Collaborative chalk mural brings us together.

“We have to get messy to make it beautiful.” – Art Educator Joy Schultz

We have been participating in a local city chalk art celebration for several years.  It supports a local organization which support students with funding and scholarships to continue to go to college or to supply arts educators much needed supplies.  The Thea Foundation was created by two parents who lost a talented artist daughter named Thea.  Her legacy lives on every day in the hearts and minds of young artists and dedicated arts educators.

I love participating in this event because it’s our first public art collab.  It starts with the first art club meeting when we decide a theme and brainstorm visual imagery to support the theme.  I let my student art club directors take the lead and I support them by moving the idea along.  I am lucky to have a well-trained and dedicated student leader, Junior Celia, for year two.  She was trained by her older sister who ran the art club before her for two years.  I strive to have the current leader mentor another future leader as the second year begins.  This helps maintain consistency and a lot less training on the spot from year to year.  The student leaders, Celia and Sophomore Bella, feel much more in control of the group and step-up in wonderful unique ways, with their own ambitions, to help the art club be engaged in the school and greater community.

Our theme this year was “Unity” and we had all of our members draw up many variations on the theme but we had lots of images that overlapped.  I needed someone to pull all the concepts together to help tell our story and support the theme.  Junior Madison was excited to contribute to the project but would not be able to attend the actual chalk mural event so she volunteered to pour over all the students ideas to create a cohesive design.

We combined our ideas with the lower school and middle school students to create one large design.  It was a hot sunny day and we had some students arrive early but needed to leave midway to attend other responsibilities so our students needed to work together to finish the final design.

We had students stop and evaluate the mural while it was evolving and they checked in on one another to see if they needed help.  The communication was between the art students of all ages was supportive and helpful.  The other two art educators and I made sure students took water breaks and sat in the shade for a breather.  I love that we had photographers pop by and ask to take photos of our students at work.  You could see the pride each student had in the mural.  We overheard comments about all the different world flags we added and the wonderful hot air balloons created by our youngest artists.  I love all of it but I was mostly struck by the students at the end that suggested that they hold hands around the globe for a group photo.  Right then and there, I realized they truly understood the purpose of the mural and the meaning of our theme.  “Unity/United”.  I could have not been more proud.

“Unity” Chalk Mural created by Episcopal Collegiate School art club students 1-12 grades – Art Educator Joy Schultz

 

Recycle Fashion Runway Show Success

Curbside Couture 2015

Sixteen art students ventured into another season of striving to create couture outfits from recycled and repurposed materials into wearable garments. We started in September and it concluded in on April 12^th at the Clinton Presidential Center. It was a long journey with many bumps in the road.

If you are an artist you understand that what you conceive as an idea may not actually be the end result. Since we are not doing this as a studio art course and it’s only volunteers who participate. It limits the amount of time we have available to do the creating. Balancing all of our academics and athletic responsibilities is a challenge on it’s own. Then you add up the hours to be successful at this project and you understand why some students do not participate. This project takes guts.

I start collecting and storing materials all year long for the possibility that the materials may be chosen to be used on a garment. I encourage people in my school community to bring in anything they might feel we could use for the designs. I have strong community support and I nurture it often. So I end up with loads of very interesting stuff.

My students will collect a lot of their own materials too, especially if they have a strong vision for the concept. This project is not for anyone who is particular about being super neat but it will require organization.

The projects start either from an inspired sketch or by the actual materials. Our garments are created to fit the student models that have decided to be a big part of the process. Our models are not just hangers that wear our garments on the runway. Our models help with the construction, offer opinions, and dedicate hours of time to be available to constantly make adjustments to the design. The pieces are more like sculptures that move and fit like garments.

Pointers for the art teacher or students:

• My advice to new students is to work on looking at what you like in fashion. I created a Pinterest Board for inspiration and I encourage my students to create their own inspiration board or have a sketchbook.
• Second bit of advise is to rummage through the materials we already have in the studio for the project and figure out ways to reimage the materials in new ways.
• Ask these questions: Can it be painted, cut up, weaved, braided, and or layered.
• Ask questions on what can be changed? Color is an element to make a decision about, shapes are also a decision, dimensions in relation to the size of the model, what will move well and be comfortable?
• I emphasize changing the materials so it looks like wearable beautiful garments. I want the viewers to see the garment and then wonder what is it made of not the other way around. It should surprise the viewer with how it is made and what it is made of.

