StoryLine 2013

This is the fourth year I’ve worked on StoryLine, the fifth year of its existence. It’s never the same and it’s always good.

This year’s theme was transit: how people and things get around. We spent three days in July with 30 Charlottesville Parks and Rec summer campers (ages 10-14) and a phenomenal team of volunteers exploring three distinct modes of transit: water, bikes and busses and on the fourth day, the kids made a huge chalk mural about it on the Free Expression Wall.

StoryLine invites the youngsters to explore and discover their worlds and use that as fuel for art-making. The Constitution guarantees the right to express oneself, but whence the willingness to do so? What should they say and why?

We’re teaching kids to make connections between their own experiences and the wider world and encouraging them to speak their perspectives. It’s not only a visual expression, although the Free Expression mural is a very visible testament. This year, we included a group of poets and rappers and they really invigorated the experience.



The kids instantly responded to the spoken verse for a variety of reasons. The language and rhythm of Hip Hop feels familiar but they also come from a deeply verbal culture, much more so than visual. So when we asked kids to draw about their observations, they were hesitant—and that’s ok; it’s why we have artist mentors. But when we asked them to rhyme their observations, our jaws all dropped at the adolescents’ fluency. It was amazing.

Words disappear into the air and sky and the drawing did not last the day, as afternoon showers washed the chalkboard clean. Although nothing endures forever, some things have a lasting impact. I hope StoryLine triggers something in the kids. It has certainly changed my life.

Story|line is a collaboration between the Piedmont Council of the Arts, the Bridge, Charlottesville Parks and Recreation, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, Siteworks Studio and many, many volunteers.

Learn More about StoryLine:
Web Site | Exhibition Info | Photos | Media Preview | Media Recap | Blog Thread

 

StoryLine at VA Film Fest

StoryLine was a three day Summer journey in which kids traced the route from Monticello to Main Street, culminating with a mural about the peolpe they met along the way.

Here's some exciting news: a short documentary about the StoryLine Project will be screened in-situ at the Free Expression Wall during Family Day at the 2012 Virginia Film Festival.

The November 3 program will begin at 6:00 p.m. with a brief presentation by Thomas Jefferson himself (actually a stand-in look-alike), followed by a Q&A and then the screening. It's free and open to the public.

The Free Expression Monument is located at the East end of Charlottesville's historic Downtown Mall. To learn more about StoryLine (whose theme this year was Monticello Road) please read the thread on this blog or visit the project's web site.

Story|Line comes to Monticello Road

We met some old friends along the road from Monticello, including one that was very old indeed.

It's as if two of my favorite people just got married.

Obviously, by now you've heard all about my Monticello Road project, which uses photography to celebrate the people and place along one of America's most interesting streets.

For several years, I've also been fortunate to be involved with Story|Line, an innovative multi-partner program wherein 30 kids (ages 10-13) from the Parks and Recreation summer camp take a series of urban hikes and then make a mural about it. Story|Line uses art in much the same way as my own project--to build connections to place.

Last year's trip was all about waterways and two years ago it was change and transformation. This year, the kids visted Monticello Road and it is literally the case that the two programs fit together like hand and glove. Indeed, as I was dreaming up Monticello Road, I had Story|Line very much in mind.

On Monday, kids visited Monticello itself and hiked down the mountain along the magnificent Sauders-Monticello Trail. On Tuesday, they met some of our favorite characters along Monticello Road, including Sonny and Novella at Lazy Daisy Ceramics, Virginia Industries for the Blind, and Tomas at Mas Tapas. On Wednesday, they refined their drawing skills at the Bridge PAI in preparation for Thursday's big activity: a mural on the Free Expression Wall.

Story|Line is an amazing experience and I'm grateful to be a part of it for the third time. It's a terrific group of kids, very motivated and insightful and totally inspiring. I always feel like I'm getting back so much more than I'm putting in.

It's been extra-special this time to walk with these fabulous kids along the road from its germination to its terminus and to introduce them to friends and neighbors along the way. Their presence, their questions and their drawings lift us all up.

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Story|line is a collaboration between the Piedmont Council of the Arts, the Bridge, Charlottesville Parks and Recreation, the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, Siteworks Studio and many, many volunteers.

Story|Line 2011

The completed mural. More photos coming soon on StoryLine site.

This year’s StoryLine was wonderful—way beyond my expectations. It restored my faith in many things, but most of all the children.

First a quick intro for those who need it: StoryLine is a multi-entity collaboration with Charlottesville Parks & Recreation that takes children from their summer camps on a series of neighborhood walks and culminates with a mural on our Free Expression Wall. This year’s walks were in the woods at a reservoir, a creek, and a river—a three-part examination of a single set of water’s pathways both visible and invisible. [Full schedule/info]

It was tremendous fun to hang out with the kids and walk in the woods with them, but the thing that blew me away the most, aside from the general enthusiasm, was the high-level at which everything happened. Each walk included a naturalist, who introduced the topics, answered questions and connected tremendously well with the kids. Their resumes read like a who’s-who of water and conservation. Those scholars were completely matched in quality by our volunteers: artists, architects, photographers. All gave tremendous amounts of their time and they did so without hesitation.

The kids were even more impressive. First of all, they could really draw—the art they produced was amazing. They were simultaneously energetic and very focused; they had no trouble paying attention and were full of surprises.

