Artists In Your Backyard

In the fall of 2011, the M.A.T. Art Education students at Coastal Carolina University were each assigned to interview a local artist and then base a lesson plan around their artwork. This simple assignment grew into something quite larger.

It has since become an extensive research project that highlights several South Carolina artists living and working in the lowcountry. We sat down with five artists to talk about their artwork, their art background and how they balance both professional and personal lives that revolve around art. We have broken up these interviews into segments that will be displayed on this site.

As future art educators ourselves, we were interested in taking the lesson plans we had prepared months earlier based on these artist into the classrooms we are currently interning in. Our artists include two painters, two sculptors, and one photographer. Each M.A.T. student will introduce her students to the artist she interviewed, who in turn has inspired the lesson plan.

The project culminated with an "Artist in Your Backyard" showcase that featured works by the artists involved with the project as well as student work produced during the lessons based on them. The show took place on March 31 and featured over 100 students' artworks. The artwork ranged from elementary to high school, and included drawings, paintings, ceramic works, shoe sculptures, and even a miniature display of a mural painted at Myrtle Beach High School with the help of local muralist Ruth Cox.

We feel that this is an interesting way to make students aware of the fact that art is going on all around them and can be found outside of distant museums. The project was presented at the National Art Education Association Conference in New York City on March 2.

Artists In Your Backyard

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Sunday, February 26, 2012

Local Artists discuss Art, Life, and Work