Arts & Culture

UK Art Ed Project Gives Voice to City's Homeless

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Video by Jenny Wells/UK Public Relations and Marketing

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 18, 2014) — A new mobile exhibition of art, which debuts on University of Kentucky's campus this week, hopes to shed light on homelessness. The show, featuring messages and depictions of life on the streets and in shelters for Lexington's own homeless community, was created with the assistance of 13 students in an art education course led by Marty Henton, head of art education, in the UK School of Art and Visual Studies at UK College of Fine Arts.

The art featured in the exhibition, "Streetvoice Art," was created over four weeks at Community Inn, a homeless shelter on Winchester Road. The UK students met weekly in a studio-type setting with five members of the Street Voice Council, individuals who are currently homeless or have experienced homelessness and work with the Catholic Action Center. The meetings were an opportunity to get to know these new artists' personal stories, the heartache and the courage they had.

At first, the idea of spending so much time with a group of homeless individuals was daunting for some of Henton's students. But they soon learned any anxiety was unfounded, and they realized the artists they were paired with were just like them, full of fears and hopes.

As they listened and learned about one another, the UK students helped their counterparts translate those feelings on blank 18-inch-by-24-inch yard signs. What came pouring out were not only powerful images of life on the street, but new bonds of friendship.

Street Voice member Rodney Lee, who was previously homeless and regularly sports his blue and white showing his love for the Wildcats, was eager to share his story and work with his team of students. "I wanted people to know what homeless life is all about. I wanted them to know my story, my experience being homeless and how I learned to deal with it."

Art history and visual studies senior Candice Cress found the experience working with her Street Voice member, Paula, rewarding as well, and was glad she could help her artist express her dreams and even fears on paper. "It's always a joy for me to help someone else express themselves."  

In addition to being happy to help bring these messages to light through art, the bonds formed in the teams changed minds.

"This is one of the best experiences I had. It's changed my entire outlook on homelessness as a whole," said art history and anthropology senior Addie Towery. "I work downtown, and I work around a lot of homeless people. Before this project, I wasn't willing to maybe say that prayer or give that change that I had to them. Now that I understand that a lot of them do have jobs, and that they are just wanting that chance rather than my change, I do make the extra effort to stop and say a prayer with them or talk to them and get their story. That's all they are looking for, just someone to talk to."

And Henton believes the students weren't the only ones impacted. "I think it is eye opening for all sides."

The moving art, ranging from Paula's bright yellow dream home to Rodney's depiction of his "rollercoaster" ride of the ups and downs of life, are being displayed on campus beginning Monday as part of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.

The exhibition is one of two opportunities to get to know what it means for these artists to be homeless. The campus community can hear from the Street Voice Council members in person and the UK students who worked with them at "Panel Stories of Homelessness" running from 6-8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 17, in Room 211 of the Student Center. To see other activities planned by UK Center for Community Outreach, visit www.ukcco.org/programs/national-hunger-and-homelessness-week/.

"Streetvoice Art" was made possible by a collaboration of Henton's "AE 560: Community Art Education" course and Ginny Ramsey, of the Catholic Action Center, and Christine Leistner, of Center for Community Outreach. Leistner and Ramsey individually spoke to the class before the project to help prepare the group.

With the project now complete, the artwork will be returned to the artists to use as they see fit in the future. The mobile nature of the pieces would allow the Street Voice Council to use them almost anywhere to bring awareness to the struggles they must endure. But, while the coursework might be done, many of Henton's students long to keep the connection alive.

In hopes of not losing touch with their new friends, the class has already planned to return in December for a holiday art project. Individually, some students are considering volunteering with the homeless, while at least one senior hopes to send letters to keep in touch with her new friend.

The class has even impacted some students' future career goals. "It has definitely inspired me more to want to work in a nonprofit, to actually work more in communities and given me more of a drive to want to help people and meet more people to see what we can do to make things better," said art history and museum studies senior Bonita Ybarra.

In addition to the upcoming December project and correspondence, Henton gave the Street Voice Team artists journals to record their thoughts and ideas and created a chalk board for people staying at the shelter to share their feelings with a prompt asking them to share what people need to know about them.

Prior to the project at Community Inn, Henton's class worked with the Lexington Art League on "Interstruct," a multi-venue, site-specific exhibition of art in non-art spaces throughout Lexington. Henton's class worked at Pope Villa, a suburban villa designed by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe for Senator John and Eliza Pope in 1810-11.

Up next, the class will create muslin flags with local school children that will be featured on the Isaac Murphy Memorial Garden Christmas tree. To round out the semester the group will take on the "Dream Big" project where they will interview faculty at UK School of Art and Visual Studies on the new Bolivar building to design a celebration for the new facility.

From the celebratory to the sometime painful messages, Henton and the class hope they are shining a light on the breadth of the community and the sometimes forgotten within it. "It’s about seeing your community through the lens of an artist, through the lens of a creative eye, and figuring out how art communicates that message that you want to share."

And Towery offers a word of advice for those with hesitations. "For all the people that do have anxieties about something like this, I'd say throw them out the window. They are people just like us, and they want to be people just like us. So, you know, dive in."
 

MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu

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