Where to See Art by Friends Select’s Community This Spring
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Friends Select School
Where to See Art by Friends Select’s Community This Spring
Where to See Art by Friends Select’s Community This Spring
Where to See Art by Friends Select’s Community This Spring
Where to See Art by Friends Select’s Community This Spring
In 2020, Friends Select’s art department chair Deborah Caiola spoke with Select News about Sights on Site, the school's annual, site-based art exhibition, in which art students from all three divisions spend part of the school year visiting and studying the history and cultural role of a specific site in Philadelphia. Friends Select's Sights on Site partner for 2020 was the Free Library of Philadelphia. The following article was published at that time.
Sights on Site
Deborah discussed the evolution of Sights on Site. “Creating art is a great way for students to learn about the city and to interact with the institutions that surround us at Friends Select,” she said. In 2019, the visual arts department created a site-specific exhibition at the Connelly Center at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts titled Form, Pattern, and Material: Reflections on PAFA and Its Surroundings. The exhibition featured work from middle and upper school students focused on PAFA’s history, collection, architecture, and location. “The creative process was so successful for students,” Deborah added, “I began to think about the possibility of turning this site-specific study into an annual event.”
Like that exhibition at PAFA, Sights on Site has enabled students to draw inspiration from the Free Library’s vast resources. After exploring the Free Library’s map collection, for instance, second grade students in Tr. Amanda and Tr. Frankie’s class created their own map illustrating the 9th Street Market, and seventh grade students worked with Tr. Fred on mixed-media mapmaking. Meanwhile, fourth grade students worked with Tr. Dan to illustrate their own interpretations of the Free Library’s mascot, Knee-High, the Safety Dog.
In the upper school, digital photography students created a range of works for Sights on Site that explored narrative, photo manipulation, digital illustration, and multiple exposures. In addition, drawing and painting students viewed the library’s collection of rare wordless novels from the 1920s and collaborated to create a graphic novel in relief prints based upon the life of Julian Abele, the architect who designed the Free Library. Students in Advance Drawing and Painting were also inspired by the library’s architecture to create decorative paintings. Sculpture class students recycled and reconstructed old library books into unique sculptures, and metalsmithing students explored pattern, cultural ornaments, and Art Deco and Art Nouveau design in small sculpture and jewelry.