This month’s installment of our Community Spotlight series features a long time Beam Camper and counselor, Sylvie Freedman. Sylvie is a lifelong Brooklyn resident and artist. They graduated from The New School earning their bachelor degree in Fine Arts and Visual Studies with a minor in Printmaking. They are a longtime artist, maker, and educator, with a main focus on oil painting and art history. During Fall 2023, Sylvie will be going back to school for their masters in Library Sciences.

Sylvie started going to Beam Camp at 7 years old in 2006 and since then they have been involved as a camper, staff and community member. Speaking about their experience at Beam Camp, Sylvie says “it’s one of the only times that collaboration really felt good. I know that for me and a lot of people doing things like group projects sucked because you feel like you are the only one doing anything, that nobody cares and that it will never be right. That’s not what it feels like doing the project at camp. It doesn’t feel like a group project where you are left alone. Legitimately there’s energy and excitement while working. It’s one of the things I can point to and say collaboration does work and it can work.”

While working as a counselor at camp, one thing that stood out to Sylvie was how much adult staff members at Beam Camp trusted young people to be able to do things on their own. During their first year as a counselor, Sylvie and another counselor were put in charge of Barneys, the metal shop at Beam Camp. Speaking about their experience with that, Sylvie says it was “valuable” to them that someone trusted them to take care of something like a metal shop. “And I tried to implement that with the Fellows program because that was important to me as a young person. The idea that someone just trusted me emphatically to be able to do my work, to run things, and to be able to treat others with respect, especially when you're fifteen or seventeen.”

Sylvie recently participated in our art exhibition called “Catalyst'' hosted in collaboration with Why Not Art. The exhibition featured 15 Beam-connected artists, ranging from current and former staff, our Big Project designers, and more! A portion of all sales earned through the exhibition went to benefit Beam's work with young people across NYC. When asked why they had participated in the exhibition, Sylvie says, “I can’t think of a reason why I wouldn't participate. I love Beam Center and I want what's best for them. It sort of seemed like it was a given that I would participate. They’ve [Beam] have always loved and supported me in everything that I do.” Sylvie also adds, they wanted to thank Beam for all the support and wanted to give back.