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DocuSign Envelope ID: E52618A0-EFC6-4E5D-922A-40530CDA41EF
<br /> Next, the students in the club will help me reach out to the whole school community. Chapel Hill-
<br /> Carrboro City Schools has a terrific translation program, and I can easily make my requests in the
<br /> many languages I will need: Korean, German, Danish, Karen, Burmese, Chinese, Spanish, etc. I will
<br /> request from the community objects, images, examples of cultural patterns (like textile patterns), or
<br /> photographs to be included in the final piece.
<br /> The students and I will create ceramic tiles which will be treated with a a variety of decorative
<br /> methods. I have the equipment I need for this--a slab roller and a kiln. Tiles will be etched, screen-
<br /> printed, and/or glazed to create the patterns and quotes for the wall.
<br /> The students in the art club will help me with the final design of the wall, based on the elements we
<br /> acquire from the community. Tiles and objects will be applied to tile backerboard with construction
<br /> adhesive and grouted into place. The whole will then be trimmed with a simple wood trim,
<br /> polyuretheane finished for durability. The wall I have chosen for the work is one every child passes
<br /> every day, and is the wall right next to the cafeteria door, where hungry children often have to wait for
<br /> long minutes--a time they could spend exploring and thinking about the ideas in the piece. This will
<br /> magnify the impact of the art, as students will become quite familiar and intimate with it in a way they
<br /> could not with a work in a gallery, or even in a different public space in the school. They must linger,
<br /> look, and explore--and this is a work that will welcome hands to touch.
<br /> Community Impact
<br /> Scroggs Elementary School serves almost 600 students in grades Kindergarten through fifth, on the
<br /> urban fringe of the mid-sized city of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Most students live in or around
<br /> Southern Village, a mixed-income development including many families professionally affiliated with
<br /> the University of North Carolina and UNC Hospital. In addition, the school serves a substantial
<br /> number of minority students, including a large population of Karen refugees, an ethnic group from
<br /> south-east Asia near the Thai border, currently in violent conflict with the government of
<br /> Burma. Scroggs has Title 1 programming, enrolling at least 40% of students from poor
<br /> families. While some students have families at liberty to enjoy the arts, many of our students are
<br /> struggling with basic language barriers and economic survival, and do not have access to cultural arts
<br /> experiences outside of school.
<br /> I serve every student at Scroggs as the sole art teacher and the face of my program for their
<br /> elementary school experience. In every class I have a number of students native to another culture,
<br /> often with little or no English, some straight from refugee camps in Thailand. Fortunately for me, art
<br /> media transcend language barriers, but how disempowering for a student to spend all day every day
<br /> awash in cultural experiences and language so foreign? I wonder how empowering it would be for all
<br /> of my students to create together a work that celebrates their home cultures, their home languages,
<br /> the memories and inspirations they bring to our community. From invisible and voiceless, to visible
<br /> and engaged--we would be creating a permanent haven for their native cultures embedded in the
<br /> walls of our school.
<br /> When complete, this project will reach an exponential number of students. Firstly, our current
<br /> community of 600 students, all of whom pass the proposed location of the mural daily. Next, the
<br /> families, who will feel tangibly connected and celebrated in this artwork. In addition, such a project
<br /> will be treasured for years to come, as a durable artwork in a school that serves six hundred students
<br /> a year. Last but not least will be the impact on the fifteen students who attend the art club,
<br /> empowered as artists in their own right, collaborating to create this work together. It is their vision
<br /> that will be supported, expanded, and honored in this process. As they scatter to the far corners of
<br /> the world in their journey, who knows what memories, tokens, and inspirations they will bring with
<br /> them?
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