Local Educators Curate New Art in Storefronts Project - Winterfest 2021
The Winterfest Art in Storefronts exhibition is curated by local educators and artists Lea Mitchell, Kari Brown, Eric Fleming and Davinia Clark.
Peaceful Critter Community - Living in the Light
Olympia Artspace Alliance invites the community to the latest Art in Olympia Storefronts project, created by students from the Olympia Regional Learning Academy, NOVA and LP Brown in the windows of The Goldberg Building. Art will be installed November 28-29, and remain in place through February 2022.
The exhibit depicts a fantastical critter community where diverse creatures live in harmony. Exhibits will include butterflies, a snow leopard, a wolf, cranes, owls, penguins and other creatures. Artworks will be illuminated with LED and black-lighting.
An opening event on December 11, 2021, will feature student musicians as well as workstations for creating wrapping paper or pick up instructions designing and creating your own critter.
Approximately 280 students worked under the guidance of art teachers Lea Mitchell from the Olympia Regional Learning Academy, Eric Fleming from NOVA, and artist and educator Divina Clark, with the help of several families. Teachers asked students to imagine a creature and what it brings to the community to make it a peaceful, creative, loving place. Some gather food. Others are strong travelers who carry those who cannot walk. Snake keeps the mouse population down. Coyote sings at night. Tortoise teaches patience.
“My Creature reaches food that is high up and shares it with others,” explains one student. “My Creature gives people rides, helping people who can’t walk or do not have cars,” says another.
Other creatures help people understand each other; protect the community from danger; sing at night under the moon; keep the mouse population down; pick up animals that have fallen from high in the trees and puts them back in their homes; snuggles and comforts others. The turtle “is good at relaxing, reminds people to slow down, have patience.”
Art in Olympia Storefronts is a project of Olympia Artspace Alliance. The project was established in 2019 to place original artwork by local artists in vacant windows in downtown Olympia, and is supported by the City of Olympia, Olympia Downtown Alliance, ArtsWA and Olympia Federal Savings.
Who: Olympia Artspace Alliance
What: Winterfest!
Where: Windows of the Goldberg Building, 403 Capitol Way S, Olympia
When: Exhibit Open for Viewing November 28 through February 2022.
Many thanks to community members who helped set up the installation, loaned us lighting and other equipment, organized music, and brought their good energy to this project.
With gratitude to all.
John Calambokidis
Linda Cole
Jean Eberheart
Lois Maffeo
Mike Peterson
Julie Puhich
Dave Sederberg
Joel Underwood
Susie Wilburn
Gretchen Van Duesen
“Peaceful Critter Community – Living in the Light”
“Peaceful Critter Community – Living in the Light” was created by several hundred student artists from L.P. Brown Elementary School, the Olympia Regional Learning Academy, and Nova middle School, their teachers, and several community collaborators. We are artists aged five to sixty-five.
The project was inspired by the idea of creating a peaceful, loving community full of diverse creatures living together under the same sky. If you were going to create something for the community what would it be? What would it bring to the community? Students were asked to reflect on these and other questions as they designed and created. Some of the ideas include the lion who gives us courage. Wolves sing at night so we are not alone. The giraffe catches things that fall, owls connect us to mystery and also provide protection when they hoot and alarm the community. Dolphins remind us to make time for play. Students at ORLA and L.P. Brown learned how to use patterns to create groups of creatures like snowy owls and dolphins. They also designed their own creatures like the heron, tigers, panda and penguins. The doves, orca and butterflies were upcycled from past student projects and transformed by adding new patterns and ultraviolet paint to them. NOVA students were challenged to create objects to fill the sky. They created diverse flying and floating orbs, all contributing to the Peaceful Community. Some of their ideas and thinking include a planet with no climate change or war. Hot air balloons that never hurt anybody, and turtles that are very peaceful creatures and found in many different places.
Artist Statements and Bios
Kari Brown is an artist, educator, farmer and naturalist. Kari works with willow baskets, paper making, nature mobiles, recycled rugs, collage and beyond. She likes to work collaboratively with children and nature.
Divina Clark graduated from the Evergreen State College Spring, 2020 with a Masters in Teaching degree and a teaching endorsement in K-12 Visual Art. She is currently teaching K-5 visual art at L.P. Brown Elementary during the 2021-22 school years. She is also a teaching artist and has taught privately to elementary students. Divina has been actively involved in art shows, festivals and events within Washington State and is a practicing artist specializing in oil, watercolor, mixed media, as well as mosaic, pastel drawings and digital photography. Her artworks are inspired by her love of nature and wildlife.
Eric Fleming has taught art at Nova Middle School for 21 years and just added teaching art at Lincoln Elementary this year. Eric has shown work in a variety of mediums such as stone sculpture, screen print, papercut, and interactive installation. He lives in downtown Olympia, the place he loves most.
Lea Mitchell teaches Visual Art at Olympia Regional Learning Academy, a K-12 public school of choice in the Olympia School District. She has exhibited her block prints, paintings, and drawings at Artwalks, South Sound Community College and other local venues. She left art school years ago, to go on a road trip with a friend. The trip lasted years. She is making her way back to her own art and is creating an art studio on her houseboat in downtown Olympia. She is passionate about creating more ways for student artists to connect with each other, their community, and their art.