Photo Essay: Amherst College Art Students Get Active in Amherst
Murals created by Amherst College students at the Amherst Senior Center, based on the experiences and memories and current activities of seniors who use the center. Photo: Hetty Startup
This short article honors two amazing professors at Amherst College who, in different ways, have created courses that engage with communities right here in town.
On November 13, I was lucky enough to attend presentations by students of Lisa Brooks, Amherst College Professor of American Studies and English, at an event hosted by the Kestrel Land Trust and the college’s Beneski Museum. It seemed to be the perfect place to bring together people with all sorts of interests and from diverse backgrounds to learn more about Brooks’ Keystone Kin course, “Whose Home Is This? Observations of Wildlife as Kin.”
The presentations were by Adela Thompson Page, Anya Hardy-Mittell, Caly Van Leeuwen, Matthew Fisher, and Zach Walker. Each of these articulate and thoughtful students, whose majors range from Art to Geology to Political Science, explored the question “Whose Home Is This?” using trail cameras installed at Bright Water Bog, Kestrel’s newest nature retreat, in Shutesbury, — and at the Amherst College Wildlife Sanctuary.
The lecture room was filled with family, friends, neighbors, and Kestrel members, and we were treated to animal track casts (made of plaster and sand) that were passed around, videos of many different animals taken in nearby conservation areas, and maps and other visual data about wildlife habitats. Please read about this extraordinary scholar and teacher here.
I was also honored to have participated in a small way in meetings directed by Amherst College Assistant Professor of Art Lucia Monge as part of her class “Public Art and Collaborative Practices”, which has been working this semester in the Amherst Senior Center at the Bangs Community Center. Monge guided the work with Zoe Jacobs Feinstein, the Assistant Director of the Center for Community Engagement (CCE) at Amherst College and collaborated with Amherst Senior Center staff to create a community-inspired art mural.
Monge’s students also met with senior citizens who regularly use the center and who, in some cases, are artists themselves. After spending time discussing the idea of a mural project, everyone became engaged in carefully sketching in, and then painting the back wall of the room, which will look very different when the project is completed. Colorful scenes, partly imaginary and partly based on the lives and ideas of senior center members, are enlivening the walls. I was struck by how carefully the project has been set up to allow for a full participation by students, where it felt like everyone was cared for. One of the senior center elders, Robert, is an artist himself whose work is displayed in the room already. He is curious about how the project will turn out.
The official unveiling is planned for Tuesday, December 10 from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Amherst Senior Center, in the Bangs Center. You can read more about Lucia Monge here [https://www.amherst.edu/people/facstaff/lmonge] and see some of her artwork here.
Read More: An Inviting Addition: Amherst College Students Creating New Mural at Senior Center Featuring the Diversity of Town’s Elders (Daily Hampshire Gazette)
Photo Gallery of Art Student Engagement
