Art House displays work of area students at Urban Bright exhibition

(Plain Press, June 2019)   On May 3^rd, Art House hosted a public exhibition of the artistic accomplishments of students who participated in the Art House Urban Bright Arts-in-Education programs during the 2018-2019 school year. Area residents and Art House supporters filled Art House at 3119 Denison to view the exhibit of the student work and listen to artists share their experiences of working with students in local schools.

   The Art House Urban Bright Arts-In-Education program offers a residency to local professional artists to work with students in area schools. Students receive instruction in the arts from a professional artist while working on various art projects with the artist.

   The work on display at the Urban Bright exhibit showed student art in a wide range of mediums. 

   John Marshall High School students made ceramic bowls using clay with the guidance of Art House Artist in Residence Gina Washington.

   A brightly colored Under the Sea Collage represented the work of Tremont Montessori kindergarten students working with artist Meri Ruble.

   Third and Eighth Grade students at Denison Elementary working with artist Melissa Daubert learned to use fiber from the outer husks of a coconut called coir and combine it with wire to form a variety of sculptures exhibited in a Coir Sculpture Series.

   Artist Claudio Orso spoke of trying to create amazing memories for students he worked with at Old Brooklyn Community Elementary Constellation School. Those memories included making art using a giant truck tire he found at Edgewater Beach and creating self-portraits using black ink on paper following the lines from a plexiglass mirror.

   Artist Angelica Pozo described working with fifth to eighth grade students at Stockyard Community Constellation School on W. 65^thto create tiles that will be placed on pillars outside the school. Pozo says the completed project will feature 238 eight-by-eight-inch tiles and 168 four-inch-by-eight-inch tiles. The individual tiles will feature stockyard animals such as cows, pigs, goats and sheep. The tiles will be mounted on twelve by twelve foot and eighteen-by-eighteen-foot pillars four to six feet in height designed by architect John Rokakis, said Pozo. In the week following the Urban Bright exhibition, Pozo said she plans to have a workshop for Stockyard Community teachers to experience creating tiles for the project as well. She said twenty teachers signed up for the workshop.