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The Richard A. and Rissa W. Grossman Gallery of Lafayette’s Williams Visual Arts Building and the Crayola Factory’s Discovery Center at Two Rivers Landing will host a joint exhibition, “Weaving What We Are,” Aug. 6-24, featuring 201 works created by children from kindergarten through sixth grade throughout the United States under the guidance of classroom, art, and home school teachers.
A reception will be held at both art venues 1-5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 17. A free shuttle will run that day between the locations, starting at Two Rivers Landing and alternating sites every half hour from 12:30-5 p.m. Events at the Crayola Factory will include a recognition ceremony, speakers, demonstrations, and hands-on workshops for families.
The Grossman Gallery will host art by children in grades four through six. Besides the reception, gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. The Discovery Center’s Orientation Room will display art by children in kindergarten through third grade. Its hours are 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free at both locations.
Working with lessons from the 2002-2003 Dream-Makers guide, “Weaving What We Are,” teachers and students explored ideas about character development, imagination, and celebration. The guide encourages respect for children’s personal observations and experiences as building blocks for the artworks’ content. The works illuminate what children have learned when they examine positive character traits, explore how culture and environment shape their lives, and think about what and why they celebrate. Most of all, they show how children engage their imaginations through visual expression to address these themes.
An parallel exhibition of past Dream-Makers children’s art, “Rulers in the Land of Imagination,” began July 5 in the Binney & Smith Gallery at The Banana Factory in Bethlehem, Pa., and will run through Aug. 31.
Directed by renowned artist Ed Kerns, Eugene H. Clapp II ’36 Professor of Art, the 23,500-square-foot Williams Visual Arts Building is one of the leading high-tech facilities for art education and exhibitions in the nation. It includes sculpture and painting studios, a community-based teaching studio, the Grossman Gallery, a flexible studio area with movable walls for honors and independent study students, a seminar room, a conference room, and faculty studios and offices.
The building is home to the studio art program. The classrooms are adjacent to professors’ personal studios, which encourages the free exchange of ideas between students and faculty. Honors students, faculty, and visiting professional artists work together with area high school and adult art students through the Community-Based Teaching Program. Sculptor Jim Toia directs this program as well as the Grossman Gallery.