Arts in Communities, Arts in Schools

Fall is already here, school is back in session, and the Center is ramping up for a full season of innovative arts education and community outreach. McColl Center for Visual Art's educational programming reaches a wide variety of populations in the Charlotte area and beyond, including both public and private school students from elementary through high school, arts educators and seniors, utilizing the rich resources that our Artists-in-Residence and exhibitions provide.

The growing reach of the Center's epicART education programs is easy to see with a jump in programs from 152 to 348 and an increase in people served through those programs from 4,351 to 12,407. But entering the 3rd year of epicART programming, the story lies beyond the numbers in an expanding geographic reach and a fresh and evolutionary approach to keeping arts education current, relevant and engaging. The Center received many important grants that will be used to deliver art into both public and private schools and propel students into art. Through strong educational programming epicART is making a tangible difference to artists and educators, to the spirit of McColl Center for Visual Art and in the lives of people who may not otherwise experience art.

Again this year, epicART will provide stellar programming with a broad reach. The Center received an ArtsTeach Curriculum Connections grant allowing an artist to work with three Charlotte-Mecklenburg High Schools (CMS). Math and Science at Garinger, Renaissance at Olympic, and Butler High School students will create video and kinetic artwork based on the Center's winter exhibition, Per(mutations): Interactive Work by Brian Knep. Using science and visual art as a catalyst, each school will construct three to four pieces that parallels work in the exhibition. Students will integrate mechanics, technology and visual art in the construction of their work.

The Center also received an ArtsTeach Education in the Arts grant for two artists to work with three additional CMS schools. Two artists will work with Ardrey Kell High School, Myers Park High School and Jay M. Robinson Middle School students in grades 8 - 12 in creating three-dimensional forms and journals made from handmade paper for Ardrey Kell and Jay M. Robinson and creating a three-dimensional sculpture from recycled objects and incorporating photography for Myers Park High School. Using craft and photography as a catalyst, the completed projects will reflect the student's individual creativity, while focusing on a theme of "What does it mean to be GREEN."

McColl Center for Visual Art will act as fiscal agent and administrator of an Arts & Science Council Latino Initiative Grant. Annabel Manning, a Center alum will extend her work with the Latino population in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and build on the success of last years Latino Initiative Grant. The project, Tejido Digital (Digital Tapestry) will be a series of 8 - 10 digital tapestries integrating prints and video along with an audio component capturing oral histories. Participants, ranging in ages from 30 - 50 years old, will begin the project by discussing how life in Charlotte has influenced their cultural and family values without compromising their heritage.

The Center received its second North Carolina Arts Council Artist Residency Grant which allows an artist to work with Mallard Creek High School in CMS and Monroe High School in Union County. This fall, the Center presents True Grit: Frames, Fixations and Flirtations. True Grit represents five craft artists who use divergent approaches to material and technique to explore provocative conceptual ideas and narrative strategies. In conjunction with this exhibition, Dr. Sharif Bey will bring his workshop, Collaboration in Clay: Conceptual Wearable Sculpture into two high schools. Through six-day workshops students will explore a broad usage of form, color, pattern, and repetition in the creation of conceptual, wearable sculpture. Students will use earthenware clays and mixed-media to create sculptural objects that reconcile notions of ritual, function, and adornment. In a quest to discern individual and collective identities, students will create a site-specific sculpture using various ceramic construction methods and objects and symbols which grapple with cultural, historical, political, and personal meaning.

In addition to the grants the Center received, various public and private schools received grants to work with our artists. Leadership and Public Service High School at Garinger (LPS) received an ArtsTeach Education in the Arts Grant for Affiliate Artist, Bev Nagy to work with students at LPS, along with the five other small schools at Garinger in creating distinct, yet unified installation sculptures representative of each school. Founded in 1959, Garinger is one of the oldest remaining schools in Charlotte. The campus was considered state-of-the-art when it first opened, winning many architectural awards and was even featured in a 1962 edition of National Geographic as Charlotte-Mecklenburg School's showplace high school. The campus was just recently named a historical landmark. LPS is one of six schools on the Garinger campus, five of which were formed under the Small Schools Initiative. This year the final group of seniors will graduate from Garinger High School, leaving behind five small specialized schools. McColl Center for Visual Art and artist Bev Nagy will work with the students in creating distinct installations that communicate the specialty of each school. The final result will be five individual sculptures; with a sixth one created by the graduating seniors from Garinger High School - unifying the piece and all of the individual schools on campus.

St. Patrick Catholic School received an Arts & Science Council Private Schools Grant to work with an Affiliate Artist alumnus in creating 3 large mixed media arched wall panels incorporating, and taking inspiration from a gothic window in the school. Working with 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students all will participate in a variety of artistic processes. The panels, as well as the student sketches will be unveiled to the entire school community in May at their annual spring art exhibition.

Woodlawn School in Davidson received an Arts & Science Council Private Schools Grant for their 7th, 8th and 9th grade students to work with the Center in conjunction with Per(Mutations): Interactive Work by Brian Knep exhibition. Students will tour the exhibition to better understand the connections the artist makes between science and technology. An artist will continue to work with the students in the classroom by engaging them in combining their scientific data with technology to create their own sculptural and interactive pieces. The students will collect science data and images and demonstrate an understanding of applicable science processes depending on their grade's curriculum focus.

For the second year, the Center will work with ArtStart, a program through ArtsTeach that integrates the arts into the writing curriculum for 3rd and 4th graders throughout CMS. Through this program the Center will pilot a new initiative - VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) which is an inquiry based teaching method that strengthens critical thinking and communication skills by creating a visual dialogue from a piece of art. Based upon research conducted by Dr. Abagail Housen, this program was piloted in the early 90's at the MOMA in New York as a way to enhance the museum experience by helping the viewer develop meaning out of what they see in art.

Fall Artist-in-Residence Michael Schall will participate in an Art in the Park Program with Reedy Creek Park. This is a pilot program modeled after a National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior Artist Residency program. Through this program, an artist assists in providing perspectives at parks that create meaningful experiences for their visitors. Michael will spend approximately 20 hours on-site at Reedy Creek park initiating dialogues with park visitors and personnel through his art.

Fall Artist-in-Residence Izel Vargas will present his work to those incarcerated at the minimum security jail, as well as to the incarcerated youthful offenders. Vargas will also work with students at Hawthorne High School in creating a mural for their school. Hawthorne High School is an alternative high school created to help students who demonstrate difficulties in the traditional school settings. Hawthorne is an alternative school of choice that was founded as a component of the CMS system's drop-out prevention strategy.

All of our fall Artists-in-Residence are slated to reach out into the community either through workshops, lectures, demonstrations or community projects. Suwanee Natewong will teach a ceramic platter workshop and work with 5th grade students from University Park on a permanent installation. Kerry Phillips and Robert Bickey will work with area universities and area organizations on sculptural projects.