RCAH

New Collaboration Helps Lansing Youth Explore their Neighborhoods through Art

[Media contact: Kris Tetens, (517) 884-6290 or tetenskr@msu.edu.]

December 2009

A new collaboration between Michigan State University and a Lansing neighborhood art center is helping area young people see their home town in a whole new light.

“Patterns of Place” connects faculty-artists and students in MSU’s Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH) with participants in an after-school program offered by the Reach Studio Art Center, located in REO Town at 1804 S. Washington Ave.

In two ten-week sessions, about 60 Lansing youths between the ages of 7 and 18 will work alongside RCAH faculty-artists and students to explore their neighborhoods through a variety of artistic media. Painting, photography, printmaking, and poetry will be used by participants to “see” and give voice to the many assets—including history, ethnic diversity, language, landscapes, and architecture—that make the Lansing urban area unique.

Located just south of the capitol district, REO Town is bounded by Main Street on the north, Mt. Hope Avenue on the south, Cedar Street on the east, and Townsend Street/Todd Avenue on the west.

The area is rich in history. Ransom Eli Olds founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company there in 1897 and the REO Motor Car Company there in 1904. Since then, the area’s fortunes have closely tracked the rise and decline of the automotive industry.

The legacy of this history, along with the traces it has left on the area’s built environment and diverse cultural traditions, is among the subjects explored by the project’s participants in artworks and poems that will be exhibited in REO Town and at MSU in April and September 2010.

“Patterns of Place is a joyful exploration of the concept of place,” says Laura B. DeLind, visiting assistant professor at the RCAH. “It is a way for young people to use the arts and humanities to represent their lives and their communities.”

“This is a wonderful coming together of community assets that has multiple benefits,” says Alice Brinkman, director of Reach Studio Art Center. “Already I am witnessing children’s brightened faces as they are empowered by creating something of their own and supported by the developing bonds between themselves and the RCAH students mentoring them.”

About a dozen RCAH students are involved with the project.

“The children continually surprise me with their creativity and talent, and their unadulterated joy at every stage of the art-making process has been incredibly inspirational for me,” says Kendra Shirey, an MSU sophomore from Sparta, Mich. “I look forward to hearing their stories and bits of wisdom that far exceed their years every week. Partnering with Reach has truly been an amazing experience.”

The Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University is an undergraduate degree program for students interested in literature, history, ethics, the visual and performing arts, and the study of languages and cultures. RCAH students live and take classes together in Snyder-Phillips Hall, a historic residence hall at the heart of the MSU campus.

Civic engagement projects, like the Patterns of Place collaboration, are a central part of the college’s curriculum and reflect its commitment to combining experiential learning with classroom work.

RCAH faculty and artists-in-residence participating in the project include Guillermo Delgado, Laura DeLind, Anita Skeen, Freddy Rodriquez, and Mark Sullivan.

The fall session of Patterns of Place runs through Dec. 6; the spring session begins on Jan. 12 and runs through March 10. Applications for the spring session are available at Reach Studio Art Center. For more information, call (517) 999-3643.

Patterns of Place is made possible by the support of the Arts Council of Greater Lansing, Inc.; PAINTS, a U.S. Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination grant administered by the Lansing School District; Jackson National Community Fund; the Lansing Exchange Youth Foundation, and individual donors.

Visit the RCAH-Reach Photo Gallery here.