Here’s the most hilarious example. We took a break from our fourth session (the wall drawing) to hear from a delegation from Afghanistan, an imminent group that included a supreme court judge and ministry officials. One of them asked, with a smile, if any of the kids knew where their country is located.

A child answered: “In the center of Asia between Turkmenistan, Iran, and Pakistan.” A shocked silence was followed by the admission that the individual had been born in the country, then a few friendly greetings in Dari (or was it Pashto?)

No assumptions about the children were valid—especially anything to do with limitations. This was an amazing group of kids doing excellent work. I am honored to have walked among them and completely motivated for my own work.

The main thought I carry with me is this: I have to find a way to do this all the time.

I blogged about each day on the StoryLine web site:

Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Primary Colors

The Awakening. Ink and watercolor on paper, 9" x 12". I made this drawing while in residency in a secluded mountain cabin. I've never felt so awake or alive.

Richard Louv talks about the importance primary (as opposed to secondary or received) experience, conveyed through the five senses.

I’ve always felt that it’s the artist’s role to invigorate those senses, to tickle them with a feather. It’s the artist’s job to investigate the world, to be active explorers and then report back in a way that awakens others to their own experiences and see the world with more intensity and nuance.

There's a linkage between the natural world and our engagement in our sensory experience and Louv discusses that as well. That’s the main thing I want to explore with the Story|Line kids: encourage them to tune in to the world around them, make note of it and share what they’ve found.

The more they do that, the more they will be artists.

Children of the Forest

Ragged Mountain Reservoir will be our first destination. It's a very accessible wild place--but not for long. Reservoir expansion will inundate the trail system.

Story|Line is a program in which we lead children on an urban hike and then tell stories and draw a huge mural about their experience. This year, we’re changing things a little bit and taking them on a road less traveled (by them). We’re trading streets and sidewalks for trails and streams; we’re taking them into the woods. One day they’ll visit our reservoir; the second will be a trail system along a stream; and the third will be a river.

When we hatched the concept, we knew intuitively that urban children could gain something they lack and that exposure to Nature would open important doors within their creative lives, though I must say that our ideas were somewhat vague. Then we came across a book that had been passed around some of the architects’ offices that talks explicitly about what we are trying to accomplish with the program.

Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv explains why direct exposure to Nature is so essential to a child’s physical and (especially) emotional development. He sites a confluence of two major trends. On the one hand, human development has moved us farther from the land in all that we do. Most Americans of just two generations ago grew up in rural homes that lacked electricity. In a very short time, their grandchildren have become divorced from the land in all they do—work, play, eat, drink and sleep.

At the same time, the Naturalist movement has also become very abstract, focusing on global trends and microbiology. Clearly these things are important but they do not resemble actual experience. So our educators are not talking about trees or even forests—it’s soil and airborn CO2. Does Nature and its experience have a part in Environmental Science?

Whether we like it or not, we’re large mammals and have more in common with squirrels than with charts and numbers. At a minimum, we suffer if we completely ignore the physical world of which we are part. Immersion in the riot of life and death that is nature re-centers that balance.

It will be very interesting to see what the children have to say—and draw—about their experience in these places so foundational yet so alien. I always learn more from the children than I teach them. I’m really looking forward to being around them and sharing their explorations and growth.

Story|Line

It's all about the kids and unfortunately I don't have waivers from the kids for this blog. I DO have permission for the PCA web site though, so go there to see lots more (and frankly better) photos.

Last week, Sebastian and I got together with a big group of rising sixth-graders and volunteers for a walk through a part of Charlottesville and its history. The following week, the kids made a mural and told stories about their experience at the Free Expression Wall (Community Chalkboard). It was fun and really inspirational.

The walk started at the Jefferson School and wound through the once-vital-and-now-disappeared neighborhood of Vinegar Hill, the one-time heart of Charlottesville’s African-American community. The walk proceeded down Main Street, with a stop at the historic Paramount before concluding at the Free Expression Wall. All throughout, we studied the urban fabric and heard about what was there before, and helped the kids record their observations through both words and drawings (field packs provided).

The chalkboard drawing was a wonderful outlet for the kids to record their impressions and dreams for the city. It is worth noting that the children did not generally draw anything specifically related to the history lessons the adults had recited to them. Theirs was a more generalized vision that ranged from green to fairly dark, channeling memories, hopes, and dreams—often quite abstract.

The project reminded us that there are many layers of meaning in the places we inhabit daily. It was intended to awaken the latent and very human urge to share—through whatever means at our disposal—our own thoughts and impressions. Free expression is a right that must be nurtured and protected: not only against suppression or censorship but from our own fears and inhibitions that silence us. We have some interesting things to say and if we make an effort to share them, we will inspire others.

The children certainly inspired me and I hope our efforts helped some of them as well. From what I witnessed, I think there’s reason for optimism.

Forty-eight hours later, the mural had completely disappeared under the sea of commentary passersby write on the chalkboard. Perhaps it was victim of an afternoon shower or squall. It doesn’t realty matter for all expression is fleeting. It’s not a durable product anyway: it’s a process and one that needs to be exercised.

Story|line is a collaboration between the Piedmont Council of the Arts, the Bridge, Charlottesville Parks and Recreation, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

Lots More Photos | Project Description | More Info