News
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. —The Blue Pig Gallery in Palisade will host a unique exhibit in the gallery courtyard 5-7 p.m. Wednesday, May 25.
Grand Junction High School special education students and sixth-graders from a school in Morocco participated together in a cultural art exchange called Flying Art — an international exchange of art among youth.
The students' artwork will be mounted on easels set up in the gallery courtyard.
The Moroccan students' drawings depict their daily life, special education teacher Marilyn Myers said. Some drawings show women dressed in burkas, another a girl standing outside the school with the words “I wish I was in school.”
Many drawings were of animals, and people fishing.
Stained-glass artist Linda Hiatt-Neely, who has a son in Myers' class, initiated the Flying Art project and volunteered teaching art for the three months they were involved with the exchange.
She showed the students how to make oil-pastel drawings with a watercolor wash over the top — to create paintings of Colorado National Monument and pictures of Mount Garfield. They sent a batch of those paintings to Morocco, then made another collection for their own classroom and for Wednesday's exhibit.
Through an exchange of artwork and letters written by the students — letters that were translated from Arabic to English, and vice versa — students learned a lot about each other's culture, Hiatt-Neely said.
Some of the Moroccan artwork showed trash in their river. Students wrote letters asking the Americans: “How do you keep your country clean?”
“They were very interesting pictures,” Hiatt-Neely said.
The project stirred a study of Moroccan music and food.
Senior band student Chris Bock taught students to use lummi sticks, a form of Moroccan percussion. The students will perform Moroccan drumbeats with the lummi sticks during the Wednesday reception.
Moroccan foods — couscous and humus, prepared by students, will be served at the reception.
Also at the exhibit will be a globe created by students from stained-glass scraps donated by Hiatt-Neely.
“We're hoping to auction (the globe) off to raise money for the school or to buy art supplies for the Moroccan students,” Hiatt-Neely said.
The Flying Art organization has never done an exchange with special education students before, Hiatt-Neely said.
“The Moroccan kids thought all U.S. kids were rich and perfect,” she said. “It was an interesting exchange.”
Flying Art was created by Sarah Young of Beloit, Wis., in 2002 to bring together art, travel and children.
Grand Junction High School special education students and sixth-graders from a school in Morocco participated together in a cultural art exchange called Flying Art — an international exchange of art among youth.
The students' artwork will be mounted on easels set up in the gallery courtyard.
The Moroccan students' drawings depict their daily life, special education teacher Marilyn Myers said. Some drawings show women dressed in burkas, another a girl standing outside the school with the words “I wish I was in school.”
Many drawings were of animals, and people fishing.
Stained-glass artist Linda Hiatt-Neely, who has a son in Myers' class, initiated the Flying Art project and volunteered teaching art for the three months they were involved with the exchange.
She showed the students how to make oil-pastel drawings with a watercolor wash over the top — to create paintings of Colorado National Monument and pictures of Mount Garfield. They sent a batch of those paintings to Morocco, then made another collection for their own classroom and for Wednesday's exhibit.
Through an exchange of artwork and letters written by the students — letters that were translated from Arabic to English, and vice versa — students learned a lot about each other's culture, Hiatt-Neely said.
Some of the Moroccan artwork showed trash in their river. Students wrote letters asking the Americans: “How do you keep your country clean?”
“They were very interesting pictures,” Hiatt-Neely said.
The project stirred a study of Moroccan music and food.
Senior band student Chris Bock taught students to use lummi sticks, a form of Moroccan percussion. The students will perform Moroccan drumbeats with the lummi sticks during the Wednesday reception.
Moroccan foods — couscous and humus, prepared by students, will be served at the reception.
Also at the exhibit will be a globe created by students from stained-glass scraps donated by Hiatt-Neely.
“We're hoping to auction (the globe) off to raise money for the school or to buy art supplies for the Moroccan students,” Hiatt-Neely said.
The Flying Art organization has never done an exchange with special education students before, Hiatt-Neely said.
“The Moroccan kids thought all U.S. kids were rich and perfect,” she said. “It was an interesting exchange.”
Flying Art was created by Sarah Young of Beloit, Wis., in 2002 to bring together art, travel and children.
GO&DO
What: Student art exchange exhibit
When: 5-7 p.m., Wed., May 25, 5-7 p.m. Where: Blue Pig Gallery, 119 W. Third St., Palisade Info: 464-4819 |
