On Martin Luther King Day 2019, LSU art students collaborated with the LSU Museum of Art Neighborhood Art Project, visiting a local community to teach art-making.

The Neighborhood Art Project partners with community groups in areas where there is a high density of children and low resources for creative activities during the summer or after school. Art graduate and undergrad students taught handbuilding, relief printing, impromptu sculpture and assemblage, painting, and more.

“I had the pleasure of collaborating with a number of grads and undergrads from the art and design program,” said Grant Benoit, museum educator at the LSU Museum of Art. “It was a great opportunity for students to get out of the studio at Gardere Initiative during their MLK Day program. There were about 60 children and adults who were able experience the program.”

Art students Claire Kane, Ian Park, Matt Zorn, Claire Samani, Carli Solomons, Michael, Diana Abouchcra, Kyle Peruch, Mary Ratcliff, Sam Rosado, Luke Atkinson, Michael Whitehead, Samantha Combs, Sarah Ulm, and Maddie Norton participated in the outreach project.

“Some of the other painting students and I spent the day painting with the neighborhood children, filling a mural-sized canvas with images inspired by MLK Day,” said MFA candidate Alexander Atkinson. “I worked with the children to express what Martin Luther King Jr.’s life meant to them and what their dreams were. It was great and there ended up being a lot of flowers.”

“We’re so proud and appreciative of the students who went out in the community,” said Rod Parker, director of the School of Art.

“I look forward to continued collaborations with the students in art and design and the education program at the museum,” Benoit said.