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A League of Artists
Written By: Zach Claxton - Highlands-Cashiers Art League | Issue: 2018/11 - November
From June 21-July 26, a partnership of the Art League, The Bascom, and the Highlands Recreation Park sponsored the 2018 Summer Art Camp for area youth.
This program dates back to 2007, when the Art League held its first camp. Once a week during the summer months, league members took turns teaching art to local young people in space provided by the Civic Center. There were take-home weekly projects, and the youngsters worked together on a group project. Over the years the finished group projects have been permanently displayed in the Civic Center. In 2008, the newly-completed Bascom began co-sponsoring this program, and in 2012 took the lead and furnished the teacher, while the Art League continued to provide volunteers.
The Summer Art Camp just completed its 11th year and was attended by about 27 youngsters. As they have done in the past, the Recreation Park provided the work space, and the Art League sent volunteers. This year, however, The Bascom teacher was only able to participate for the first two weeks. Bascom Director of Education and Outreach Billy Love filled in until another well-qualified Art League member, Bonnie Abbott, volunteered to teach. This year’s camp was truly a cooperative partnership that ensured the program’s success.
Bonnie’s concept for the group project was to introduce the students to the fact that there were some ancient cultures, such as the Egyptians and Mayan Indians, whose written language evolved from a picture or symbol representing a spoken word or the sounds of a spoken word. Each child received a foam core square with rounded corners like a Mayan glyph. They were introduced to Celluclay, a form of paper mâché from which they could model a relief sculpture representing their word. Additional glyphs were made that were simple symbols from Mayan culture for things like stars. The glyphs were painted in tempera during the last class. Billy Love painted the mounting board and assembled the glyphs to represent part of a carved stone building in the tradition of Mayan architecture.
This, and previous years’ remarkable group projects, may be seen in the Civic Center. For more information about the Art League, visit artleaguehighlands-cashiers.com.
