NORTH GREENBUSH — Having been a graphic artist for ten years, Susan Thomas of Albany felt deprived of art during the pandemic. Moreover, she felt bad for her children, as their exposure to art had been limited.
“What I missed during COVID was the art community and making art with other artists,” said Thomas. “I really feel like art nourishes the soul.”
Thomas’ idea was to bring a working artist to a place where children may otherwise have limited access to the fine arts, as well as give artists access to a new community of young people. She reached out to Michelle Edwards, the head of school at Woodland Hill Montessori in North Greenbush, where Thomas’ own children studied.
“I wanted to just see ... if artists want to be a part of it, see if the community responds to it,” Thomas said.
Thomas didn’t want this to be just an exhibit, but actual works in progress with personal interaction with an artist at work. She researched different regional artists’ styles and their sensibilities. She sought a place where the project could be housed that would be accessible to the students, eventually settling on a shipping container that sits on school property.
“I ended up coming up with a parallel curriculum that the school could run with each (visiting) artist. And so far, it's been great,” said Thomas. The project and its mobile art gallery was dubbed FLOCKart.
According to Edwards, even though the outline that was presented to her was an idea and not a specific plan, she realized that what Thomas was trying to create would be in sync with the school’s Montessori teaching methodology.
“I was inspired by her vision for the project,” said Edwards. “I love the way it's not only highlighting artists, but local artists. It's a diverse group of artists. And I love that this also is a way to bring children and have them get involved directly, interacting with the artists, being inspired by the work and learning directly from them.”
The first artist is Fernando Orellana, who also designed and painted a mural for the side of the container.
“When I looked through his website, there were some of his pieces that really stood out as super intense graphics,” Thomas said. “I'm like ‘kids would love this.’ And it would stimulate adult minds also.”
Orellana began painting the mural as the school year began. The students were able to follow his progress with the corresponding curriculum designed by Thomas, along with Woodland Hill’s art teacher, Megan Stasi.
FLOCKart will officially launch with a public open house at 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 7. Orellana will be speaking at the event and presenting his work, including three pieces created specifically for FLOCKart.
Orellana's part of FLOCKart will end Oct. 10. On Oct. 15,, another artist, Obaro Ene Otitigbe, will begin work at the school. Thomas has artists and corresponding curriculum scheduled right until January 2023.
“Megan is going to be working with the artists to design lessons and experiences for the children to do work in the style of whatever artists we're highlighting during that time,” said Edwards.
According to Edwards, FLOCKart is not just about showing their students an artist or style of art, but more about giving them the opportunity to experience that in a hands-on way and to interact with an artist as a whole person.
“For example, Fernando Orianna just finished his work outside,” she said. “And for the children to be able to observe the process from start to finish, and then have conversations with the artists about their work and to see this as a person and not just the product, but the whole process behind it, I think is really important.”
For more information, go to https://woodlandhill.org/
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