“The NKU students had to do a social justice project and they choose our school,” said Adrian Hawk, Monroe’s art teacher and advisor to the Art Earth Club.
The NKU students working with the AEC are Alicia Dodson and Mike Felts, both graduates of New Richmond High School, and Lauren Newman, graduate of Clermont Northeastern. They helped the Monroe students and parents collect river back trash for one hour Sept. 19 that was turned into a sculpture for the Art Show.
“The kids created a large scale sculpture that will be on display at Front Street Café just to make a statement about conservation and helping the environment,” said Hawk. “They decided what shape the sculpture would take and made the artistic decisions with the found objects.”
Felts, a 1995 New Richmond graduate, earned a degree in graphics art from Cincinnati Art Institute and worked for years as a graphic artist before returning to college to pursue art education degree. He is not surprised at the importance the New Richmond school district places on art education.
“I went through the art program at New Richmond and I’m glad art is just as important today as it was when I was in school,” said Felts, who introduced the art club to silk screening during the six week project. In addition to the sculpture project, the NKU students are working with the Art Earth Club in other areas including showing different forms of art, T-shirt design and plant and tree plantings.
“I brought a water color that I did when I was in high school at New Richmond and some prints I’ve made at NKU,” said Dodson, a senior at NKU. “This is a great project for me since I live right up the road from Monroe.”
Monroe Elementary Art Earth Club members Elise Bezold and Erin O'Toole work on their portion of the sculpture the club made from trash collected off the river bank in New Richmond.
Members of Monroe's Art Earth Club start work on their sculpture made from river bank trash. The sculpture will be on display at the Front Street Cafe during the Java Jazz'N Art show Oct. 10.
NKU students (from left) Alicia Dodson, Mike Felts and Lauren Newman worked with Monroe's Art Earth Club to create a sculpture out of river bank trash for the Java Jazz'N Art show in New Richmond. Felts and Dodson are graduates of New Richmond High School.
