Paying Homage: Soil & Site
July 27—September 8, 2018
India Wolterstorff, Estelle Griswold, 2018. White earthenware clay; Photo credit Pedro Reis.
Artspace’s Summer Apprenticeship Program with Lead Artist Roberto Lugo, in partnership with Vital New Voices.
This summer, 19 students will join forces with activist potter/spoken word poet Roberto Lugo to pay homage to unsung heroes of our community and tell the untold stories about their contributions. Homage will take the form of a giant ceramic tile mural that will be mounted permanently at Common Ground School after its Artspace debut, made in Lugo’s signature style, making reference to the ornate Della Robbia ceramic technique of the Italian Renaissance.
To accompany the mural, the students will develop spoken word works about their s/heroes that will be performed at the opening, July 27. The creative team working with Lugo includes Christian Ayala, Ruby Gonzalez Hernandez, Carly Gove, Shelby Simmons, theater artists Aaron Jafferis and Dyme Ellis, and Lugo’s Studio Manager Amanda Schneider with guest visitors who’ll help the students research their heroes, New Haven Librarians Diane Brown and Allison Botelho, Yale Librarians Mary Caldera and Bill Landis, and historian, curator and Museum Director Frank Mitchell.
This summer marks the first time that SAP will play host to an international exchange group of Fellows who will be embedded in the program, arranged in partnership with La Voz Hispana. The three Fellows come from Riobamba, known for indigenous and colonial ceramics, and today, as a center of tile making in Ecuador.
Thank you to our in kind contributors Chabaso Bakery, G Bakery, Kiara Matos Ceramics and Speedball.
Artspace SAP 2018: Roberto Lugo – Student Works from Cyrus Duff on Vimeo.
2018 Apprentices:
- Daniela Alejandra Arandi López (Riobamba, Ecuador Fellow)
- Patricio Salvador Bacón Guaray (Riobamba, Ecuador Fellow)
- Kiyomi Leslie Bowen (Metropolitan Business Academy)
- Naamy Dayana Castillo (Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School)
- Angela Victoria Fernandez-Ayala (Common Ground High School)
- Gabriela Gonzalez (Wilbur Cross High School)
- Aliya Anna Hafiz (Educational Center for the Arts)
- Sofiya Alexandra Hafiz (Educational Center for the Arts)
- Adara Huq (Metropolitan Business Academy)
- Aime Mulungula (Career High School)
- Natalia Maria Padilla Castellanos (Wilbur Cross High School)
- Kobe Randolph (Hillhouse High School and Educational Center for the Arts)
- Tyler Brian Reid (Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School)
- Keely Mumm Russel-Thornton (Common Ground High School)
- Tiffany Lynn Sewell (New Horizons High School)
- Jaida Stancil (New Haven Academy)
- Raven Von Kohler (Common Ground High School)
- Jordan Isaiah Walker (Metropolitan Business Academy)
- India Wolterstorff (New Haven Academy and Educational Center for the Arts)
On September 8, 2018, Artspace presented “Paying Homage: Soil and Site,” a free, full-day interdisciplinary summit to promote dialogue on the interplay of environmentalism, social justice, the arts, and community identity. It responded to the companion exhibition Ball Snake Ball and the artwork created by participants in Artspace’s 18th annual Summer Apprenticeship Program, a partnership with Vital New Voices, by assembling scholars, activists, educators, and civic leaders working on environmental justice issues to explore the politics of our basic environmental needs and the consequences of historical environmental racism on our local communities, as well as the role of the land itself as a lasting monument to these injustices and others.
Learn more about our Speakers and Panelists, here.
Watch video from the summit, here.
In partnership with:
