Monday, February 14, 2011

8th Grade Art: Working with a Professional Artist

This year, we expanded the Fine Arts offerings for our 8th grade and included Studio Art in addition to Band and Chorus. Three intrepid 8th grade boys took us up on the choice and have been working with Molly Stouten on a variety of projects.

Last week, they were invited to work with Chapel Hill artist Patrick Dougherty on his sculpture at Guilford College. Mr. Dougherty is an acclaimed artist who has built similar installations around the world. Through Molly's relationship with Guilford (she was an adjunct professor from 1999-2001), our art students have been able to take advantage of the opportunities the college provides. Over the years, Molly has developed a relationship with Terry Hammond, Guilford's Gallery Director, and they talk each year about how to get our students involved.

Our current 8th grade students visited Guilford in the fall to work with the artist Bryant Holsenbeck (who has also been featured in Stafford Art Gallery in 2009). This past week, the students were put to work trimming, placing, and implementing some of the final steps in Mr. Dougherty's work. The sculpture will be named after is finished on or around February 20. The construction of the installation is being filmed by UNC-TV for a 10-12 minute segment on the artist, which will appear on their program, Our State, next October.

A link to the work Mr. Dougherty is completing at Guilford College is below:

http://www.guilford.edu/DoughertyInstall.html

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