This year I sat relatively invisible in the crowd and listened to the people in the audience as my students walked the runway. I heard people say “I’d wear that!” “Wow!”, “Episcopal Students pieces are always so good”. I am bursting with pride when people say wonderful things when they have no idea I am their teacher.

The show was a success because we had created dynamic and exciting garments. I was successful because I was able to get this group through another season of the recycle fashion show. It is a season and it is a long one with many hours outside of my regular school hours. I have had amazing talks with the students at our Saturday workshops. I learned so much about them. We laugh, we goof off, and we get to know one another. We build a level of trust and I love it. It is one of the most important elements of being successful with students. Building a community around positive and active ways to create art and make a difference in their lives. The art part will be the extra.

This year we are graduating three seniors. One of the seniors has been with me since the very first year of our venture in recycled fashion. The beginning was all new for me. I had a steep learning curve but it was fun because we were all doing it together. She has participated every year creating wonderful designs and encouraged others to get involved and take the risk. Although she may not have gotten the big prize, she has proven herself to all of us over and over. I am so very proud of her and I will miss having her in my studio.

I will also be losing my right hand for Homes for Haiti and our runway backdrop designer for the past two years. She is our cheerleader, a model, and always offers assistance.

Our last senior has only been doing the show for one year and she did a great job. She did not give up and she created a fun and inspired design and it was one of the favorites of my art teacher friends.

Lucky for me, I get to repeat again next year with a bunch of experienced and creative juniors. “Look out! We are coming hard next year.”

We not only had 16 students involved in the runway show but I had a bunch of student volunteers at the fashion bazaar selling our Homes for Haiti. We have been creating our pins, magnets, and ornament since the devastating earthquake in Haiti and five years later, $65,000 later we are still going strong. On this night we raised $80.00 at the runway show.

This event is a great opportunity to showcase what “art in action”, can do in helping young people realize new talents, take risks at being original, and to help students find ways to make the world a better place.

Reimagining materials that would fill up our landfills and creating an amazing event that hundreds people come to see. The room was filled to capacity with viewers lining all the walls, standing up to see what all the students created.

As an art educator witnessing this was awe-inspiring. If only more individuals, who make the decisions about cutting the arts, could realize the power of art.

The transformative power art does for a community is amazing.

I always get sentimental with my students when they leave the studio. It is not so easy when you work hard for many hours through frustrations, problems, disappointments, and successes. We get attached. I know my students have had a great time and have fond memories from all the activities we have done. All the beautiful art is all gravy to me.

It all happened one stormy night

Curbside Couture 2014 is an event we work all year to prepare to showcase our recycled fashion designs.  This is a labor of love for all of my students and for me.  The work to create the garments take almost the entire school year.  We work on weekends and after school.   Students explore all kinds of materials, gather supplies, and go through the process of trial and error.  We work as a group, pushing one another’s ideas, and challenging each other to create more original designs.

The models are an integral part of the experience and benefit from the experience as well.  The garments are created to fit a specific model and the designer is sensitive to the models body type and preferences of length, shape, etc.  The designer creates a whole concept for the design with hair, make up, shoes, the walk, everything.

 

We are reviving the craft of sewing and adults in the students lives are supportive by providing sewing machines, helpful tips, and keeping eye out for recycled materials.  Everyone in my school collected requested materials for the students.  The support is amazing.  The day started with rehearsal at 2:00PM after a night at Prom, so I had a few tired students, but everyone was ready for rehearsal.  The excitement slowly was building all day.  Unfortunately the weather was predicting severe weather so it added a little drama to the day and night.  After we practiced on the runway and got gift bags from the show sponsors we set off for our school art studio.  I planned ahead to provide a meal between the rehearsal and the runway show.  We use the few hours inbetween the show and rehearsal, to work on hair and make-up. Plus a few pep talks and runway walk instructions.  I arrived at school and my parents had everything ready.  We had sandwiches, fruit, chips and dip, soda, water, and chocolates.  I already set up mirrors on easels for easy make-up application and plenty of outlets for curling irons.

We had to head back to the Great Hall in the Clinton Presidential Library to get our garments on for the show.  This is always a hectic time for everyone.  Wardrobe malfunctions do happen so I have hot glue, pins, duct tape, and I am ready to do damage control.  This year with 23 garments to get ready for the runway in a short amount of time it required I enlist a parent.  Lucky for me I have a parent who is also an art teacher to help me out.  This was great….for the first time I had twice the amount of hands.  What a relief.

