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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 info@capeweb.org
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.
