This school year, we launched a partnership with St. Vincent – St. Mary aimed at providing their high school Honors Art students the opportunity to learn outside the classroom walls while working amongst and interacting with professional artists and business professionals.
Starting in October, Honors Art students from St. Vincent-St. Mary have been traveling to Summit Artspace for this collaboration. Each monthly visit has been structured differently to give students a holistic arts experience that ranges from making art to interfacing with artists, to viewing art, to learning about arts-related careers.
At the beginning of collaboration, students toured Summit Artspace, learning about the galleries, interacting with the art, and learning about the backgrounds of Summit Artspace’s Director of Artist Resources, Natalie Grieshammer, and Curriculum Developer, Nyki Fetterman. The students got a sneak peek at the 22nd annual Kaleidoscope Exhibition before anyone else! In subsequent visits, students created work inspired by works on view as part of the Kaleidoscope exhibition in the Betty and Howard Taylor Main Gallery and met with a panel of Summit Artspace artists and local creative business professionals to obtain a more in depth view of what it means to be a working creative in Summit County. Students also had more time to develop their ongoing artwork during a second on-site studio day.
Most recently, students participated in a second panel with arts professionals we brought in based on specific students’ interest in arts-related careers. The panel included:
Taylor Clapp, the Graphic Designer for Summit Artspace and Exhibitions Coordinator and Graphic Designer at Curated Storefront, Wendy Earle, the Curator at the Akron Art Museum, Scott Lukens, Professor of Architecture and Sustainable Design at Kent State University and Laura Tetzlaff, Art Therapist at Akron Children’s Hospital.
In their next visit to Summit Artspace, students will participate in their third and final in-studio day. For their final visit of the year, students will participate in a critique of the work they’ve made this year with the arts professionals they’ve met throughout the experience. It’s been a unique opportunity to be able to forge a relationship with these students throughout the year, and we are excited to continue this partnership!
From students:
“Participating in this collaboration with Summit Art Space has allowed me to gain a better understanding of the lives of professional, working artists in our community. It helped me to strengthen my belief in advocacy for the arts; creativity needs to be supported and preserved rather than cast away. It has given us a chance to connect with people who work in fields that we may be interested in and introduced us to potential opportunities.” – Jaden
“Visiting Summit Artspace has shown me how various artists work and create an impact on the community, as well as inspiring me to explore new ideas and see the potential for my own art to make a difference.” – Ariana
