Public Art Workshops, a youth arts program of SEED, develops art-making skills in underserved youth, by creating site-specific, culturally relevant art in public spaces.
Public Art Workshops partner professional artists with middle and high school youth to design, fabricate and install art in Southeast Seattle locations identified by neighborhood stakeholders as sites in need of art enhancement.
This year, SEED will undertake three separate projects across Southeast Seattle serving 36+ students in free Public Art Workshops.
Responding to a request from the Rainier Beach business community, SEED is partnering with the Rainier Beach Community Empowerment Coalition (RBCEC) to create 25 appliqué banners to be displayed along Rainier Ave. S., Seward Park Ave. S. and Henderson Ave. S. Twelve students will work with local graphic artist, Hiawatha Davis, to learn the tenets of graphic design and graphics-based computer art. Students will design imagery based on community characteristics. Workshops will take place from through March 7, on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Rainier Beach Community Center, 8825 Rainier Ave. S. Also at the center, there will be a public comment period for this project, Feb. 21 - 26 and a reception on Feb. 21 at 6:30 p.m.
For the second project, students will work with Pesha Gertler, Seattle's former Poet Populist, to create works of poetry to be incorporated into an artwork that will be installed in the courtyard of Katharine's Place Family Housing. S
tudents will then work with artists Mary Coss and Sabah Al-Dahar to transform their poems into a cast bronze and stone sculpture. Youth from Cambodia, Nigeria, Liberia and Somalia attended an introductory session for the project. In brainstorming, the youth came up with themes of nature, family and diverse cultures as possible inspiration for the artwork. Workshops will take place March 24 - June 2, on Saturdays at Katherine's Place at Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S. and S. Orcas St.
For the final project, students will work with artists Sultan Mohamed and Mary Coss to design and fabricate a tile wall mural focusing on the theme of the school's mascot, the mustang. This tile mural will be created over 16 two-hour workshops and will be mounted on the exterior of Asa Mercer Middle School.
Students will work individually or in groups to design the overall mural, mold the clay and glaze the fired tiles. Through this process, they will be exposed to working across diverse cultures using the artistic process in order to create a public artwork that will benefit their immediate community. Workshops will take place April 24 - June 7 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:30 - 4:30 p.m. at Asa Mercer Middle School, 1600 S. Columbian Way.
For more information, contact Abbey Norris at 206-760-4289 or anorris@seedseattle.org, or visit www.seedseattle.org/arts/public_art/.[[In-content Ad]]
