ARTS PROGRAM AT MOSIER MIDDLE SCHOOL

---

This fall, Mosier Middle School began a new arts program through AIEG. During the school year, we will offer different residencies lead by a variety of teaching artists and musicians to enrich the current humanities curriculum.  Ceramic artist Pam Springer lead students in her Primitive Pottery residency, that incorporates smoke firing handmade and burnished pots in the American Southwest tradition of pottery making.  Students made pots using pinch and coil techniques, then burnished their pieces and applied a slip which highlights and enhanced the “color fuming” that takes place during firing.  After creating their pots, the students participated in an outdoor firing process using a primitive kiln. They added natural items such as pinecones, straw, pine needles, dried cow dung, and copper pennies to see how they would affect the pots during firing. Through this residency, Springer united chemistry, etymology, history, and art.

Next, students worked with teaching artist Pamela Larsen, in a clay workshop incorporating the students’ current study in Humanities.  The 6th and 7th grade students are studying Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek Cultures, while the 8th grade students are studying Ancient Native American Tribes. Larsen lead students in 2 projects: Creating Clay Animals, where students looked at depictions and considered the importance of animals in Ancient Egypt and Early Native American Tribes; and Creating Slab Projects about Ancient Communication, where they examined Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Greek Red-Black Designs, petroglyphs, and other symbols and drawings used by early peoples for communicational purposes. They explored how symbols are a way people have communicated for thousands of years. 

Teaching artist Miko Ruhlen then worked with students on an iPad Composition residency using Garage Band, where each student composed an original song. Both new and seasoned music students benefited greatly from this residency, which taught musical form and the basic rules of composing. 

Over the winter and spring students will also be working with teaching artists in bucket drumming, theatre, and visual art.  

OCF STUDIO TO SCHOOLS GRANT

In partnership with Hood River County School District, we are initiating a new program at Hood River Middle School and the three feeder schools to increase participation in music and performing arts with a focus on engaging more Latino and low-income students.  

Band Together: Music and Performing Arts for All will increase offerings in the classroom, after-school and in the summer academies.  Through a generous grant from Oregon Community Foundation, the Studio to Schools Initiative has granted Arts in Education $280,000.00 over the next 5 years to help us accomplish this goal.  Stay tuned as new programs become available! 

White Salmon 5th graders worked with teaching artist Allison Bell Fox to create a stunning entrance mural for their new school. Approximately 120 students participated in creating the mural, which features the name of the new school and the school mascot, the Kodiak bear. Students learned about color theory, integrating patterns, perspective, layering and installation during the 3 day project. In addition, the sunrays incorporate subject images including Astrology, Biology, English, Math and Music.

May Street Elementary students recently worked on a project with teaching artists Allison Bell Fox, Shelley Toon Lindberg and Camille Hinman to create the new East Coast West food truck for chef, Mark DeResta. They are looking forward to a feast made by Mark on June 7th to celebrate the project. Funded, in part, by Best Western Plus Hood River Inn!

CGAIE teaching artist, Katie Basile is currently collaborating with Haley Harkema's Hood River Valley High School freshman English students to create an interview-based documentary film. The students have interviewed five native artists including Lillian Pitt, Pat Courtney Gold, Terry Courtney, Bridgette Whipple and Toma Villa to explore how place has influenced their work as artists.

Anthony, one of few native students at HRVHS and Toma Villa had an instant connection. While on a visit to the Celilo Falls site on the Columbia River, they traded fishing stories. 

​The students who worked with Toma not only interviewed him, but they had the chance to learn about his work as an artist. Toma often combines three-dimensional lettering into his large-scale murals. The students eagerly followed his instruction and developed their own letters using techniques Toma shared with them.

​This project is possible due to our private donors, a grant from The Confluence Project, Gifts From Our Ancestors and The Hood River Cultural Trust.

For the past two years Arts in Education of the Gorge has been pleased and honored to partner with FISH Food Bank on this fun, creative project. FISH has been fighting hunger in Hood River County by gathering and distributing food for more than 40 years. In the past few years, the demand for their services has increased by 65%. They currently serve an average of 400 families/individuals each month. With your help they have raised the funds necessary to built a new food bank in our community, that will allow them to store and distribute more food, including more fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Hood River Valley High School ceramics teacher, Amirra Malak and her students created stunning handmade bowls for the event. This annual event provides high school students with a service-learning opportunity where they can utilize their creativity and skills to reach out to those who need our support the most.

​

To donate or get more information please visit 

​www.fish-food-bank.com

​At First Friday on August 5th, Doug’s Sports in Hood River held a TOMS “Style Your Sole” event. For each pair of TOMS shoes sold that evening, customers could choose a local artist to paint on their shoes, creating a truly “one of a kind” pair of TOMS. Local artists who donated their time included Mark Nillson, Camille Hinman, Peggy Ohlson, Chloë Hight, Cohen Olmstead and Josh Blanchette.

