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Art teacher Brenda Savella (far left) and her Art 20 students from M.E. LaZerte High School, in Edmonton, celebrate the completion of the art project Invitation. See "Dreaming dreams to change the world" on page 12.
Dreaming dreams to change the world
Artists dream dreams and art teachers are weavers of dreams. Artists and teachers not only teach principles of art and design, they also provide inspiration and guide students’ imagination beyond the classroom so that their art can be a vital voice in the community.
This was the case in the creation of a collaborative fibre art piece by M. E. LaZerte High School Art 20 students, art teacher Brenda Savella and fibre artist Margarita McKeough. In this Edmonton school, where more than 80 nations are represented, this group of art students reached out to the community with their art to make their world a better place.
This new generation is learning to speak to the world in a way that brings beauty and comfort to others. Savella uses her own art as a vehicle for social justice and to emphasize the dignity and worth of all people. Her portraits of homeless people were featured on the front page of the Edmonton Journal and appeared online (Canada News and World News.com). Savella’s students shared her belief that art can make a positive social change, and a dream was born.
After Savella’s students created lino block prints on the theme “Trees, Bark and Leaves,” Savella contacted Margarita McKeough about incorporating the individual blocks from 34 students into a larger artwork. Coincidentally, McKeough’s dream was to encourage the younger generation to explore fibre arts and quilting as art forms. It was a perfect match. McKeough offered not only to fund the entire project but to donate the more than 200 hours it took to arrange, piece, quilt and embellish the large (3.5 feet × 7 feet) fibre arts wall hanging.
At the beginning of the project, students decided that the hanging should be donated to the community to add beauty and hope where they are needed.
The artwork is entitled Invitation— McKeough, Savella and her Art 20 students invite other teachers, students and artists to use art to weave dreams and make the world a better place.
