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September 19, 2008
Artistic Venture
for Marketing Students
On Wednesday, September 10, 2008, artists and
entrepreneurs Ayala and Erica Reshef visited Fanshawe College to give
Marketing 1027 students firsthand insight into their fascinating new
business venture.
ArtVenture is a multimedia art school in northwest London that opened in
August 2007. Offering art classes for all ages, camps and birthday parties
in a custom-designed studio and gallery, ArtVenture exposes children and
adults to a wide range of art education and art exploration. Courses at
ArtVenture are led by Erica Reshef, an artist and a certified visual arts
teac her
with a wide range of classroom experience, and her daughter, Ayala Reshef, a
certified primary, junior, and intermediate classroom teacher. The school
also offers an on-site gallery, showcasing works by local artists on a
rotating basis, and a sitting-area stocked with art books for on-location
use.
Fanshawe Marketing students heard Ayala and Erica describe the opportunities
and challenges for their business in an engaging presentation supported by a
series of photographs and images. Students were then divided into two groups
for a unique, interactive team-building exercise. One group was directed to
colour strips of paper in a specific manner, while the other was given
little direction while being encouraged towards team-cooperation.
In the end, both groups discovered 'Harmony'. It was not obvious at the
start, but the letters to spell the word harmony were encrypted within the
stylized series of lines and swirls. While students worked on distinguishing
the background from the foreground, they learned the effect of group
cohesion versus an individualistic project management.
It was an effective and memorable way of demonstrating the creativity of the
ArtVenture team to conduct a short, fun exercise with a specific learning
outcome. Students now have a much better sense of the core competencies of
these entrepreneurs and are excited to develop marketing plans to build
awareness of this local business.
Marketing 1027 was redesigned as one of many curriculum development projects
this summer. Professor Sherry McEvoy designed the new schedule to feature a
variety of interactive exercises and a focus on developing the skills to
prepare a marketing plan.
The course instructor for this semester is Professor Murray Morgan who is
also Coordinator of the International Business Management Program. To add
further interest and relevance, Morgan has the class using their skills to
market themselves to seek employment. Students are working in small groups
and will use the theory behind marketing plan development by applying it to
an existing local business, in this case ArtVenture Art Studio. The class
includes students from numerous towns and cities across Ontario as well as
several international students and one student on exchange from HZ
University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool Zeeland) in the Netherlands.
To thank the ArtVenture team for their time and engaging presentation, two
students presented Ayala and Erica with engraved pens from the Fanshawe
College Faculty of Business.
Faculty, staff and students who may be interested in a fulfilling art
experience can visit
www.artventure.ca for information on art classes, birthday parties,
spring and summer art camps, PD-day workshops, and on-site custom framing.
Reproduced from Fanshawe
News, September 19th 2008.
http://www.fanshawec.ca/EN/newsroom/newsroom/080919.asp |
| Artwork replaces graffiti Joe Belanger - Sun Media
The London Free Press -
November 5, 2007
 FACELIFT:
A three-generation trio spearheaded a youth initiative to give a
graffiti-laden wall at a strip mall on Aldersbrook Road a facelift.
The Reshef family, from left , Ayala, her daughter Eden, 3, and her
mom Erica celebrate the completion of a mural that replaces a wall of
graffiti. The Reshefs, who run an art studio in the same plaza
enlisted the help of 13 teenagers to help paint the mural.
(SUSAN BRADNAM/Sun Media) |
Erica and Ayala Reshef know the difference between graffiti and art.
And
over the last week the northwest London art studio owners helped more than
a dozen high school and university students demonstrate the difference.
A graffiti-covered wall on a strip mall on Aldersbrook Road was
transformed from an eyesore to artwork, titled Youthful Nature.
"We decided to show young people how you can be creative and not
destructive," Erica said.
"Before, there was nothing beautiful about that wall, just a lot of
tagging."
Erica and Ayala own ArtVenture Art Studio located at the strip mall.
The weeklong project was planned and designed by students at Nancy
Campbell Collegiate Institute, while ArtVenture students helped in the
painting. Color Your World donated the paints.
It took more than 20 hours to transform the brick wall into a flowing wall
of trees in autumn colours. The mural can be seen on the south side of the
mall.
Police have encouraged merchants and homeowners to remove graffiti as soon
as it appears, because left unchallenged, more taggers will come and the
neighbourhood will soon be seen as depressed, creating the prospect for
more crime and tagging.
Some people associate graffiti with pictures. But taggers paint or write
letters to create an assumed name or identity called a tag, doing it with
a unique signature.
London police have stepped up efforts to crack down on graffiti, laying
several charges this year.
Meanwhile, city council last year passed a bylaw banning the sale of
heavy-duty pens and paints to minors.
Merchants in the city's core have spent thousands of dollars to hire
contractors to remove graffiti within 24 hours of it appearing.
Joe Belanger is a Free Press crime reporter.
jbelanger@lfpress.com
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Starting Up
Free Press Staff - Sun Media
The London Free Press - September 10, 2007
NATURAL
PROGRESSION: Ayala and Erica Reshef stand in their new multi-media art school
called ArtVenture, which offers classes for both children and adults.
(SUSAN BRADNAM/Sun Media) |
Today is
red-letter day for ArtVenture, a new multimedia art school in
northwest London.
The school, which opened its doors in the
strip mall at 1438 Aldersbrook Rd. August 30, begins its first classes today
and is accepting registrations for fall, winter and spring sessions.
Courses at ArtVenture are led by Erica Reshef, a certified visual arts
teacher and artist, and her daughter, Ayala Reshef, a certified teacher with
more than a decade of primary, junior, and intermediate teaching experience.
"Having taught in both the public and private sectors, it became
increasingly evident that an extra-curricular art program was a desire
largely unmet by Londoners," said Erica Reshef. "So it seemed a natural
progression for us to build our own studio and offer art classes for the
London community."
ArtVenture offers classes to all ages (parents a tots, school-aged children,
teens, working adults and retirees) along with an Open Studio option for
those wishing to work at their own leisure.
The school also offers an on-site gallery, showing works by local artists on
a rotating basis, and a sitting-area stocked with art books.
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