​Doug’s chose Columbia Gorge Arts in Education to receive a portion of the proceeds to support our mission to bring arts programming into local schools. The event raised $270 and John Melesko, the new owner of Doug’s Sports, donated an additional $250 for a grand total of $520. The donation will be put into our “Wish List” fund for teachers. The event was a huge success, thanks to John, Lori Duffy and the team at Doug’s very generous (and creative!) support!

​TOMS is a shoe company that matches every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. For more information, visit the TOMS website.

New sculpture under way at TDW

Concept encompasses student works

By Keri Brenner

The Dalles Chronicle

North Wasco County school officials gave the green light for local contractors to begin fabricating a new outdoor stainless steel sculpture for The Dalles Wahtonka High School.

​“I love it,” said school board member LeAnn Ellett in making a motion last week to accept the sculpture as a gift to the district and to allow its creation to move forward. “I think it’s a great idea.” A May 1 unveiling ceremony for the artwork is planned at the high school in conjunction with a 7 p.m. live music program, said Debby Jones, coalition coordinator for YouthThink, project sponsor.

“We wanted to create something lasting that embodies the theme we covered in Challenge Day,” said Jones. Challenge Day refers to an October event where 300 kids and 80 adults spent a day learning techniques to “Be the Change,” after the Mahatma Gandhi quote, “You must be the change you want to see in the world.

​”YouthThink, a community coalition, is allocating $15,000 in federal Drug-Free Communities grant money to finance the sculpture project, Jones said. Ellett’s motion passed unanimously, although it left the actual location of the sculpture vague in order to give district Facilities Director Dennis Whitehouse some latitude on siting the piece. “I want to make sure we get the appropriate space,” Whitehouse said. He also said he may need to alter the solar lighting design plans to discourage vandalism. Three professional visual and literary artists — Kristin Walrod, Shelley Toon Hight and Susan Murrell — created the sculpture design and inscription using ideas from students. Ideas were gathered in a series of Discovery High School and The Dalles Wahtonka High School classroom sessions after the Challenge Day and continuing through to spring term.

​On a no-school Friday, March 5, the artists held a Community Studio Day where students could further express their ideas on “Be the Change” in written word, poems, paper cut-outs and other art exercises. Columbia Gorge Arts in Education financed the artists’ residencies, which lasted from the October Challenge Day through to gathering students’ ideas and then creating the sculpture design and inscription, according to Leith Gaines, Arts in Education Director. Gaines and the artists presented the school board with the design last week. It features laser-cut scallops and loops that are interlaced to represent a mountain, a path, sun and sky. Dimensions of the sculpture will be about 5 feet tall, 9 feet wide and 3 feet deep.Inscribed on one of the panels will be the words: “I am my own hero. My future has no boundaries.

​”Two steel panels will be joined at the side ends and curved in the center to create a small interior grassy space, designed to be lit at night by solar lights.Board members said they were impressed. “Art is a good thing in a student community,” board member Brian Stahl said in voting for the motion.Board President Ernie Blatz said he would support establishing a tradition of having graduating seniors at the high school design sculptures to grace the school grounds. “I think it’s great,” he said. Jones said she hopes the sculpture serves as “a chance for the community to come together.”

In 2010, Hood River Middle School participated in a school-wide art and science project exploring the theme of stewardship. HRMS purchased a large globe (5 feet in diameter!) with funds from their Warren Miller Film Fundraiser (organized by Doug’s Sports), and matching funds from local businesses Andrew's Pizza, Columbia River Insurance, and Cannery, LLC. The monies were used to acquire the globe and commission CGAIE artist Susan Murrell to coordinate the student art component of the globe. The “Global Community Art Project” enjoyed school-wide participation. Students addressed many environmental topics and conveyed their ideas in images. Over 150 interested students then volunteered to be a part of the Globe Design Team and sifted through initial sketches from the classrooms, merging similar ideas and creating new connections. After developing a design for the artwork, about 30 students signed-up to attend Globe Studio Days and paint!

The footprints are a metaphor for the different ways our choices and actions can impact the environment. Circling the earth, narrative vignettes within the footprints reflect the state of the planet, actions to take for a healthy community, and thriving ecosystems. At the top of the globe is a ring of silhouettes of real Hood River Middle School students who participated in this project. They represent our school - at once a small circle of friends as well as participants in the larger global community. Like a trail of responsibility, the footprints lead to us!​

This project culminated in the production of a student-owned piece of public art for permanent installation in front of the HRMS library. The unveiling ceremony took place on May 19th and was attended by students, parents, AIEG and the project sponsors.​This project would not have been possible without the effort of the HRMS teachers (Ann McDonald in particular), local business sponsors, and parents. Robin Dickinson, the chair of the Board of Directors played an important role in bringing this project to fruition.