OPEF’s Art Start program sponsored Oak Park artist Jill Kramer this fall, who led Ms. Worley’s and Ms. Murray’s 6th grade art classes in the study of socially engaged visual art.
Students critiqued the images they see all around them, and then designed their own images to convey personal meaning. The powerful limited edition screen prints they created incorporated imagery and text as a means to lend youth voice to visual culture in Oak Park. The students focused on the concepts of community and youth participation through visual art as democratic participation. In addition, the students will be exchanging prints with each other in a way similar to that of professional print exchanges undertaken in the contemporary art world. The 6th graders in Oak Park have a lot of important things to say!
You can see a sampling of their work in these photos by Paul Goyette and Patti Quilling, or come see them in person starting Wednesday, October 26, on display in the windows of Oak Park Bath & Kitchen, 136 N. Ridgeland in Oak Park now through November 22.