Working with Artist in Residence Jorge Rojas, the students came up with this school-wide project after learning about Ellsworth Kelly, Spencer Finch, James Turrell, and other artists who use color, time, space, light, and perception in their work. The class talked about how artists can use these elements to transform spaces, moods, and even affect how we perceive ourselves and each other.
Since 2014, East High has made progress in bringing its diverse student body together with more students of color assuming leadership positions. However, social divisions remain.
The divisions were worsened during the pandemic when west-side students were disproportionately affected, often forced to be absent from classes because of illness and death within their families and difficulties accessing online learning. With this project, we aimed to bring the student body together, build trust, foster mutual respect, and bring joy to the entire school community. More importantly, we want this program to be replicable in many school settings to use art in fostering a closer school community and empowering students from all backgrounds to make a difference in their world.
The exploration of these challenges led the students to conceive the Color Me East window installation project. Clemente students worked with Jorge as leaders of this project, applying their experiences and skills gained studying the humanities to shape and contextualize a school-wide community art project.
The students researched materials, created mock-ups, presented to the PTA and fellow students, organized a school-wide design project, wrote about the project to contextualize and justify its need, made and installed the window decals, and hosted a launch party to celebrate.
This residency is a partnership between East High School, Utah Humanities, and The Clemente Course in the Humanities. The goal of this residency is to bring artists working in public art and community-based practice to work with students in creating an art project that helps bring students together.