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Images
Starting at the top: 1) The beginning reader board from the Earth Time Walk superimposed on the Nautilus from a Life Time Walk reader board. There is also a Human Time Walk. 2) The proposed positions of the murals on either side of the ArtWing entrance and along the Time Walk Garden. 3) The proposed positions of the murals near the ArtWing entrance, without showing the Time Walk Garden murals. 4) The proposed positions of murals along the Time Walk.
An Ongoing Educational Mural Project
Briscoe’s PANORAMA mural project is a revolution. It allows real investment in local community, that multiplies as its product becomes part of Ashland Schools. It is a project that has been discussed across a broad community network that includes: the Ashland School District, the City of Ashland Planning Department, the Ashland Public Arts Commission, Parks, Lithia Arts Guild, residents of the Briscoe ArtWing and the creator of Earth Time Walk. This discussion has been evolving for 2 years. The time has come.
PANORAMA would invest in a Local Arts Community that is solidly grounded in education, and the evolution of community through the creative process. The Lithia Arts Guild of Oregon, after spending years engaged in the Regional Artisans Community, and the Lithia Artisans Market of Ashland (www.LithiaArtisansMarket.com), experienced a dramatic increase in the size of its outreach by moving into Briscoe ArtWing (www.BrisceoArtWing.com). Briscoe ArtWing is a decommissioned elementary school near the heart of downtown Ashland. It provides studio space for 18 Resident Artists in 6 rooms. The ArtWing retains a rich relationship with students in the Ashland School District. Last year ArtWing Residents spent over 400 hours teaching within the District. The ArtWing is in its 5th year.
Funding would support ongoing mural painting that would allow students, community members, and professional artists to explore the challenges of our time through the creation of murals on paper and canvas. Canvas murals would be premiered in association with events throughout the year. They would be properly displayed, in full compliance with City codes, on either side of the ArtWing’s main entrance and along the Earth Time Walk. On the conclusion of events associated with a particular mural, ownership would first be offered to the Ashland School District. The District could then use them for further educational pursuits, or sell them during fund raising events. Copy rights would remain with the Guild and those who create individual murals.
There is a path that must be taken. After 2 years of negotiation the vision is ready to be realized. The School District has been supportive from the beginning. The Ashland Public Arts Commission has agreed to help us hone our presentation to City Planning (who is also aware of our intention) where we will secure our Conditional Use Permit. Once the Use Permit is in place we will build necessary support structures, buy canvas and paint, interview artists to guide the work, and begin painting.
The creative process is the heart innovation, no matter the discipline. The creative process as experienced by an individual; where the creator must clarify the vision, then gather the tools and resources necessary for manifestation; is complicated by the addition of more participants. This is the challenge of community: To share the vision, gather tools and resources in concert, and work together to completion. Teaching the creative process is what Art Education does best, and working together creatively is the spark that allows communities to evolve gracefully into the future.
This is the vision of PANORAMA: First, to provide a space and the materials for the process to unfold. Then there is the discussion of the theme: be it time, space or the human condition. Developing the vision among participants that best describes our understanding of the challenge. Creating the image on canvas, in monumental proportions, for all to see. And finally meeting the public, and bringing them into the conversation. Then we do it again, and again, and again.