Art to Go

When Phillipsburg High School senior Katie Lawter began an art class through Lafayette’s College-Based Teaching Program last year, she expected to expand her artistic horizons. But Lawter, who’s continuing the course this year, never quite expected to see her work rising high above a busy road on a 12-by-25-foot billboard.

Starting May 21, that’s just what will be happening, as Adams Outdoor Advertising installs five designs created by the program’s 14 students, all from Warren County, N.J. The “poster ad” boards will appear on Route 611 north and south of Easton, Pa., and at Union Square and Center Street in Phillipsburg, N.J., and the corner of Route 57 and Stryker Road just east of Phillipsburg. The designs will stay up on the billboards for about a month each.

“It’s definitely a really big deal,” says Lawter, who worked in a group that designed a board showing the image of a child clutching a video joystick, with the words “childhood memories” curling in script between the joystick and video game console.

For Matthew Getter, another Phillipsburg High School senior, working on two billboards that address racism was much more complicated than he anticipated.

“I expected that they would go through some revisions,” he says. “I didn’t expect it to take so long.”

Jim Toia, director of the College-Based Teaching Program, says students spent about three months developing and refining ideas, assisted by Craig Stevens, art director for Adams Outdoor Advertising Lehigh Valley, based in Bethlehem, and Lois Arciszewski, real estate manager for Adams Lehigh Valley.

“They worked individually, and then they worked as teams,” Toia says, explaining that Stevens and Arciszewski offered advice on how to translate ideas into billboard-friendly formats.

“They gave us a peek into the world of billboard advertising and how people read billboards,” Toia says. “Once we started figuring out our themes and desired advertising statements, they helped us tailor those messages in a way that would best be read by the community.”

Stevens says he explained to students how billboard advertising differs from other forms of art and advertising.

“It’s different than other types of media,” he says. “People can’t turn it off. But you have to get the message across very quickly.”

Phillipsburg High School art teacher Bob Jiorle, along with fellow Phillipsburg art teacher Jennifer Schilling, has brought students to the Lafayette program for the past five years. He says the partnership with Adams came about partly because the company leases billboard space on his property along Route 57, and the group began thinking about the possibility of designing a billboard.

Arciszewski, who is assigned to the territory that includes Jiorle’s property, says her supervisor, general manager Karen Goumakos, approved the five billboards, complete with funding for the printing.

“Adams really is a community partner,” Arciszewski says, pointing out that the company often offers space for nonprofit and community service ads.

Jiorle says the project has given his students a chance that they’ll likely remember for years to come.

“I believe any artist would love to have the opportunity,” he says. “It’s really unique.”

Chris Coyle, art teacher at Belvidere High School, adds that the entire College-Based Teaching Program has raised his students’ level of artistic sophistication.

“They’re working at the college level—and a lot of it is beyond college,” he says. “This is the beginning of their post-college resumes.”

Toia adds that he’s proud of the students for staying with the project.

“I’m really impressed with the kids and how diligent they’ve been, how willing they were to stay with this project for so long,” he says. “It’s not an easy thing for a high school student to stay with a project for three months. It’s been a really good, solid experience.”

To view the billboard designs, visit the BLP(Belvidere-Lafayette-Phillipsburg) Arts web site at www.blparts.blogspot.com .