the time and education is changing kids are changing and we have to learn to change the way we teach and so these types of programs helps us to make the curriculum come to life and teach it in ways that's going to interest the kids -- they're in an animated world and we have to animate our instruction in a way that's interesting to them.

- We can split these characters and we can have ourselves some antagonists.

Do you know what the opposite of an antagonist is?

Tell me.

>>Student: A protagonist.

>>Techer: A protagonist!

Perfect.

>>Peterson: So many programs from ballet to film to -- acting workshops come from the state.

The legislature funds them, and I try and involve as many as I can -- say "yes" as often as I can to expose our kids in very, rural Utah to those things especially in rural areas, the first thing to get cut is art.

And, that's why I'm so appreciative of theater and music and ballet and film coming because the kids need to have art.

Art is life.

It's important to expose kids to as much as you can and when I saw the agenda that you guys sent down, I thought, man, these are fabulous things that our kids would really think were pretty cool.

- You get to be in charge of your character.

You can put it in the scene.

If I need to focus on -- >>Gale: The value of coming to rural schools is the fact that most often, when we come to rural schools, we're going to places that take several hours for us to get to.

We have to do a lot more planning, a lot more coordinating to do this.

However, I feel like the value of it is -- it outweighs all of the amount of work that you have to do to come to a rural location.

And one of the things that we have found to be so much fun with this is that -- quite often, we hear from the teachers and the administrators of the schools, is that this is the first time that they've actually had an arts organization come down to us.

They just -- sometimes there's that assumption of, "oh, well, we're not in the Salt Lake Valley."

So we don't get all these opportunities.

And I feel it's onus on us if that -- if the Utah legislator -- is providing US funds to travel the entire state, we need to make good on that promise and provide these opportunities to all Utahns, and not just the ones that are in close proximity to us.

- And so this movie is all about this girl and her hair and her family.

So let's watch this and remember, all of these have a message that could teach us something.

We can learn something new.

We can feel specific feelings.

>>Julian: I absolutely recommend other elementary schools, middle schools, high schools being able to invite UEN and the Utah Film Center in -- I think -- any time that we have an opportunity to bring experts in the field to be the teachers is a benefit to students because they get to see and I think for students to have an opportunity that their only instruction isn't their regular classroom teacher, or the educators that they're work with on a daily basis and to be exposed to a variety of type of educators as a as well as a the depth of knowledge that if I, you know -- we've done very minimal of, like you know -- introducing stop-motion but what I can bring to the table is not even comparable to when you have professionals from that industry introducing it and sharing their passion and igniting the students to think about things in a bigger, better way.

>>Kids: How about if we get behind the lines and then we're like moving -- [Indiscernible] >> And it's different than if -- you're at East High in Salt Lake, where there's so many opportunities.

So, if other schools have the same kind of -- needs to provide arts and they don't have the funding, this is the kind of thing that's absolutely perfect.

>> So if you ever eat dinner with your family, your dog sits next to the table giving you those puppy eyes -- that's what I'm excited about -- >>Gale: I highly encourage any arts organizations if you, are contemplating whether or not you should go to rural communities and bring arts education, even if you have a lot of logistics that you have to do around travel and lodging, I think it's completely worth it.

It wouldn't it would be very hard for me not to come to rural schools, to hope that some kids might -- they might get that little spark of like, "Hey, I was in a stop-motion animation class, and now I'm an animator for Disney."

Or, you know, you know -- because there's so much talent that comes out of the state.

And if we were to provide that spark or that interest, it would be worth all the time coming out here.

The award winning arts and culture series ¡COLORES!

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From classic episodes to brand new shows, ¡COLORES!

is everywhere!

Watch now on your favorite NMPBS platforms.

Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund, and the Nellita E. Walker Fund for KNME-TV at the Albuquerque Community Foundation New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and by the National Endowment for the Arts and Viewers Like You