Building technical skills and self esteem, creating artwork for and organizing an exhibition and working with local and internationally known artists are just some of the things that 15 middle school students from Reizenstein Middle School and the Pittsburgh Classical Academy will do from August 8 – 19 at the Society for Contemporary Craft (SCC). Using Your Imagination is the theme of this year’s Artist + Kids, SCC’s summer artist-in-residence outreach program that teams African American children with professional African American artists for a time of inspiration and creation. This project is funded by the Multicultural Arts Initiative and Ronald McDonald House Charities of Pittsburgh.

Charles Bonner working on his throne	Andrew Sokol displays his work

Mr. Imagination (born Gregory Warmack), who was featured in a solo exhibition at SCC from November 2002 through March 2003, is the lead artist who will work with students to create ceremonial thrones out of chairs found at local thrift stores and decorated with personal memorabilia, buttons, bottle caps and fabric. During the residency, Mr. Imagination and the young artists will visit Marty Warhola’s scrapyard on the North Side, the studios and homes of Pittsburgh self-taught artists Biko and Jorgé Myers, as well as the home of collector Pat McArdle, to view his extensive collection of folk art.

Mr. Imagination sits on Natalie Celmo's throne	Jacques Baynes and Mr. Imagination

Following the creation of their artworks, the students will collaborate with photographer and educator Ed Barbour, and mixed media artist and graphic designer Jacques Baynes, to develop an exhibition of their work at SCC’s satellite gallery at One Mellon Center in downtown Pittsburgh. Students will design, install and promote their exhibition, which will open on August 19 at a free public reception from 6 – 7 p.m., and run through October 26.

The Group of Young Chair Designers stand in front of SCC's satellite gallery at One Mellon Center

This fall, the students and the team of local artists will create a catalog that will accompany the exhibition when it travels to the Trolley Station Oral History Center in Homewood and a gallery in Chicago, IL.

To prepare for Using Your Imagination, the middle school students toured Mr. Imagination’s exhibition at SCC in February 2003. Following the tour, students made colorful, bold and whimsical ceremonial "Mr. I’s Shakers," the featured project in SCC’s drop-in workshop area, out of bottle caps and other discarded materials.

Mr. Imagination is a self-taught artist who turns the refuse of everyday life into works of art. Nontraditional in nature, his mixed media work reflects his personality and urban background. Mr. Imagination creates thrones, ceremonial staffs and sculptures. Industrial-sized pieces of sandstone are the base for face carvings, and paintbrushes are transformed into families of "paintbrush people."

Tess McArdle stands inside her brother, Reese McArdle's, throne	Shaquil Snell adds bottle caps to her throne