Stonehill Students Get Brockton Students' Perspective

May 10, 2010

Have your picture taken while imagining you are a wild animal. Write a letter to yourself from 10 years in the future. Create a bird out of tin cans and feathers.

These are a few of the projects that students from the West Middle School in Brockton worked on when they teamed up with Stonehill College and the Artists for Humanity. (Photo above: Emily Parker '10, and Mareyell Blass, 11, of Brockton look through a book with the students' art. Photo by Marc Vasconcellos/Enterprise)

"We are trying to think bigger and bring the arts back to the community rather than simply be an activity for the kids after school," said Adam Lampton, one of the program's organizers.

The program, called "Stonehill College's Arts Outreach: Mentoring Through Photography and Visual Art," concluded its 11th year recently.

The program paired 40 Stonehill students with 20 West Middle School students, and eight Artists for Humanity, high-school-aged students.

They received support from the Plymouth County district attorney's office and Artists for Humanity, a Boston-based nonprofit that has helped bring art to various Massachusetts communities for nearly 20 years.

Between September and early May, the group met nearly every week for three hours.

For their final project, they designed a billboard, which is posted near the commuter rail in downtown Brockton.

They also created a booklet of their artwork, which can be viewed at the Web site: www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1308523.

"This is not a static program, it is such a creative dynamic going on between college students, art professors, and middle-school students," said Martin McGovern of Stonehill media relations. "There's always going to be that artistic flair and outpouring."

To view more photos of students from West Middle School and Stonehill taken by Enterprise photographer Marc Vasconcellos, visit here. 

Contact

For more information, contact Communications and Media Relations at 508-565-1321.