As we are getting ready to kick off the summer of 2023, we’d like to share some of the exciting things that have been happening in our Beam Camp City Wide programming! Beam Camp City Wide is Beam Center’s summer initiative in which Beam will encompass several areas in New York City!

This month’s installment of Beam’s Staff Spotlight series features our Program Associate for Project Leaders, Sayma Mishi. Working with the program’s Director, Lizzie, Mishi spends her time prototyping creative and kid-friendly projects, assisting Project Leaders with their prototyping, preparing snacks, and managing program materials and setup.

We are excited to announce our 2023 -2024 Beam Project Governors Island: seeAsaw, to be built at Beam Camp City during summer 2023. seeAsaw is an interactive and immersive structure of 6 seesaws, connected by a spectacular draping hammock made from rescued fishing nets, which moves in wave-like motions that are reminiscent of the sea. seeAsaw was designed by Andre kong studio in collaboration with Ruben Correia and Ghost Diving USA.

This month’s installment of our Community Spotlight series features Korean-American Humanities teacher at Bronx International High School (BxIHS), David Choi. Before beginning his tenure at Bronx International HS, David taught English at a school in Korea for two years.

2022 was full of ambitious projects, talented young people, and special moments, many of which you can read about in our Annual Report. As we approach the new year, we wanted to take a moment to pause and reflect on some incredible things we have accomplished with youth this year.

This month's installment of our Community Spotlight series features Brooklyn-based merchandising and product design firm, twelveNYC. twelveNYC is a 100% women-owned business that provides merchandising design and production to internationally-renowned brands. Some of their clients have included Bloomingdales, Jimmy Choo, and Uber, among others.

Thank you to everyone who attended our annual Inventgenuity Festival on Governors Island! During our two-day family-friendly festival, youth and their families participated in workshops hosted by Beam Center and our guest organization, the Lewis Latimer House Museum. Participants enjoyed performances organized and performed by youth from another partner organization, Building Beats.

This month’s installment of our Staff Spotlight series features our Project Designer and Fabric Specialist, Romina Schulz. Romina is a researcher and a visual artist that currently works mainly with textiles and ceramic. She holds a Bachelor in Fine Arts, with a major in painting, from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru. Romina continued her training with several Peruvian pre-hispanic textile courses, such as brocade weaving, Paracas ringed knitting, and backstrap weaving.

We are excited to announce this month's installment of our Community Spotlight series featuring artist Ye Qin Zhu. Last year, Ye designed both of our big projects for Beam Camp and Beam Camp City. He is an interdisciplinary artist with a wide-ranging practice that encompasses painting, public art, and social practice. Ye was briefly a member of Beam Center’s staff beginning in 2017 before leaving to pursue his artistic practice. In 2021, he proposed a project through our annual Open Call for Big Projects. Later Ye was asked to also propose a project for our first summer at Beam Camp City.

Our June Community Spotlight series features our first ever Junior Project Designer, Adiel. Adiel participated in our Apprenticeship Program in 2020 and has spent the last year working on our Project Leaders team.

Thank you to all who attended our first annual spring fundraising celebration, Branching out with Beam! We’re so grateful that you were able to help us honor Brooklyn International High School and Sally Cohen. We also want to reiterate our gratitude for all who donated! Check out the full event recap here and catch up on what you’ve missed.