Submitted by Chuck Steinbower, Teacher/Librarian, Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility
In the past four years Chuck Steinbower, librarian, and Mike Rodgers, art teacher, have partnered with a variety of outside agencies to showcase fine art and work with their students in bringing a broader experience to their youth at the Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility in Delaware, Ohio. Dionne Custer, Education Outreach Specialist at the Ohio State Wexner Center for the Arts, has brought programming to Scioto which has showcased video and art offerings of the Wexner Center. Through generous support from benefactors, the Wexner Center works with area schools to bring students into the museum to work with Ms. Custer and area artists by either showcasing video experiences or art openings. Because Scioto youth are housed in a correctional facility, the Wexner Center agreed to come to the correctional facility to give the youth an outstanding experience.
Artist Aaron Thomas, Wexner Center for the Arts Educator Dionne Custer, Scioto teacher Mike Rodgers and Librarian Chuck Steinbower collaborated to have the Scioto youth experience the art of Mark Bradford. In conjunction with the Bradford exhibition at the Wexner, artist Aaron Thomas came to Scioto along with Ms. Custer to wotk with Mr. Rodgers’ art class. Mr. Rodgers prepped his students in the works of Bradford and also attended several workshops at the Wexner which culminated in the two day workshop. The kids really enjoyed themselves. When entering the class the second day, one young man said, “I couldn’t wait to come see Aaron today and get to work.” That’s a fulfilling statement for any artist or educator.
Aaron Thomas also conducted a workshop with the youth based on the Andy Warhol exhibition at the Wexner Center. Thomas and Mike Rodgers taught them Warhol’s two-layer silkscreen process. Thomas also works with ArtSafe, a non-profit organization that works with at risk youth in neighborhoods, schools, and institutions. Because they could not duplicate the actual two layer silk-screen process at the juvenile facility, Thomas used acetate sheets to mimic the process. While Warhol used block drawings to transfer his images, a copier was used to transfer a picture of a personality selected by each student onto a piece of acetate. From there, using the drawing on the sheet of acetate, they traced the image of the person onto another sheet of paper. Next, the choice was up to each student whether to turn the piece into a collage using cut pieces of colored paper or using pastels to color either the top, bottom or both layers. In working the Bradford and Warhol exhibitions, Rodgers, with the coordination of Steinbower, prepped the youth before the workshops with Aaron Thomas and built on the workshop after Mr. Thomas’s workshop was over.
Mr. Steinbower received a Grant from the American Library Association to use reproductions of American artwork from the “Picturing America” program with the teachers at William K. Willis High School located at the Scioto Juvenile Correctional Facility. These reproductions, which represent some of the most memorable art pieces in American history, are on thick laminate, come with teacher study guides, and actually bring an art museum to the youth at Scioto. Mr. Steinbower worked with a number of teachers using the posters in cooperative lessons and was chosen to attend a special “Picturing America” conference in New York City sponsored by ALA and The National Endowment for the Humanities. At the conference he was able to explore additional ways to use the posters with his youth.
During the next year, Mr. Steinbower and Mr. Rodgers will be working with Ms. Connie Pottle of the Delaware County District Library on a book and art cooperative project through a “Choose to Read Ohio” project focusing on the Heaven trilogy of Angela Johnson: Heaven, The Sweet Hereafter and The First Part Last. Youth at Scioto Correctional, the Delaware Library, and an art teacher and his students at a Delaware alternative school will be discussing the books and making art projects based on the books. The art projects will be exchanged between the facilities and displayed there. The project will be capped off by an author visit at both facilities by Angela Johnson.