Students at the Fort River Elementary School got a firsthand look at the town’s newest ‘gallery.’
Terry Rooney, coordinator for the Amherst Biennial 2010, explains to students from Fort River Elementary School in Amherst the inspiration behind the art of Mo Ringey, of Easthampton, displayed at East Street School. AMHERST – Fort River art teacher Teri P. Magner was ecstatic.
“Arranging field trips is so difficult,” she said. But for this one, all the sixth-graders needed to do was walk across the street to the East Street School, which has been transformed into a gallery for the Amherst Biennial 2010.
For biennial organizer Terry Rooney, the visit fit with her mission to introduce the arts to youths. Showing art in businesses, at Kendrick Park, Town Hall and places like the school, “you change the paradigm of how we get the arts out.”
She told the students that a painting on display at Hastings, a downtown stationery store, sold for $2,500 to a customer, “who doesn’t go into galleries.”
The school, left empty when the alternative high school was moved to the South East Street campus, became a perfect venue, said Rooney. She hopes to be able to use the building as a local arts center. The school is one of 11 sites throughout town showing art work for the biennial that will be on display through Dec. 5.
Eleven-year-old Tajahn Joyner said, “It’s really cool. I didn’t get to see art much (at museums.”)
He and many of his fellow students were particularly awed by the work of Easthampton artist Margaret Nowinski, whose plastic bottle display called “Swallowed” sparked environmental concerns from the students. The art displays hundreds of water bottles to show the paradox of the need to drink, yet how the plastic from the bottles is polluting the world and the people who drink from the bottles.
“It shows people you need to recycle more to save the environment,” Tajahn said. Nowinski collected the bottles from various sites and a video records her adventures.
Kylee Russell, 11, said, “So many people drink (bottled water), but they could just use a Brita (water) filter.”
The students’ teacher Roger Wallace was creating math and science lessons from the visit.
From Nowinski’s display, which had also been at the University of Massachusetts, he planned to have students compute how many feet of wire she used to string the bottles together. He’s also going to have students figured out how many bottles she used based on the bottles’ sizes. “You can teach math concepts through art.”
Students left the visit in a kind of awe. “I never thought water bottles and plastic could be art,” said Isabel Oram-Brown, 11. Magner pointed out that Isabel has been to museums in Europe and loves art herself.
The visit was such a success that Magner said she wants to bring more classes back.