Recent
Exhibition
One Mellon Bank Center Gallery
Located
in the “T” station lobby of One Mellon Bank Center
SCC's off-site exhibition space is open daily through midnight.
Recent
Exhibition
One Mellon Bank Center Gallery
Located
in the “T” station lobby of One Mellon Bank Center
SCC's off-site exhibition space is open daily through midnight.
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Outreach
Exhibition
Pittsburgh Classical Academy Reizenstien Middle School Salvation Army Family Crisis Center Riverview Children’s Center |
January
25, 2002 — March 11, 2002 |
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Society
for Contemporary Craft’s (SCC) Community Outreach Exhibition
presents a selection of over 30 works created by children who
have participated in four of SCC’s ten outreach programs
over the past year. The exhibition showcases the work of 70 students
and three of the artist instructors in SCC’s outreach partnerships
with Classical Academy at Greenway, Reizenstien Middle School,
the Salvation Army Family Crisis Center, and Riverview Children’s
Center. The show opens January 25 and runs through March 11, 2002.
SCC’s Museum/School partnership with the Classical Academy at Greenway is now in its sixth year. Funded by a grant from the Buhl Foundation, this unique project that uses a multi-disciplinary approach to learning has grown to include artist residencies in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades has become an integral part of the curriculum and learning experience for over 300 children attending Greenway. The themes of the eight-day residencies with the artists are cross-disciplinary and tie together curriculum taught in Math, Science, Communications, and History. Fiber artist Tina Williams Brewer leads the sixth grade residency in which students create quilts based on their family traditions and heritage. Metal artists Anna and Jan Loney, guide the seventh grade students in fabricating aluminum boxes using mixed metals and found objects to best express the theme A Personal Treasure Box and book artist Kitty Spangler constructs carousel books with the eighth grade that explore the theme of community. The exhibition highlights each of these residencies with 15 unique examples of the students’ work. Each summer for the past six years, SCC has partnered a contemporary craft artist with children from Pittsburgh neighborhoods to create public art. During SCC’s 2001 Artist + Kids summer program, Identity & Community: An Exploration of Self, 15 students from Reizenstein Middle School worked intensively for three weeks with Philadelphia mixed media artist Martina Johnson-allen to create personal reliquary boxes based on the theme of African-American identity within the community. Housed in these reliquaries are books constructed under the supervision of artists Tina Brewer and LaVerne Kemp which the students created in a preliminary after-school session in the spring that led up to the Johnson-allen residency. The Arist & Kids program is funded by Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation and the Multi-Cultural Arts Initiative. SCC’s partnership with the Salvation Army’s families in transition began with a grant from the Ronald McDonald House Charities in 1997. The families in transition program provides temporary housing for families who have lost their homes. These at-risk children, who range in age from three to fifteen, are dealing with issues ranging from substance abuse, mental disabilities, physical abuse, or financial crisis. The Dreaming Pillow project was designed to encourage positive self-expression and problem solving skills. Led in bi-monthly visits by SCC outreach instructor Lisa Graff, the children focus on their dreams and hopes for the future that they translate into visual images "Dreaming Pillows", small fiber works that they take with them at the end of the session. 12 of the works by the children are included in the exhibition. This fall, SCC began its newest partnership with Riverview Children’s Center (RCC), a non-profit child care center in Verona, Pennsylvania, which was begun in 1970 by Elizabeth R. Raphael the founder of SCC. Funded by a grant from Celebrating Those Who Care, the residency with metal artist Sera Swan introduced a small metals project to preschool and school age children at RCC. Based on the transformation theme of SCC’s current exhibition, Transformation: Contemporary Works in Jewelry and Small Metals, the Elizabeth R. Raphael Founder’s Prize Exhibition, 35 four and five year olds shaped and stamped metal leaves that they wired onto a collaborative tree, on display in the exhibition. In addition to these outreach programs SCC provides enrichment opportunities to six other outreach audiences including a Museum/School Partnership with Reizenstein Middle School, a traveling Art Cart program, the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council, Family Resources, Bethlehem Haven, and a program serving residents in Pittsburgh area nursing homes. SCC is a nationally recognized, non-profit contemporary craft organization. Conveniently located at 2100 Smallman Street in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Strip District, SCC has contributed to the region by building public awareness of contemporary craft through high-quality exhibitions and educational outreach programs. Together with the American Craft Museum in New York and the Smithsonian Institution’s Renwick Gallery in Washington DC, SCC is one of only a few institutions in the nation dedicated to this art form. To learn more about SCC's Outreach progams click here. General exhibition support is provided by the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The A.W. Mellon Charitable and Educational Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, and the Allegheny Regional Asset District. Admission is free, and gallery and store hours are Tuesday-Friday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information on SCC’s events or outreach programming, call 412.261.7003. The Mellon exhibition space is open daily from 6 a.m. to midnight. |
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