Farmington High School Awarded Art Grant

Submitted

The Farmington Board of Education and Superintendent of Schools are pleased to announce that Farmington High School is one of eight schools in Connecticut to be awarded an “Arts in Education” grant from the multi-agency partnership between SDE, DECD’s CT Office of the Arts, and the CT Arts Council. Over eighty schools and districts applied for the grant and Farmington’s project “Interactive Community Map: Intersection of Fine Arts, New Media & Engineering” was selected to receive over $39,000 in funding.

The purpose of these grants is to strengthen arts programming in Connecticut through sustained partnerships with community organizations and local artists.

Superintendent Kathleen Greider states, “The Interactive Community Map Grant is an ideal project for the Farmington Schools. The grant funding will bring our students and community together to produce an interdisciplinary, highly authentic, collaborative and innovative exhibit for the entire community of Farmington. The project reflects all elements of Farmington’s Vision of the Graduate.”

In Governor Malloy’s press release of December 18th, there were several statements about the importance of the arts in schools, the community, and the overall economy. Governor Malloy stated, “This program expands the way the arts and humanities are taught in schools and school districts across Connecticut by giving our students access to a learning environment outside of the traditional academic setting.”

In addition, Commissioner of DECD, Catherine Smith stated, “The arts are an integral part of creating – and sustaining – vibrant communities, these investments will energize students and connect them to partners in the arts community in new and exciting ways.”

Farmington High School Fine and Applied Arts students, in collaboration with Balam Soto, will create an interactive artwork that will combine traditional artistic mediums with contemporary technologies. The interactive map will include community-based sound recordings, 3-D printing elements, paint, plywood, electronics, sensors, and custom software developed by the artist Balam Soto. The participants, including parents, community members, Noah Wallace elementary school students; West Woods students, Irving Robbins Middle School students and Farmington High School students, will design the aesthetics of the mural and the recordings under the guidance of Balam Soto. All students will participate in making the mural, including painting, 3D printing, coding, electronics, recording, and digital editing. The resultant mural will be interactive through 24 sensors, which will activate the sound and video recordings. The FHS project will be installed as a permanent exhibit at the Town Library.

This will expose the community and students to art and technology, also known as new media, through a collaborative, community-building experience, which will encourage all participants to learn while sharing their knowledge, ideas and creativity of our Farmington community.

Balam Soto is an internationally acclaimed new media artist who combines art and technology to create interactive pieces that include video, murals and performance. He has exhibited in worldwide venues including the World Maker Faire in New York City and galleries and museums in New York, Belgium, Guatemala and many others. He has received three “Editor’s Choice” awards from New York’s World Maker Faire and the “Latino de Oro” Award for Arts & Culture” in Connecticut. He has also received official Citations from the Mayor of Hartford, Connecticut and the Governors of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. In April 2008, he was honored with a Diploma of Recognition as a “Maestro,” a Master of Visual Arts, by the National Congress of Guatemala.

There will be a booth available at the library soon for students and residents to record, scan or document their contributions to the project through video and images. The staff at the Town Library is prepared to help guide those who are interested in participating. In fact, the community-at-large will be invited to participate during the Library’s Maker Faire on Sunday, March 29th.

Image via Verygoodjeeves/ Wikipedia