My students all lined up and looked great.  I looked at all of them smiling, fidgeting, and ready.  I did not really see the whole group in one place at the same time before.  It was impressive.  So many expressions of design and beautiful happy children.  I swear I could have cried but no time for that we have a runway to do.

Off they go and I sit among the designers in our seats for the show.  I designed two special garments for two of my students who wanted to participate.  One female and one male.  I was so happy they liked what I created for them and they were so excited to participate.

 

The show started and within a few minutes the emergency sirens went off and we had to empty the Great Hall for the basement.  Over 350 guests and all the students- Yikes!  It went smoothly and everyone was calm.  Within 30 minutes the show began again.  The short 30 minutes seems to fuel my students who were previously nervous, into determined models.   The students owned the runway walking with confidence and pride in the outfits they wore.  My designers beamed and soaked up the applause.

 

Only five awards were given for the designers and my students won four!  I am so proud of them.

The following designers were awarded cash awards: Colin Clemmons received  The Singer Creativity Award $250.00, Celeste Jennings 4^rd $200.00, Lily Warren 3rd $300.00,  and Jade Pfeifer 1^st $500.00.  Riley Blair the runway backdrop artist received a gift bag and praise.

It was over too quickly and seemed to be only a dream.  

 

 

 

Clinton Volunteer Gala 2013

The students who have been active with our Homes for Haiti project this school year had a wonderful opportunity to be recognized at the Clinton Volunteer Gala.  Upper School students and Upper School Art Teacher Joy Schultz were mentioned by name during the ceremony for all the time and energy they have given for the Homes for Haiti project.  We design and create the product but we also spend our weekends at street festivals and events to sell our Homes for Haiti.  Connie Fails, the Clinton Store Manager, mentioned the amounts of money we turn in after each event and the crowd was impressed.  President Clinton arrived and gave a wonderful speech about the value of giving back to improve other people’s lives.  He was inspirational and appreciative of our efforts to Build Haiti Back Better.  Congratulations!

Time to be thankful and express gratitude

I am thankful for the school community and the warm embrace I received since moving here seven years ago.  I left Wisconsin to a for a new job, new State, new culture, and renewed opportunity to build a art program.  Moving to Arkansas from Wisconsin was a choice we made as a family to open doors we could not open in Wisconsin.  I left a wonderful teaching position with great students who I loved very much.  It was comfortable, great art budget, and I was making progress yearly with my teaching.

One thing that eluded me was the ability to impact the whole community. Not just my studio, school, but the whole city.  I tried breaking in as a art teacher and an artist but it was challenging.  I did my community service projects but it was only a local impact.  I wanted to have a much bigger impact.

Now, in Little Rock it is like a whole new world.  I still do all my community service projects but I can affect a greater population.  I have been successful with my work as an artist too.  I had my work in a local art gallery for a year, until I got too busy with all my student works to complete my art work.  I have spoken at the Clinton Presidential Library several times and had my students works performed and presented many times at the Presidential Library.  We win awards at the state level annually, my students art works are recognized in the Governor’s Mansion and Arkansas Art Center, we raise the expectations not just for our school campus but for the greater community.   My artists graduate and move on to great art schools and do very well.

This year I will be presenting at the National Art Convention about the many events and community projects I have been able to carry out in Little Rock.  I would have never had the courage to propose the workshop presentations without the success I have had in Little Rock.

Today at the Mission Market in Little Rock, there were several different booths set up selling products to help educate and promote non-profit organizations/programs.  As I hurried to set up our Homes for Haiti booth, I looked around the room and several tables had our students serving as the sponsors.  All the other tables had adults running their booths but I was impressed by our students informing and promoting other area programs to help others.  This is the Sunday of our Thanksgiving break at 8 AM.  That is pretty great for teenagers.

I work in a school where all the graduating Seniors give Senior speeches.  Most of the Seniors refer to the school community as their second family.   I do spend a lot of time during school and outside of school with my students.  I truly find my students engaging, funny, intelligent, talented, and kind people.  They are people I am proud to know and claim as mine.

I am thankful for my school family and the positive influence they make on the larger community.  Well done!  For the record we raised $390.00 for the Clinton Haiti Relief Fund while we had some fun.

