Saturday, January 10^th saw the launch of the Duggal Big Picture Foundation’s much-anticipated Saturdays @ Duggal program, another example of our company’s mission to give back to the community. This event was the first in a monthly program of art-related workshops for children ages 6-12. It was held as a pilot test run, with only Duggal families in attendance. Based on the undeniable success of the pilot event, we are delighted to announce the program will now open up to all children in our community, with our next event scheduled for Saturday, February 7^th.

Saturdays @ Duggal was designed to expose children to photography and visual arts, and also give parents an opportunity to include their children in a worthwhile and imaginative weekend activity.

In attendance with Duggal families were five interns from the NYC SALT Program, a wonderful non-profit organization which teaches 16 high school students photography, pairs them with mentors in the photo community, and provides SAT tutoring and college counseling to prepare them to be the first in their families to attend university. It is a rigorous, multi-year program that attracts extremely motivated and bright students from Title 1 schools all over New York City. “NYC SALT’s purpose is to engage, inspire and empower New York City teenagers by providing them with professional-grade visual communications skills.” These same teenagers will now engage and inspire the young children of our community by teaching photography at DBP’s workshops. We are happy to continue our close relationship with NYC SALT by hiring five of the students as paid interns at Duggal, which will provide them with invaluable work experience in their field of interest.

This month’s theme was ‘winter portraits,’ which were crafted into seasonally inspired handmade snow globes. The morning was alive with energy and delight as the children flew around the Flatiron with their DBP cameras, learning the basic techniques behind outdoor portrait taking from their patient NYC Salt group leaders. The space was filled with eager, focused young faces choosing their favorite images, creating a winter scene to showcase them, and inserting them into mason jar “snow globes” decorated with snowflakes and ribbons galore. The final results, besides being just plain beautiful, were lasting souvenirs of a morning spent with family and new friends in a highly creative, stimulating atmosphere. It was inspiring to watch and be a part of.