Digital Arts Experience to Celebrate One-Year Anniversary in White Plains
On July 11th, The Digital Arts Experience will celebrate its anniversary with festivities that are open to the public. The White Plains establishment will present speakers, host networking, and provide food and drink to commemorate a successful first year.
The DAE opened on July 11th, 2012 as a learning center for the digital arts and technology to further digital literacy in the Westchester community. There, teens, adults and small business owners took classes including 3D animation with Blender, Web Design with Dreamweaver, Graphic Design with Photoshop, Minecraft Coding with Java, Moviemaking with Final Cut Pro X, among many others. The Digital Arts Experience also unveiled a shared workspace to provide a unique environment for creative people to team up and work together. In addition, the staff offered production services for website rebuilds, voiceovers, podcasting and headshots to local businesses, dubbing The DAE Westchester County’s first “creative hub.”
“Originally, the DAE was 100 percent focused on education for kids, adults and business owners on how to better use the technology that exists in our world. Over the course of the year, the DAE took on a life of its own, morphing into a hub for kids to learn the digital arts, businesses to rebrand themselves, and creative people to network, have fun and learn,” says Rob Kissner, CEO and President of the Digital Arts Experience, who was named as one of 914INC’s 2013 Wunderkinds. “My main goal for the future is to maintain the culture that we’ve created in our first year and grow our network to have more people working out of our space.”
The one-year anniversary bash will begin Thursday evening at 6:30 p.m. with light food and drinks, giving all those involved with the Digital Arts Experience a chance to mingle with other creative people and see student work firsthand. After an introduction from Rob Kissner, a video featuring highlights of the past year will be shown. Director of Operations Cristina Calabrese will also speak, followed by a presentation by the interns.
“Having been a Westchester resident involved in Westchester business for many years, I was intrigued by the fact that I had never heard of this Digital Arts Experience, especially considering that I’m in the digital arts industry. When I first came here for an event, I was enthralled by not only the space itself, but by the energy and the people that I knew were connected with the space,” says Fred Bruck, who runs his business, Harquin Creative Group, out of the Digital Arts Experience. “And that’s when I introduced myself to Cristina [Calabrese] and asked her about opportunities for moving my business in here.”
The celebration is open to the public, but seating is limited. To RSVP call 914-644-8100. The Digital Arts Experience, 170 Hamilton Avenue in White Plains
