Grants

Perpich Center for Arts Education Grant to Bring Teaching Artist, Jonathan Thunder to High School Media Arts and Digital Art

Posted December 3, 2015 by colson

South Ridge School has received funding through The Perich Center for the Arts and ISD 709 to offer an artist residency in animation in Digital Art and Media Art-Graphic Design courses.

Teaching artist, Jonathan Thunder is a painter and digital media artist currently residing in Duluth, Minnesota. He has attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe and received a Bachelor’s Degree in Visual Effects and Motion Graphics from the Art Institutes International Minnesota. His work has been featured in many state, regional, and national exhibitions, as well as in local and international publications.

Jonathan’s paintings explore personal themes of identity, life transitions, internal conflict, and self-transformation. He depicts expressive characters whose emotions and thoughts manifest viscerally in their physical form. The bodies of his subjects often appear fragmented, disfigured, animalistic, or partially obscured. They portray the prison of old patterns and the desire to fluidly overcome them. His art acts as the scrapbook recording an evolving identity. Through his subjects, Jonathan can exaggerate the villians and heroes that make up his self-image. A strong theme focuses on the ability of the self to break away from “what it has been programmed to do.” His work questions the cost of conformity, examines moral responsibility, and just like the character in “A Chant at Day’s End,” believes in art’s exquisite ability to have “something to show” for the human journey.

Mr. Thunder will be with students in late April/early May. Each day he is with us one licensed art teacher from the arrowhead region will join the class as a staff development opportunity to learn how to teach animation with Adobe After Effects. All costs are paid for through the grant.

We are pleased to have this opportunity for our students as well as colleagues in education.

MSAB Art’s Grant-Fall Performance with Frank Theater

Posted November 8, 2015 by colson

South Ridge students performed to a full house at the “Fall Family Night” in the school’s Forum. Performances included “Orpheus and Eurydice” (3-4th Grades), “Persephone and the Six Pomegranate Seeds” (3rd-6th Grades, afterschoolSTEAM), “Fischer and the Birds” (7th Grade morning Design class), and “Shingebiss and the Wintermaker” (7th Grade afternoon Design class).

Frank teaching artists Wendy Knox and Emily Zimmer have worked with students for 8 weeks writing, retelling stories, playing theatre games and acting out stories to build skills in writing, public speaking, body language and story telling. Activities built student’s ability to clearly express themselves in a public venue. Each group sang a song composed by Marya Hart (with lyrics supplied by students). Videographer Mark Tang has documented the process and will work with Wendy Knox and South Ridge teacher Carolyn Olson to produce videos that tell the story.

Video of the performance, Fall 2015.

Students Screen T-shirts

Posted October 12, 2015 by colson

High school students in printmaking class are screening all the t-shirts needed for the MSAB “Lettin’ Off STEAM with Frank Theatre” . The process is meticulous and time consuming but students are excelling with the work!

Silk screens were prepared with a photo emulsion solution and a “positive” on clear plastic of the black and white image (to be printed) is “burned” on to the emulsion. The “positive” image is washed out of the screen leaving a beautiful sharp stencil. Textile ink is pushed through the screen with a squeegee. Students “flood” the screen and then “pull” the squeegee across as evenly as possible.

Students work in teams – printing, preparing, stacking in the rack to dry, replenishing ink, cleaning up ink, etc.

Everyone involved in the Frank Theatre Artist Residency , as well as the Printmaking students will receive a free t-shirt!

South Ridge Art Department receives Minnesota State Arts Board Arts Learning grant with Frank Theatre

Posted July 27, 2015 by colson

2-26c South Ridge School again has received the Art’s Learning grant through the Minnesota State Arts Board! This grant provides funding for professional teaching artists Wendy Knox and Emily Zimer to work with 3rd – 7th grade students building writing, and public speaking skills through theatre games and creative writing. Two residencies have been designed – the first in the Fall, the other in the Spring. Both residencies will explore traditional and cultural stories from around the world with the Spring residency focusing on the stories told to us through the stars taught in Ojibwe culture.

The Fall performance will be at the annual Title I and JOM parents night at South Ridge. Everyone is invited to attend! In the Sping Carl Gawboy, a local artist and historian (retired CSS prof) who is an expert on the star constellations and their stories will retell the stories with Frank teaching artists to the students. After discussion about their meaning students will retell these stories using their what they have learned in the residency.

South Ridge students have been invited to retell these stories at the Annual Elders Feat at the Brookston Center in April. Everyone is invited to attend and share in the feast and performance.

This project is made possible through the Minnesota State Arts Board, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Clean Water, Land & Legacy Amendment, Minnesota Power, Northland Learning Center, ISD 2142 American Indian Student Support and local foundations and business support such as Minnesota Power. Without the generous support such activities would not be possible.

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