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Education & Outreach
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Content1 The Art-in-Transit Advisory Committee and CATS emphasize public education and outreach as an Art-in-Transit program priority. The committee, made up of seven art professionals appointed by the CEO of CATS, in addition to providing program oversight, encourages community education and involvement starting with the artist selection process through the installation and unveiling of public art. Education and outreach leads to understanding, appreciation and long term care of a public art collection. Whenever appropriate and with available resources, Art-in-Transit staff explores, develops and implements educational and outreach initiatives.
There are various ways Art-in-Transit reaches out to engage and educate the public. Widely distributed community newsletters announce plans to select artists for projects and update the community throughout the design, construction and activation of a new venture. Artists are introduced at neighborhood meetings even before they begin designing art for a project to ensure their understanding of place (past, present, and future). Printed and online information is continually updated to track project progress while finished art is documented with postcards, plaques, and introduced through guided tours and presentations. Partnerships with area educational, cultural and historical institutions assist CATS in expanding the communication between artists and stakeholders and community representatives. Partnerships provide further opportunities to engage the public in the artistic process to ensure understanding and appreciation of the art. The Art-in-Transit program maintains working relationships with the Arts and Science Council, Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts +Culture, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Charlotte Art League, Levine Museum of the New South, McColl Center for Visual Art, Mint Museum, Spirit Square (Blumenthal Performing Arts Center), The Light Factory, and local colleges and universities.
BLE Artist, Tom Stanley works with students from two local schools to develop art for future light rail station
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Content3 LYNX Blue Line Extension artist Tom Stanley is incorporating public art into the Tom Hunter Station. He visited with the Hidden Valley Community Association (HVCA) to gather information and learn the history about the community. During the course of these meetings, the HVCA suggested getting the children’s perspective of the community.
This fall, Tom Stanley did just that. The artist worked with 20 students from two Hidden Valley neighborhood schools to involve them in the process of integrating public art at the future Tom Hunter light rail station.
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Content4 Stanley worked with the Art Club at Hidden Valley Elementary on September 17-18 and the Citizens School’s after school program at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School on November 14. At both schools the artist taught the students about public art in Charlotte and across the nation. He also explained how he was working to produce public art for a light rail station that will serve Hidden Valley and other nearby neighborhoods. The artist then invited the students to assist in the development of his public art for Tom Hunter Station. At the elementary school, the artist taught students to draw and cut out silhouette images of their homes. He plans to use the images to produce his final design for station art windscreens and handrails. At Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, students wrote poems and prose about their neighborhood, which the artist will use on the columns.
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Content6 “As an educator, I often find that the best ideas can be generated by young people whose energy and intuitive approach to images and words can be refreshing, direct and honest,” said Stanley.
Artist Tom Stanley is Chair of the Department of Fine Arts at Winthrop University. In addition to teaching, exhibiting and lecturing about art, Stanley has received numerous commissions to create permanent public art, often collaborating with artist Shaun Cassidy. Stanley earned his MFA in Painting and MA in Applied Art History from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. He also earned a BA in Studio Art from Belmont Abbey/Sacred Heart Colleges in Belmont, NC.
Click on Previous Projects to the left to see more Education and Outreach projects.
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