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High school art students exhibit for a cause

Posted on March 11, 2010 by Staff

Latisha Catchatoorian
Courtesy of the Carrboro Commons

Jack Watson, an art teacher at Chapel Hill High School, had an idea. Take the events of Haiti and turn them into inspiration for a class art project. Then take that art project and turn it into a fundraiser for the earthquake-ravaged country.

At least $800 has been raised for the American Red Cross relief effort through the “Art for Haiti” exhibit at Open Eye Café. The showcased paintings, drawings and sculptures are done by high school artists from Watson’s class, as well as Elaine Walton’s art class from East Chapel Hill High School. These students wanted to be part of the relief effort, but initially felt they had no way to contribute.

“Kids feel like they want to help and contribute something, but that they don’t have a lot that they can offer,” Watson said. “This gave them an opportunity to give something of themselves.”

Watson said that he is always trying to help his students become more socially engaged and address social issues. This project seemed to be a way to accomplish this.

The earthquake, Watson said, “seemed like something we couldn’t ignore. There were some students who were very deeply moved by it and who felt powerless in the wake of what was happening.”

At the start of the new school semester, he and Walton came up with a presentation to show their students. The same presentation was shown at each of the schools. The students then had two weeks to complete artwork for the exhibit.

Watson showed his class a CBS video of the aftermath in Haiti, depicting the week after the earthquake occurred. He said it was graphic, but honest, and that some kids were visibly moved by what they saw. A slideshow created by Walton was also shown, displaying contemporary artworks created in response to what happened after Hurricane Katrina.

“We looked at the response after Hurricane Katrina and asked them to do a responsive artwork based on Haiti,” said Walton. “We gave them a presentation. They had no rubric. They had free reign. It was completely different than what they would do in class.”

In preparation for the “Art for Haiti” exhibit, which ran from Feb. 13-27, Watson had numerous discussions with his students about art, social issues and media.

“We talked about the function of art to confront issues like this and to confront what people feel about it,” said Watson. “We agreed that we would put aside our typical curriculum for a few weeks to address this.”

He said that he took his class to the library, where they made three lists. Each student made one list of things they knew about Haiti and another of things they felt about Haiti. The class then worked together to form a list of what they still wanted to learn.

“What’s going to happen when all the camera crews leave, how are they going to rebuild, these kinds of questions,” said Watson.

The questions became the framework for the artwork produced for the exhibit. Students investigated answers to the questions through their art pieces. How they decided to execute their investigations was left completely up to them.

Both Watson and Walton said their students were enthused about getting involved and exhibiting at Open Eye Café. Walton said her students were excited that their work sold to people other than their parents, and she found it exciting to see the students’ work outside of a school setting.

Some pieces used acrylic paint; others used mixed media including plastic water bottles and newspaper. Titles such as, “No Words,” by India Lassiter or “Preliminary Toll, 111,000 buried” by Meg Duffy were succinct but meaningful. One painting asked, “Why?” and another said, “Hope.”

Watson said that there has been a positive response from the community, and community members appreciate that they are doing something productive. He said that sometimes it is easy for people to fall into “charity fatigue.”

“If you continually ask people for money, eventually, they start to turn off to it,” he said. “But this didn’t go about it in that way. I told my students not to focus on making ‘saleable’ works, but for them to explore what they know, feel and still don’t know.”

“Jack basically said, ‘Hey, we want to do this project and we need a place to do it,’” said Scott Conary, the owner of Open Eye Café. “I thought it was great, because we would try to do a number of Haiti relief things and keep them going.”

Conary said that after a disaster there is often a “surge” of donations upfront, but then things die down. He said giving people a way to donate focuses it more, and that having events and exhibits allows charity to be an interesting exchange.

“People definitely want to help,” he said. “We want to make sure things keep happening.”

Latisha Catchatoorian is a UNC student writing for the Carrboro Commons, a bi-weekly online lab newspaper for Jock Lauterer’s Community Journalism class at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

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