We host a series of brief lectures by York, PA's makers and doers, who talk about their craft. Our speakers come from varied backgrounds, but they all work systematically and intentionally to create visceral experiences.
PechaKucha Night York utilizes the 20x20 PechaKucha presentation format: 20 slides that automatically advance every 20 seconds. Learn more at PechaKucha.org.
Featured Speakers AT JUNE 25, 2016 PK NIght Event
Our fourth event was held in conjunction with the Cultural Alliance of York County's Big Idea Saturday.
Ann Davis
DreamWrights: Building Characters for Life
Take one person – no matter their age – supply with an opportunity, a dash of mentoring, the tools they need to create a masterpiece alongside other creative minds, and watch them grow. DreamWrights is a safe and encouraging community where stepping outside of your comfort zone is not only fun, but also opens doors in wonderful and unexpected ways.
Ann’s work as Executive Director of DreamWrights grew through her children’s love for and exploration of theatre. Twenty years later she continues to build her own character as she travels through the life stages of a community arts organization along with the many people it touches.
Dominic DelliCarpini and Billy Amtmann
The Graham Scholars: Disrupting Education toward a New Generation of Makers and Doers
While the world cries out for creativity and divergent thinkers, our schools continue to standardize and measure success by conformity. This presentation brings together a veteran teacher and current student to imagine ways to disrupt the status quo in education.
Dr. Dominic DelliCarpini is the Dean of the Center for Community Engagement, the Naylor Endowed Professor of Writing Studies, and the Director of the Graham Scholars Program at York College. After 10 years of teaching in secondary schools, and 25 in higher education, DelliCarpini developed the Graham Scholars Program to help students “design extraordinary lives.” His goal was, in the words of progressive educator John Dewey, to “introduce into educational processes the activities which appeal to those whose dominant interest is to do and to make.” Where better than in York, a center of industry founded on creative making and doing, to nurture this entrepreneurial spirit?
Billy Amtmann is a Graham Scholar and Mechanical Engineering Major at York College of Pennsylvania. Using the principles of Design Thinking and the spirit of an engineer, Amtmann is committed to reforming ways that our educational system crushes creativity and treats students as something being built on a factory line instead of as the builders of their own future. He imagines instead an educational paradigm built on the spirit of creative play and willingness to fail—characteristics that all children possess, and that educators have an obligation to nurture.
James McConnell II
Embracing Aesthetic Anarchy
This presentation aims to explore what it means to trade convenience for consciousness by making the choice to build rather than buy. Learn how the methods of pre-industrial artisans and a simple set of tools can set your inner maker free.
Jim McConnell is a husband, father, student of life, and chronic tinkerer currently based in Eastern North Carolina, where he learns something new practically every day. He enjoys building furniture, playing music, and curating The Daily Skep, a blog built on the belief that fostering a virtual guild of makers, doers, and dreamers is a vital and important way to share ideas and information about what makes us human. Jim serves as content editor for Mortise & Tenon Magazine and writes for Popular Woodworking.
Melanie M. Rodgers
Slab Serifs, Velveeta and Poppycock
Everyone knows that the alphabet is for constructing words that, in combination, convey ideas and foster thought. But what in the world do typography and cooking have in common? Are homemade letters and dishes more delicious or nutritious? What is the value of mastery in either pursuit? These, and other questions, will be examined in this well-seasoned and legible presentation.
Melanie M. Rodgers is an associate professor of art at York College of Pennsylvania and Coordinator of the Graphic Design program there. In addition to mentoring young artists, she is involved in a wide variety of typographic projects at The Lettering Office. A graduate of the York Academy of Arts, Rodgers has an M.A. in Digital Arts and an M.F.A in Studio from The Maryland Institute College of Art.
Al Sgro
The Language of Modern Music Scoring
Exploring modern music scoring techniques for TV and Film, its imprint on the collective unconscious, and what we do to keep it vital.
Originally from York, Al Sgro is a music composer and producer based in Los Angeles. He's also co-owner of The Chalet Recording Studio near Culver City and a recipient of an ASCAP FILM/TV Music Award. His credits include six seasons of the ABC comedy Cougar Town, and CBS's recent hour-long procedural, Rush Hour.
