Clearview third-grade students in Julie Nefs classroom are taking part in a seven-day arts residency with Twin Cities sculptor Anne McFaul Reid. The first portion of the program this week saw Reid, Nefs and classroom volunteers working with students to draw and trace patters for individual sculptures they will create.
The program is titled “Garden Creatures”, and will give the students a chance to create an outdoor garden sculpture using six-foot lengths of copper tubing, cured paint, wire and beads of various kinds.
Reid has taught workshops and classes at The Science Museum of Minnesota, the Walker Art Center and in public schools throughout the Twin Cities. She is also an accomplished painter, print artist and shadow box designer.
The program is made possible through a grant from COMPAS, a state-wide non-profit arts organization that seeks to bring art to school classrooms, senior citizens and anywhere people are “inspired to create.”
COMPAS arts program director Daniel Gabriel was also on hand this week, observing the residency and compiling a report for the organization on it. Gabriel said that he has worked with Clearview art teacher Kathy Gerdts-Senger on a number of past projects, in schools and outside, and that Clearview was chosen for this specific grant due to two key factors: COMPAS was seeking educational settings where the environment and preparation work for the residencies would be in place before the programs began, and that they were seeking venues in central Minnesota to locate projects.
Another COMPAS project is currently underway in the Foley School District, Gabriel said.
