Community

Mission: “To harness the power of media to uplift, enlighten, and transform through collaboration with artists, educators and innovators."

 

The high rate of attrition in Dallas schools was a prime mover for the 2002 incorporation of Collaborating Artists Media Project (CAMP) as a Texas 501(c)3 arts education organization. Award-winning media artist and educator Lin Gold, CAMP’s founder and executive director, was ready to enlarge the vision that she had brought to Dallas Community Television during nearly a decade of cutting-edge educational programs. Gold gathered media professionals and artists from all disciplines to take programming and cameras directly into Dallas classrooms. And CAMP was born.

In spring 2003, CAMP initiated a revolutionary five-year pilot project in DISD, “The Collaboratory at Obadiah Knight”, a 98% Hispanic, Title I elementary school in West Love Field on the fringes of Harry Hines' porn corridor. The neighborhood was isolated by culture, language, location, and gang crime. The school itself was an ideal site not only to attempt to bridge the digital divide, but also to integrate innovative methods for improving reading and writing in English for Spanish speakers. Knight test scores jumped as much as 20% in some core subjects within two years. The pilot project represented the first step in Gold’s greater vision: to replicate Knight’s programming for underserved communities throughout Dallas County and the state.

In 2004, CAMP gained valuable new partners in the international Digital Arts Alliance formed by Nokia and its “Mobile Learning Institute” and the Pearson Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Pearson PLC, home to The Financial Times, with businesses and education initiatives in sixty countries. The Alliance provided laptops and more cameras to involve CAMP in media workshops throughout Irving ISD and in New York. As a result, CAMP underwent a dramatic expansion in a matter of months and now produces all Mobile Learning Institute programs for the Alliance in the region.

By late 2005, the Alliance began providing equipment and support for project direction and artists’ fees in Dallas at the Knight Collaboratory. In spring 2006, Pearson placed post-production and dubbing of all regional school projects in CAMP’s hands, contributing substantially to employment of local artists and to the Dallas economy. CAMP served 140 teachers and 3,600 students in Dallas, Irving, and Mansfield in the 2005-2006 academic year.

As a direct result of Pearson and Nokia support, CAMP’s 2006 operating budget tripled. Its artistic staff grew; the organization gained interns from The Academy of Irving ISD and The Art Institute of Dallas, and, in February 2007, it moved into expanded new offices and studio space in Deep Ellum.