{"id":29844,"date":"2020-01-16T12:39:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T17:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=29844"},"modified":"2020-04-01T08:35:22","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T12:35:22","slug":"local-high-school-students-create-art-for-public-display","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2020\/01\/local-high-school-students-create-art-for-public-display\/","title":{"rendered":"Local high school students create art for public display"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Joel Baxley, director of visual art education at the UTC Southeast Center for Education in the Arts, discusses the collaboration that took place for ArtSpark Goes to School.<\/p><\/div>\n

When her name was called, Lily Michel got a \u201cHuh? You mean me?\u201d look on her face.<\/p>\n

She\u2019d just heard that her artistic submission was chosen as a winner in ArtSpark Goes to School, a local program that invites high school students to create art that will be placed on 20 EPB utility boxes from the North Shore to Southside.<\/p>\n

Even with her winning certificate in hand, Lily was more concerned that another winner, classmate Kemberly Delgadillo, was not at the ceremony where the five winners were announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere\u2019s Kimberly? She should be here,\u201d Lily said as people walked up to congratulate her.<\/p>\n

For the second year, the UTC Southeast Center for the Education in the Arts (SCEA)and the Challenger STEM Learning Center worked with EPB on the program. Using size parameters from EPB, students from Hixson and Howard high schools and Chattanooga School for the Creative Arts submitted work that included drawings, computer-generated graphics and watercolor, among other mediums.<\/p>\n

“They\u2019re showing their work in public, and it’s going to be seen by thousands of people,” said Chad Burnette, art teacher at CCA. “It\u2019s a big deal for them. It takes them to the next level. We do art shows at the school, but it\u2019s not really the same thing.”<\/p>\n

A sophomore at CCA, Lily used colored pencils and markers to create a highly-detailed display of goldfish swimming through an environment of clouds and around a purple-centered circle.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love art,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the greatest things I can think of in the world. I like doing art with my friends, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The students\u2019 winning art will be enlarged, printed on weather-resistant material and placed on large EPB electric boxes that sit near the street as well as the smaller ones\u2014\u201cabout the size of one-third of a refrigerator\u201d near buildings\u2014said Elizabeth Hammitt, director of environmental stewardship and community at EPB.<\/p>\n

While the River City Co. also has an ArtSpark program using professional artists, EPB wanted high school students involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is to improve the quality of life for the people we serve, and one of our major focus areas is the public schools,\u201d Hammitt said. \u201cI heard SCEA was the place to go if you needed a curriculum, and it was a fantastic partnership right off the bat.”<\/p>\n

After being approached by Hammitt, staff at SCEA jumped at the chance to be part of the program.<\/p>\n

Joel Baxley, director of visual art education at SCEA, created a curriculum for teachers at the three schools to follow, then let them make specific classroom decisions from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to come up with a lesson that could work for everybody,\u201d he said. \u201cI tried to make it rough and loose enough for the individual teachers to make choices.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program also integrated the STEM Learning Center into the plan, bringing in elements of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe taught things about the electric utility system and involved math for the dimensions of the box,\u201d Hammitt said.<\/p>\n

Along with simply making art, ArtSpark Goes to School hopes to teach students the ins and outs of being a professional artist, Hammitt said. It\u2019s not a case of only making the art that you want to make; sometimes it\u2019s a case of making the art that the client wants.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth of our organizations wanted to give students a unique experience that mirrored the professional artist\u2019s experience, what is it actually like if you wanted to choose art as a career.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the career that Lily hopes to pursue; she\u2019s just not sure which type of art she wants to make. But she\u2019s sketched out a rough idea:<\/p>\n

\u201cI think to do something that requires me to be creative in some form.\u201d<\/p>\n

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