Waging Peace! at The Plant Spring Workshop Series
Preparing for the March 3rd workshop called “Postcards and Posters for Peace,” local artist Perdita Ross uses an original collage technique with blacklight and florescent box paintings from performances on First Fridays.
This spring, the Department of Art Education invites you to join the broad coalition of participants in the Waging Peace at The Plant Workshop Series.
As a community wide project, The FSU Museum of Fine Arts is planning an exhibition for May 2018 called Waging Peace! while working with teachers in the Leon County area to integrate lesson plans that focus on different artists from the exhibition. Joining this effort, The Plant and local artists/creatives designed a series of collaborative art making workshops for the community to engage in creative artistic dialogue around this theme as it relates to Tallahassee. The artworks created at the workshops will be exhibited at The Plant this May 2018 and will be included in a May 2018 student tour of Waging Peace! sites around town.
The Plant, at 517 W. Gaines Street, is an inclusive creative and safe D.I.Y. community space where everyone is welcomed and empowered to organize, research and encourage the free expression of others. The Plant is solely operated by volunteers and donations, valuing engagement, education, and empowerment. The Plant is an organic space that grows with the community by bringing together diverse groups, demographics, and ideas together around creative expression. Currently, The Plant holds open meetings every Tuesday at 6:00pm, open to members of the community to propose events, classes, meetings, as well as become involved with volunteering and using the space. Volunteers at The Plant also care for and manage events in the Art Alley, a city funded rehabilitation of an alleyway between Gaines Street and St. Francis Street.
Two FSU graduate students from the Department of Art Education are involved in this community project. Doctoral candidate and Plant volunteer Jennifer Hamrock is the Plant workshop series coordinator and on the museum’s Waging Peace! committee. Master’s student Hayley Munn designed one of the Plant workshops in collaboration with BFA senior Jenn Egelfeld. called Creating P(ea/ie)ce. Their workshop aims attention at recycling and takes action to raise consciousness of the amount of waste we produce by experimenting with how trash might be used differently through creating found object art installations made with recyclables.
Waging Peace at the Plant workshops are intended for all ages and abilities.
Workshops for February are described below:
Draw or Doodle: What Would a Peaceful World Look Like to YOU?
Hosted by artist Paul Rutkovsky. Paul has been working with community activists on a new experiment, The Plant, an all-inclusive space to organize, research, and encourage the free expression of others. The Plant is a not for profit venue and is operated by volunteers. Events held at The Plant are free and for all ages.
Paul has worked with community volunteers, city officials, and students to transform blighted urban alleys in Tallahassee, called the Art Alleys, into humane cultural resources, where art events have been organized and presented for seven years. He also has been working with the Doodle Cart: Do A Doodle And Get A Free Organic Fruit Or Vegetable, has been touring since 2015. The Doodle Cart is a portable doodling and produce cart that invites all to be creative, to eat healthy whole foods, and to avoid pesticides and genetically modified factory food products. Rutkovsky has exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo exhibits at DeMedia, Belgium; Galeria EL, Poland; the Kitchen Center and Franklin Furnace, N.Y.C.; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE); Nexus Gallery, Atlanta; University of Rhode Island; Real Art Ways (RAW), Hartford, CT; Connecticut College; Ohio University; ON Gallery in Poznan, Poland and Profil Gallery in Poznan; and the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, Lithuania. The TV TOWERS, an interactive public installation, has been exhibited at Yale University; Elizabeth Park, Hartford; Atlanta Arts Festival; and Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. He has also received individual fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Ford Foundation, Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Florida Cultural Affairs Department, Harvard Univ., and The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Workshop dates: Tuesdays and Wednesdays from January 16th through February 28th
Workshop times: 4:30pm-6:30pm
All Ages
Workshop description: This collaborative project is meant to be a visual conversation between two community spaces, The Kearney Center and The Plant. Clients from the Kearney Center will draw/and doodle on the paper on designated days on mural paper. The mural will then be installed at The Plant, an open community space for anyone to respond to. The mural will be taken back and forth between spaces over a six week time span to create layers of dialogues between various community members.
Championing Individuality with Costuming
Hosted by artist Lindsey Bailey. With environments—both physical and virtual themed in connection, play, and alternative possibilities-Lindsey Bailey’s work engages the viewer to interact with props and imagery that evoke questions around identity, cultural inclusion, and globalization. Ms. Bailey has an MFA in Studio Art and an MA in Community Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her work has appeared in numerous exhibitions around the world. She currently teaches art at Brookwood School in Thomasville, Georgia and hails from Austin, Texas.the world. She currently teaches art at Brookwood School in Thomasville, Georgia and hails from Austin, Texas.
Workshop dates: Kids ages 9-12 workshop February 3 Adult workshop February 4
Workshop times: 1pm-3pm for both workshops
Workshop description: In this workshop, participants will wage peace by celebrating their unique personalities and outlooks on life! Combining both performance and play, participants will construct costumes with a variety of materials to help shed insecurities, pain, or even stereotypes. No previous experience necessary! Participants will create small backdrops to playact in front of while wearing their hand-fashioned costumes for video documentation and photos. The workshop will conclude with participants creating a story about their image or video capture. Images and video and stories will be emailed or printed for memory-making and participant take¬aways. Photos, costumes, and stories will be exhibited in the Waging Peace at the Plant Exhibition in May.
Body Histories for Peace
Hosted by artist Sarah Tso. Sarah moved to Tallahassee 16 years ago to attend school and stayed. She has a Master’s in Social Work. As an eclectic artist and a naturalist, she uses art as a means for healing in her work as a counselor.
Workshop date: Saturday, February 17th
Workshop times: 1pm-5pm
Ages 12-adult
Workshop description: How can we cultivate peace in these modern times? We can start by understanding our own and others’ stories. Understanding the stories of others allows us to develop empathy for one another, even those we view as different from us. One way to explore and present our stories is to create body maps, a visual history of our own experiences and how they have shaped us. The end product will be a montage of body maps reflecting a visual representation of our individual and collective histories. Following an introduction of the topic, participants, and discussion, we will work together to trace our bodies. We will fill our silhouettes with images, words, and important aspects of ourselves and then process “what story does your body map tell,” working to listen and reflect with each other. Our maps will then be turned into 3-d forms for the May exhibition.
A complete list of the workshops and descriptions held through May 2018 can be found on The Plant website and the event Facebook page. Links are included below.
https://theplantartscenter.wordpress.com/waging-peace-at-the-plant/
https://www.facebook.com/events/570239283326067/
Material and monetary donations for these workshops are welcomed. If you would like to make a donation, or have any questions about this community project, please contact Jennifer Hamrock at theplant.tally@gmail.com.