Other Community Art
Jeffrey
worked with 5th Grade students at Crompond Elementary School, Yorktown
NY, to develop concept and sketches that resulted in a permanent
sculpture to celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary. The masonry
sculpture, made of brick and stone, represents the school mascot (a
Cardinal) and motto (“Home for Mind and the Heart”).
Working
with brick and stone provided a historical connection to area brick
factories that once operated along the Hudson River. Students also
contributed stones that they found in their yards or open space.
Photo:
Sue Keever
Photo:
Sue Keever
The
Westchester Arts Council
provided a 2008 Arts Partners Challenge Grant, made possible with
funds from the Local Capacity Building Program of the New York State
Council on the Arts. Substantial support was also provided by Alfredo
Santucci & Sons; Home Mason Supply, Peekskill, NY; Rok-Built
Construction; BOCES Arts in Education Program; the PTA and parents
from Crompond Elementary School; and the Yorktown Board of Education.
__________________________
The
images below show the first of a new series of steel sculptures shaped
as massive butterflies. They are intended to promote community
building through the arts.
The
work shown was supported through grants from the Westchester
NY Arts
Council; The New York State Council on the Arts;
The Pelham Education
Foundation; BOCES Arts In Education and the PTA, as it involved the
direct participation of 61 students from the Hutchinson School in
Pelham,NY.
Discussions about how we (humanity) have used our hands to create and
destroy, led to projects of visual art where students were guided to
use their hands as a point of departure. Participants made
tracings of their own hands in distinctive positions, which were
arranged into wing shapes that created the perimeter of a massive
butterfly. A master drawing of the butterfly shape was laser cut
out of sheet steel. It subsequently was given shape through
bending and hand hammering at a steel fabricator. The result is a 5’
X10’ steel butterfly, the outer shape composed of 61 images
of the different hands of the participant community.
Steel
butterfly sculpture in progress
The
steel butterfly was initially spray painted with iridescent color at an auto
body shop in the community.
Sculpture
with paint crew and visual artist, Jeffrey Schrier
The
hand shapes along the perimeter of the wings were painted by the students. The
work has been permanently installed at the school by parent and staff helpers.
This
particular sculpture coordinated with curriculum involved with study of the
rain forest. Shapes of rain forest animals were cut out from the
butterfly's wings then slightly repositioned, providing added depth.
Future steel butterflies created will involve similar participation for
institutions or organizations that bring the project to their community. This is
an excellent arts project to bring diverse participants or communities together
for common life sustaining / community building goals. Age range: 4th grade
through adults. It requires that the sponsoring institutions have a site
available for the mounting and permanent display of the finished work.
Project participants also learned about the power of community art through
the WINGS
OF WITNESS
project, in which to date, nearly 45,000 youth from 23 States and
Canada have participated in
building a 4 ton memorial in the shape of a butterfly, composed from 11 million
soda can tabs collected from all 50 states and eight countries. This continuing
project utilizes recycling to teach about community and ethics through direct
participation in building and assembling the work, at selected sites around the
country.
To
view visuals of the Wings of Witness, click "Photo
Metamorphosis".
For artist bio,
click "About The Artist" above.
