Digital arts for computing outreach

In this paper, we describe a partnership between University of Cincinnati (UC) and the Cincinnati Arts and Technology Center (CATC) faculty with the goal of introducing high school students to computing in a fun but challenging way. We developed and delivered a summer workshop that leverages the successful experiences at CATC in promoting student engagement and accomplishment with a college experience using computers to create an original, digital artwork based on the Harlem Renaissance movement. In the workshop, the students viewed the work of artists in a computer lab and discussed artistic themes and techniques. The students toured the UC campus and used disposable cameras to collect their own photo images of people and architecture. In the digital media studio at CATC, students used their images (developed digitally) to construct photo collages using sophisticated filtering and other artistic techniques in Adobe Photoshop. A gallery exhibit of student work was held in the student center at UC at the culmination of the workshop. Nineteen students participated: 10 females and 9 males; 10 were African-American, 2 Hispanic, 6 white, and 1 other. The workshop was assessed with preand post-surveys that investigated computer usage and confidence using computers.