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Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE)
203 N. Wabash, Suite 1720, Chicago, Illinois 60601-2417
312/870-6140 fax 312/870-6147
EXCHANGING SYMBOLS, 2003
After collaborating with the Terra Museum of American Art for nearly a decade, CAPE developed a special project to respond to the 2003 exhibition at Terra Museum of Jasper Johns: Prints from Four Decades, organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. From its more modest beginnings as mainly a field trip program, Terra Museum's collaboration with CAPE expanded into developing interdisciplinary curriculum with teachers and artists throughout the city of Chicago. The Exchanging Symbols project is also an expression of CAPE's commitment to mediating innovative connections between museums and communities.
The participating students (Chicago Public School 7th-graders from the Ellen B. Mitchell School and J.C. Orozco Academy) learned a variety of print techniques. Partnering with Chicago-based printmaking studio Anchor Graphics and its master printmaker David Jones, Terra Museum staff and CAPE teachers and students examined Johns's work, particularly his manipulation of the ordinary object or symbol, and created their own symbols expressed through prints and poetry. The prints and poetry, as well as process documentation, were exhibited both at CAPE and at the Terra Museum of American Art. This project allowed students from different parts of the city to compare and contrast each other's understanding of complex issues of representation. These installations were also a unique opportunity for museum patrons to view students' experimentation in the art of printmaking and the creation of symbol systems with private and public meanings. The resulting prints are on permanent display at the CAPE office.
Special thanks to curators Scott Sikkema and Kara Green, to advisors Cynthia Weiss and Rebecca Roin, and to teachers Patrick O'Connor, Donna Wipf and Ted Lesley from Ellen B. Mitchell School, and Aandraya DaSilva, Victoria Turbov, and Jennifer Jensen from J.C. Orozco Academy. Thanks also to Rick Russo for documenting the project. Exchanging Symbols was supported in part by Marshall Field's Project Imagine.
