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Washington seventh-graders create sculpture with historical glass

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Artist Michelle Sabol, left, works with seventh-grade students at Washington Middle School on the glass project.

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Ashante Dotson, a seventh-grade student at Washington Middle School, picks up a piece of glass to clean.

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Artist Michelle Sabol works with seventh-grade students at Washington Middle School on the glass project.

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Washington Middle School student Samiyah Kimbrough makes a glass flower with instructor Zachary Layhew at Pittsburgh Glass Center.

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Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter

Sisters and Washington Middle School students Amara, left, and Mareesa Garrett work on a a fused glass mosaic at Pittsburgh Glass Center.

Washington seventh-graders have spent the past year building a glass sculpture, which will be on exhibit next week.

“The Unity Project,” as they’ve titled the sculpture, was put together with shards of glass bottles dug up from the foundation of the former Cameron Coca-Cola bottling plant on Strawberry Avenue. It will be on display for the community from 6 to 8 p.m. May 31 at The Center on Strawberry, 59 E. Strawberry Ave.

Kathy Cameron, executive director of The Center on Strawberry, had collected shards of glass, dating to the 1800s, at the dig site when the center was being built. The bottling company was sold in 1999 after 109 years of business. Cameron said she was happy the exhibit will “celebrate and honor” her family’s history and the history of the bottling company.

“The work proudly celebrates history, art and our local business and educational communities,” she said in a news release. “We are proud to display this piece on the site of the original Cameron Bottling Company grounds in a welcoming community center.”

After collecting the glass, Cameron was talking with a local artist from Buffalo Township, Michelle Sabol, about how they could reuse it.

“I just knew I wanted to make a sculpture with that glass,” Sabol said.

Sabol is a multimedia, “diverse” artist, who’s also been a teaching artist since 2016. She spent the 2018-19 school year with Washington seventh-graders, teaching them about glass, taking them on glass field trips and working with them to create the five-foot sculpture, which she had planned ahead of time.

“You can make a plan, but you don’t really know how it’s going to go,” Sabol said. “The students were all great, very engaged. Even, aesthetically, they were right there with me. It was like putting together this puzzle piece.”

Together, she and the students cleaned and sorted the glass by color. The students researched the history of the glass, how it was manufactured, and its economic impact on the community. As part of the class they also went on field trips to the Heinz History Center’s glass exhibit and the Pittsburgh Glass Center.

“I’m really big on context,” Sabol said. “It’s hard for anybody to see, or understand what you’re presenting to them. It’s hard to see how a glass sculpture fits into their lives – that’s why the field trips were important. It broadens their view of the world and their view of the project we’re working on, to send into the world.”

Sabol’s teaching and the project itself was funded through a grant from the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation to the Fayette County Cultural Trust. The Trust works with the Rural Arts Collaborative to place teaching artists in school districts.

“This is the type of project that is at the heart of what Benedum is pleased to fund,” James Denova, vice president of the Benedum Foundation, said in a news release. “One that will robustly support the existing arts education curriculum in schools, but also acknowledge the history of a family and a business in this community, and positively impact the student experience developmentally and cognitively, while simultaneously enhancing the community with public art that is student produced.”

Sabol will be working with Washington students again next year to create other glass projects to be displayed publicly in Washington, according to the release.

“I appreciate everyone’s efforts and support in helping our students and giving them amazing opportunities,” Washington School District Superintendent James Konrad said in a statement. “I am deeply grateful to the Benedum Foundation, to the Rural Arts Collaborative, to Kathy Cameron and to artist Michelle Sabol for bringing this project to our district to help make the history of our region come alive for our students.”

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