ToyCyte: Toy Culture Collected

Aaron Rose, director of the documentary, Beautiful Losers, and NIKE have organized a series of over 30 artist-led Make Something workshops in Tokyo, NYC, San Francisco, and LA. Designed to bring street-level art instruction to disadvantaged urban youth, the roster of instructors includes urban art heroes like Shepard Fairey, KAWS, Eric Elms, Mister Cartoon and Todd James (REAS).

To date, they’ve wrapped seven of these four-hour sessions in NYC, including character design by KAWS, mural painting by Eric Elms, animation by REAS, tattooing with Scott Campbell, photography with Cheryl Dunn, cinematography with Tobin Yelland, zine making with Aaron Rose and painting with Eric White. Today, Nike design whiz Jesse Leyva teaches sneaker design. Kind of sticks it to all the haters who say, “Those who cannot do, teach.” If only inner city teachers could make a fraction of what some of these guys take in. Maybe your Algebra teacher should moonlight as a toy designer… [via Supertouch]