Three
senior fine art students spent their time
in prison this summer!
Mahaly Grant,
Emily Lowell, and Michael Stingle worked with Professor Leslie Robison and
residents at the St. Johns County Youth Detention Center, designing and
executing a mural about literacy and forming a reading group with the teen
residents.
After
several meetings with the residents, Grant, Lowell, and Stingle each designed
several mural proposals. The residents
chose one of Grant’s designs (above) and the whole group worked together to paint the
mural onto a section of wall measuring approximately 13 feet long and 9 feet
high.
When asked
how working with this group went, Stingle replied that, “It was fun. I think
all of the guys will be able to make art more successfully now and they are
definitely more interested in art.”
But did
the experience affect the Flagler students?
Definitely, says the group. Grant
adds that, “It was a really humanizing
experience to work with the guys because you were able to look past the
societal view of them as juvenile delinquents and get to know them personally.”
Professor
Robison feels that the caring attitudes of these seniors, the book she chose
for the group to read, and the experience of participating in an art project,
will positively affect the paths these young men take in the future. “We read Sherman Alexie’s novel The
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian not only because it is
charming, entertaining, and relevant to these young men’s lives, but also
because it demonstrates how art, reading, and education can come together to
provide hope for the future,” says Robison.
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