More than a Art Teacher…

I have evolved over the years but really I have just become a more refined version of myself.  I love being an art teacher, I love teaching art at any level and in many forms.  I love bringing the opportunity for my students to reach a level of expression in an art form.  The “light” that is switched on is never turned off once it is switched on.  It may explode or it may become dull. It depends on the student but they never really loose that “light” that was turned on to discover originality, a new skill,  or a new way of expression.  The confidence and pride the student experiences is intrinsically connected to this moment.  You can recognize it when you see it and it is what keeps me in the studio with my students.

Now- I have always loved service learning or community service, whatever you want to call it – to me it is the same.

I have been doing it my whole life…giving to others and improving even the smallest part of the world.  The past several years I have been able to inspire and encourage my students to find a way to dedicate themselves to a cause or an organization through my teaching.  I have been in a position to experiment and incorporate my ideas within my school day through my art club, culinary club, animal care, photo club, and curbside couture fashion show.  I am busy but blessed.

I am most proud when I listen to my students tell me about what they did to help others.  In the past years I have supported several organizations and included my students in my adventures.  The Egghisbition, Empty Bowls, BeLikeBrit orphan portraits, and several community activities that just need our artistic support to help raise funds.

The Homes for Haiti project has been my small project that I started to help me through a very tough time.  I initiated the project for an alumni art student of mine who was missing in Haiti after the earthquake for three days.  The thought of her passing was too much for me, so I did the project as a way to prepare and support the mission in Haiti she started.  Thankfully, my alumni student Missy was found and survived.  But the devastation in Haiti was terrible and the children in Haiti still needed our help.  My art students loved my little colorful houses and wanted to help me help the children.  So years later we are still raising money to support the Clinton Haiti Relief Fund.  This year alone we have set up our booth three different times (we have more scheduled events) and sold hundreds of pins, ornaments, and magnets.  We spend weekdays creating the houses and then our weekends selling our product and raising the awareness of the needs in Haiti.

This weekend we set up our booth at The Cornbread Festival in a newly rejuvenated area in downtown Little Rock.  The Bernice Gardens is in a private garden in the city that features a collection of outdoor sculptures and space to set up events.  It is exciting to be apart of a community who sees the benefits of supporting local farmers, business owners, and capturing the safe small town feel in a bigger part of the city.  The work the organizers did to provide a fun, safe, family, atmosphere was wonderful.

My students continue to become more effective at cold calling people in the street to hear about our Homes for Haiti project and the pride and passion they share with the community is contagious.  We raised $730.00 at the festival.  I received so many compliments from our customers as to how polite, knowledgeable, and passionate my students are about this project.  I have had several discussions with my students on the other benefits they have learned and experienced through our process of creating and marketing our Homes for Haiti project for their future plans in college.

It’s all about making changes in the world big and small and we all can do it.  

Homes for Haiti- We are still going strong

Art Club selling our pins

It’s sometimes hard to imagine how this little project has evolved over the years.  We are stronger than ever this year with great student leadership.  I have students in middle school – high school who come to support our cause for Haiti. I have excellent students who articulate the project well and with passion.  We had over 25 different students for three different sifts sell our Homes for Haiti art pins and ornaments.  I had students stand in the road in the middle of the festival and invite festival goers to our booth to hear about our project.  Everyone was impressed with the pins and ornaments  and our passion for the project.  We had people purchase pins and ornaments and some plain straight donations.  We turned people on to the needs in Haiti and explained our commitment to Haiti.

Some of our ornaments

This project is  much bigger than raising money for the needs in Haiti.  It is also about global awareness, leadership, building self esteem, opening the eyes of others to philanthropic works, and the power of art to change the world.  As an art educator I strive to bring what they learn in the art studio into the real world.  I want my students empowered to create art and change the world for the better.  I want them to embrace an idea and do the hard work to achieve greatness.  On this beautiful day in Arkansas we raised $1288.25 for the Bill Clinton Haiti Relief Fund.  We also got invited to sell our pins at three different events at no charge to help our cause.  Seriously- I am exhausted…I spend all week with my art students in class, lots of time after school, and my Saturdays.  But I find the excitement in my students contagious and the esteem growth intoxicating.  I feel I have found the fountain of youth.   

Mr. Carr comes to see our good work.

The support I get from my students, parents of my students, colleagues, and the community is amazing.  Life is good.

Look at my students work