(07/27/09) -  Sixty Akron high school students are spending a good part of their summer in a city-sponsored program that provides work for artists, education for students, and public artwork to inspire residents.

The Lock 3 Summer Arts Experience, founded by Mayor Don Plusquellic in 2003, will allow “arts apprentices” to be mentored by professionals and earn a paycheck over five weeks this Summer. Their work will result in pieces that beautify the Akron cityscape in and around downtown.

This year, the University of Akron and METRO Regional Transit Authority are also supporting the program. Nearly 400 young people have completed the experience of creating performance or visual art during their summers.

"I know the value of having a mentor," said the program’s founder Mayor Don Plusquellic.  "Coaches were important to me as a young athlete. I wanted a program where young artists benefit from the same kind of relationships."

Again this Summer, the program’s reach is also being extended throughout the city’s neighborhoods  through the "Neighborhood Canvas Summer Arts Experience." An additional twenty apprentices will work out of four community centers  with professional mentors, and will create different projects in a more limited period of time.

The Lock 3 Summer Arts Experience requires the students, ages 14-17, to invest 80-100 hours in planning their work, even before they commit their creative ideas to a performance or public display. The apprentices - selected from every Akron public and parochial high school - also learn work-readiness skills, and each receives a stipend of $400.  Some 200 students applied for the 2009 program, and nearly half were able to be employed by the Summer Arts Experience this year.

The Summer Arts Experience will complete six projects at Lock 3 in downtown Akron, while the four neighborhood experiences will be staged at community centers.

The seven disciplines and their lead artists for 2009 are:  

• Stage Left Mural: Firestone High School art teacher Steve Csejtey is leading the creation of a large abstract mural that will fill the wall of the Civic Theatre that faces Lock 3. The mural incorporates organic shapes filled with vibrant colors, reflecting the excitement of music, food and celebration at Lock 3. The mural will be completed on multiple pieces of parachute cloth that when installed, will allow for maintenance and movement.

 

• Graphic Design & Illustration: In conjunction with the METRO Regional Transit Authority, Archbishop Hoban art teacher Micah Kraus is leading  apprentices in the computer-based graphic design of twelve 4 foot x 6 foot banners that will hang in METRO’s new Intermodal Transit Center. The banners will highlight aspects of the comfort and safety for passengers and the eco-consciousness of the new METRO hub. This group will also develop a new Summer Arts Experience logo that will identify past and future Summer Arts Experience pieces throughout the city.

 

• Fused Glass Skywalk Sculpture: Local artist and instructor Marianne Hite is teaching her apprentices the art of melting, manipulating, and fusing colored glass into cohesive pieces of artwork to be displayed in the Stubbs Justice Center Skywalk in downtown Akron. Utilizing the large amounts of light that shine through the skywalk, the 14 stained glass-like pieces will be viewable from within the skywalk as well as ground level.

 

• Filmmaking: Mike Pritt, a professional videographer and lighting designer who owns M.P. Productions in Akron, returns for his seventh year as a lead artist, focusing on a new topic with more depth and impact than previous pieces created by students. The film crew will create a documentary from multiple perspectives of the Jewish Holocaust - survivors, liberators, and those still closely connected with one of the greatest tragedies in human history. The documentary will also draw connections between the European Holocaust and current events around the world, suggesting ways to prevent further genocide.

 

• Downtown Skywalk Mural: Local artist Adriana Caso is guiding her apprentices in reinterpreting and applying styles used by well-known artists Diego Rivera and Renee Magritte, in creating a painted mural for the skywalk between City Hall and the Citicenter Building on High Street. Apprentices will use foam, plaster and acrylic paints to create a fusion of two-dimensional and 3-D elements that give the feeling of "walking through the clouds." 

 

• The Neighborhood Canvas Summer Arts Experience : Lahoma Clearwater has shared her unique skill of creating "Leafings" with her apprentices in two sessions over the summer. Leafings are cement-based, painted and glazed, identical replicas of leaves taken from areas around each of the community centers the neighborhood canvas took place in. These permanent installations will be displayed throughout the Akron Zoological Park.

Since 2003, arts apprentices have produced oversized floral pots, ceramic benches and sculptures, and a photomural at Lock 3; ceramic sculptures for several municipal buildings; and large murals on display throughout Downtown Akron, the Library, and the Akron Zoo. Other works have included giant puppets and luminaria featured at Holidayfest and First Night; and films each year, including documentation of the other Summer Arts projects.(go to: http://youtube.com/user/Lock3SummerArts.