artchs

2010—2011 CHSA BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

Dorsey Chappell

Lauren Powell

Officers:

President—Open

Vice President—Open

Secretary/Communications—Open

Treasurer—Thursday Daniel

Fundraising Chair—Open

Teamwork. Pictured above from left to right: Sara Hemingway, Crista Cloutier, Nate Kamp, Kiki Smith, Laura Cleary, Shaun McCallum and Valerie Hammond.

Article By: E. Christina Spitz
Published: Aug 3, 2011

On Wednesday, July 13, renowned artists Kiki Smith and Valerie Hammond and internationally recognized writer, curator, photographer, historian and filmmaker Crista Cloutier traveled to SCAD Atlanta to begin a five-day collaborative project with students from the printmaking department. 

In December, these art-world luminaries approached the Southeastern Center for Printmaking with an idea for a collaborative venture with SCAD students. These discussions led to the group visiting SCAD in July to create a series of prints relating loosely to spirit photography, a 19th century practice of making images that allude to supernatural phenomena. 

Smith brought to the project her outstanding reputation as a sculptor, painter, photographer, printmaker and installation artist. Hammond contributed her expertise and stature as a printmaker and photographer. Cloutier, who has had work featured in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and won the top award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, documented the collaborative process, in both the printed word and on film. 

Over the course of the visit, graduate students Nate Kamp, Laura Cleary, Shaun McCallum, Ashley L. Schick, Carla Aaron-Lopez and Alison Batley and undergraduate student Sara Hemingway assisted these artists and were able to spend one-on-one time with each of them, learning intimate details about their process of art making and professional discipline. 

"It's an excellent line on the résumé," said Robert Brown, chair of the printmaking department. "Students gain invaluable experience in what it means to be a professional artist." 

The project created a stir throughout the Atlanta arts community, spurring a line of visitors including local gallery owners and arts organizers. On that Saturday night, the High Museum's David Brenneman, director of collections and exhibitions, and Michael Rooks, Wieland family curator of modern and contemporary art, came to the printmaking shop to spend time with the students and the artists. 

"This project opens the lines of collaboration between the High Museum and SCAD," Brown said. Noting that the museum is one of the country's largest collectors of Smith's work, with 56 items, "the work we're creating at SCAD is attracting the attention of a nationally known museum," he said. 

Brown noted that the partnership will also be an excellent recruiting tool. Smith and Hammond, professors at New York University and Columbia, expressed excitement about sending their undergraduate students to graduate school at SCAD. 

In the end, seven images were initiated and will be color proofed and editioned over the course of the following year. Students will receive a printer's proof of each image in the project as well as an extraordinary experience with some of the most revered printmakers living today. 

"I was able to see a group of artists' approach to process, how they develop imagery and how they talk to each other," said Schick (M.F.A., printmaking, 2011). "SCAD Atlanta is a fantastic facility, and the fact that we get to host such prominent artists is a testament to how wonderful the print shop at SCAD is." 

The collaboration is part of a visiting artists series coordinated between the exhibitions and printmaking departments and has included projects with celebrated artists Chakaia Booker, Alexandre Arrechea and others.

Atlanta Magazine - January 2010

Graphic Communications

Chattahoochee High School, Fulton County

9th-12th grades; Mrs. Kylie Dayton 

The graphics class at Chattahoochee High School starts each day by turning out the lights and gathering on the cool, linoleum floor for circle time. Together, they leaf through the most recent copy of the school newspaper, The Speculator, catching slight mistakes in the paper’s layout and congratulating themselves on their best issue this year. The beige walls have been completely covered with painted murals, posters of famous ad-vertisements and prints of the students’ artwork. Long tables boast rows of large-screen Mac computers, and the air bubbles with excitement .Kylie Dayton doesn’t refer to her graphic design pupils as a “class” or as “students.” To Dayton, the group is a mini-design fi rm that produces graphic artwork and print materials for Chattahoochee and several outside clients, including the Fulton County Board of Education and other local schools. The young designers are proficient in Adobe InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop. They are completing the design for a T-shirt that expresses their personal style as a mid-term exam. One student’s shirt will feature a panda bear wrapped around her waist; another has hand-sketched and digitally enhanced a tree for his design.

“This class is very loud and fun, and reminds me of a real team of creative designers,” Dayton says. “I worked in the industry for years before I came to Chattahoochee, and wanted to model my classes after the fun and relaxed environment that I enjoyed working in.” The graphic communications department at Chattahoochee is part of the county’s Career and Technical Education program, which also includes classes in Web design, engineering, architecture and more. In Fulton County, North Springs, Tri-Cities and Langston Hughes high schools offer classes in graphic design, along with many other Atlanta-area schools, both public and private. The first-level graphics class at Chattahoochee begins with an introduction to the three computer programs and teaches students the elements and principles of design. In the first year of the class, students create logos and stationery packages for a “client,” and design a CD cover. In the advanced classes, students begin to design materials for outside clients and the faculty at Chattahoochee. The class does not charge for design time because they are still learning the programs, but they do charge for consumables such as printouts and binding. Dayton says the class typically earns enough to throw a small party at the end of the year.

“Over the past four years we’ve really grown in the number of clients who come to us for design work,” Dayton says. “Every year we create calendars for the career and technical education program downtown and do a lot of the promotional materials for our school’s organizations. This year we are also designing the mascot for a new Montessori school.”   Students have the option of taking AP graphics or digital photography, which require production of a portfolio at the end of the year. 

The AP and advanced classes work together to design the school’s monthly newspaper in between working on portfolios and outside projects. In the spring, the graphics program will team up with the school’s art program to host a gallery show where the students’ work will be evaluated by outside jurors. “What I want is for my students to continue with this class after they leave high school,” Dayton says. “I’ve had a lot of former students major in graphic design in college, and I think now that it is available to students at all grades, the program will continue to grow in popularity.”