Yesterday was the culmination of months of work done in Blakely Harbor Park by 7th and 8th grade students from Odyssey Middle School. They made numerous trips to the site to pull English Ivy from a site at the water's edge, test water quality and learn about the site's history.
Their teacher, Elizabeth Vroom, applied for funding from the Bainbridge Schools Foundation, the BIAHC Arts Consortium, and the Wendy Jackson Hall Memorial Mentorship Fund to add an art component to their investigations, which allowed me to come and work with her class. Over the course of three visits, students learned about site-specific and ephemeral environmental installation artwork, conceptualized their sculptural work for the site, articulated these visions in words, and created drawings and origami doves for the actual piece.
The day of building and installing was remarkable: in the rain, mud and wind, everyone worked with intention. Teams of 3 and 4 students fabricated their portion of an ivy rope, joined the parts, and suspended the results. The meandering ivy cable circumscribed the site that had been cleared of the non-native invasive, offering a surprise to passersby (including numerous classes from IslandWood) or conscientious visitors to the park. The work will be up until Sunday morning at 10am, June 6.
Wonderful photos by Larry Steagall of the Kitsap Sun can be seen in conjunction with the article by Tristan Baurick. Video footage will be available shortly at BITV.
No comments:
Post a Comment