Art Exhibit

Self Portrait. Danait Gebremedhen (Ethiopia), age 11, no previous art experience.

The scent of injera (Ethiopia) and Tikil (Nepal) Gomen mixed with African rice and spicy salsa wafted across the kitchen, delighting the appetites of visitors as they contemplatively paged through a long line of sketchbooks. Drawings, paintings, sketches, writing, thoughts, feelings, wants, filled the pages of 15 books that started the summer empty and ended overflowing.

August 16th CFNA hosted an open house art exhibition for the students who participated in Intersect—a summer program that used art as a catalyst to empower, teach, and build relationships. The youth experienced basic drawing and painting techniques, sketching people and animals from life, block printing, dry point etching, as well as photography and film. Over the course of three months we explored the topics of belonging, identity, community and storytelling. We practiced a range of skills from rendering techniques, to developing content, to constructive critique. We focused on extending our attention span for visual thinking and critical reflection. Over 30 youth participated throughout the summer with 15 showing in our exhibition and about 50 people including students, families and volunteers and community members celebrated at our open house.

The exhibition focused on sharing that process. The process of seeing and making. The process of connecting and growing. The sketchbooks revealed our students’ very inner discovery and commitment to thinking, practicing and creating. Each day of art class students took time to work in their sketchbooks exploring whatever was on their minds, practicing skills, or responding to prompts. The walls of the basement art room at the Peace Center were covered in a mass of colors and shapes and marks. In the transition space of the hallway upstairs we projected two films created collaboratively by the youth; one an ‘idea map’ about belonging and the other a gestural performance about the paradox of childhood play and violence. In the upstairs space we shared a wonderful international buffet, our well-worn sketchbooks and a very personal film from a high school student, Lewam, about her history as an Eritrean refugee.

This was the process of creating a place to belong. This was the process of making art and relationships. These were the processes of building a community that loves one another as Christ has loved us. This is the process of learning to know Jesus.

We hope to continue weekend classes during the year- please contact Sarah Bernhardt if you are interested in being involved! Check out the Intersect Project website for contact information, to find out more, and view some of our art!  http://www.intersectstl.com/