Artists gather at Bentworth High School for Rural Arts Collaborative Spring Institute
Bentworth students Carlie Pollick, left, and Maddy Hillman help Pittsburgh artist Laura Jean McLaughlin create a mosaic during an interactive period of the RAC Spring Institute at Bentworth High School.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Art in many forms lines the walls during the Rural Arts Collaborative Spring Institute at Bentworth High School in Bentleyville.
Holly Tonini/Observer-Reporter
Pittsburgh artist James Simon shows Bentworth student Kaisey Worch how to sculpt a penguin during the RAC Spring Institute at Bentworth High School in Bentleyville.
Washington School District teacher Rashaud Olson checks out “Origin of Journey,” an installation that will be on display for three months at the Pittsburgh International Airport. The piece is created using 4,800 origami cranes hand-folded by roughly 100 Bentworth High School students.
Washington artist Hiromi Katayama watches as Bentworth student Brenna Tyson uses traditional Japanese paints to create a piece of art.
BENTLEYVILLE – The mellow groove of a saxophone player covering the old Stylistics hit “Betcha By Golly Wow” is not something you expect to encounter in a high school hallway a full four decades after the tune topped the charts.
That was the case, however, at Bentworth High School early Wednesday afternoon. Calvin Stemley, a Pittsburgh musician, was playing that oldie, and other tunes, as part of the Rural Arts Collaborative Spring Institute. Along with demonstrations and performances by the Bricolage Production Company, the immersive theater troupe headquartered in Pittsburgh’s Cultural District, and Attack Theatre, a dance company from East Liberty, the institute gathered together regional artists who have been in residence at schools in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties and Wheeling, W.Va., since the program’s founding in 2012.
“It shows how successful we’ve been,” said Carmelle Nickens, who manages the Rural Arts Collaborative. “It shows our funders it’s making an impact on students in rural communities.”
The Rural Arts Collaborative was established with an eye toward supplementing arts programs in school districts, Nickens explained, and making the arts accessible to students in rural communities, where an art museum or symphony hall is not just down the street or a few blocks away. Its first residency was in Washington School District in 2014, and it got underway with funding from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, which dispenses grants to support educational, health and economic development endeavors in rural areas.
The artist residencies typically last for a semester or a whole school year. Each artist, and the students they teach, work on a public art piece that can be displayed, be performed or recorded.
Stemley was at Burgettstown’s middle and high schools, and his presence has provided “a great benefit,” according to Alan Cugini, a music instructor. During his residency, Stemley taught jazz improvisation, the genre’s history and various styles of jazz. His students “are taking a lot more interest in what’s going on musically. It’s been a breath of fresh air.”
Washington artist Hiromi Katayama has been in residence at schools in the Bentworth and McGuffey districts, as well as at Wheeling Country Day School. Katayama deploys traditional Japanese methods and materials, and she created an installation with Bentworth students that uses 4,800 origami cranes. Called “Origin of Journey,” it is due to be displayed later this year at Pittsburgh International Airport.
Thanks to the Rural Arts Collaborative, “I can go into the schools as an artist, not a teacher,” she said.