THE art CONNECTION

It almost seems like a contradiction to celebrate children in the context of something that is 80 years old. But Carnegie Museum of Art joyfully does just that with the opening of this years exhibition of artwork produced by students in The Art Connection, for this group of students is the 80th to have that distinction. It is unlikely that any of them can even fathom the reality of 80 years; I suspect that is something that can be understood only as it is lived, each year after the last. But I believe that each of the 163 students whose work is on view in the Hall of Sculpture feels with pride their place in this eight-decade tradition. The story of how that tradition has evolved is explored in an article reprinted here from the current issue of Carnegie Magazine; it also provides a glimpse of some of the people teachers and studentswho have contributed to the vitality of Saturday art classes over those 80 years. With this exhibition, we celebrate a new crop of creative kids. We applaud their persistence in refining technical skills, their curiosity about distant times and places made real to them in the works of art in the museums collections and exhibitions, and their willingness to thoughtfully give shape to their personal views of the world through the artistic process. It is their fascination with asking questions, nurtured by imaginative and talented artistteachers, that makes this tradition do more than just survive. Please enjoy the 20082009 exhibition of The Art Connection. We thank the Hulme Charitable Trust and the Scaife Family Foundation for their generous support of student artists. We are also grateful for our ongoing partnership with the Pittsburgh Board of Education; their support of scholarships for Pittsburgh Public School students allows young artists recommended by their teachers to join in The Art Connection experience. We congratulate our graduating ninth graders; many of them have made Carnegie Museum of Art their personal Saturday tradition without fail for five years. Each ninth graders self-portrait is reproduced in this brochure or on its back cover. As you celebrate this years Art Connection accomplishments, look forward with us to the excitement and innovation we are yet to shape.

Marilyn M. Russell Curator of Education Carnegie Museum of Art April 2009

Look to see, to remember, to enjoy

An early mantra of Carnegie Museum of Arts Saturday art classes encouraged young art enthusiasts to take in the world with eyes and minds wide open. In honor of the programs 80th anniversary, some grateful alumni look back.
By Justin Hopper As a child in late-1950s Arizona, Emil Sauer chased jackrabbits on the ranchland that bordered his nascent Tempe neighborhood. So when Sauer arrived in Pittsburgh on what would become a fateful visit to an aunt and uncle in 1963, it was like entering another world. When I came through the tunnels into Pittsburgh, it was like the Wizard of Oz, says Sauer, now a professional artist living just outside Chicago. I could see the blast furnaces burning, the glow from the mills, and the trains rolling through town. At night, orange ingots flew out of the trains, bouncing on the tracks like popsicles. There was nothing like it in the Southwestit was bustling. Tragically, as he was preparing to go home, Sauers aunt and uncle got a call: His mother had died suddenly, and just like that, Pittsburgh became the young mans new home. His was the Pittsburgh of Gimbels, Hornes, and Kaufmanns; of Isalys ice cream, streetcars, and Kennywood. And perhaps most importantly, every Saturday for three years, it was the Pittsburgh of Tam OShanter art classes at Carnegie Museum of Art in Oakland. There, on a scholarship won through a poster contest, Sauer learned how to view, appreciate, and create artwork, like thousands of students before him and since. For its students, the Tam OShanter classes were as much a part of Pittsburgh lore as any of those better-known icons. For 80

years, the weekly sessions, under a variety of namesTam OShanter, Palette, or The Art Connection, as the classes are called todayhave been distinguished as much by stringent rules, sacrifice, and dedication as by famous teachers and students, not to mention a powerful sense of pride. Still going strong today, albeit with a much different format than the formal lectures of yesteryear, Carnegie Museum of Arts Saturday art classes managed to continue long after the departure of legendary teachers such as Joseph Fitzpatrick and Ed Spar. They survived the Great Depression, a world war, and the rise and fall of art movements from Cubism to Pop. And Emil Sauer knows why. You cant teach creativity, says Sauer, thats true. But in being creative around people, it provides a kind of instruction that goes beyond mere techniqueit awakens that creativity in others. And thats what these instructors did.

hair. Hed slip in the back of the museum, and next time you saw him hed be on stage. He was a celebrity. As early as the 1940s, Fitzpatricks figure loomed over the Saturday art classes, which began in 1929 at the hands of Margaret Lee, the museums director of educational work. Through Fitzpatricks work as art supervisor for Pittsburgh Public Schools and the museums Tam OShanter and Palettes classeswhich, if combined, gave children a continuous museumbased art-making experience from about eight years old until their early teenshe educated thousands of students through the early 1970s. His mantraLook. To see, to remember, to enjoystill resonates with two generations of Pittsburghers as a way of looking at art, and of looking at the world. Yet, to see the photos of a crowded and impersonal Carnegie Music Hall, and to hear, at first blush, the descriptions of those weekly Saturday classes, its easy for a generation raised on modern educational conceptsclasses more likely to have a students bill of rights than a dress code to wonder: What was the appeal? Braughler was a student at Moore Elementary School in Brentwood when she was chosen by her art teacher to be one of two students from the third grade to represent the school as a Tam OShanter. Each school in the region contributed two third graders each year, which added up to hundreds of Tam OShanters when they all filed into the Music Hall in Oakland. Braughler recalls befriending the other Brentwood-area Tam OShanters on their carpool drives to Oaklandhers was the only mother who drove a car. She recalls the end-of-term trips to Isalys for ice cream, but also the relentless early Saturday mornings and the missed Friday-night pajama partiesa central social activity for girls of her era. Once inside the Music Hall, things were just as rigidly formed as the line outside. Each class saw a select handful of students, judged on the quality of their work, brought onstage to replicate their projects from the previ-

Brush with Celebrity

Even as a young girl, only eight years old when she became a Tam OShanter in the late 1950s, Beth Braughler recognized there was something special about Joseph Fitzpatrick. Something that, perhaps, none of her other teachers held. Sure, he was strictSaturday mornings werent time for socializing. But Braughler and her classmates recognized that Fitzpatricks strictness came from a place of respect, not bossiness, and the students returned that respect pound for pound, with adoration. Wed wait outside Carnegie Music Hall in separate linesboys on one side, girls on the other, recalls Braughler, now assistant curator of education at the Frick Art & Historical Center. Mr. Fitzpatrick always walked to the museum, and youd see him striding up Forbes Avenue towards the class, always impeccably dressedelegant suits, a white shirt and tie, and snow-white

ous weekin front of everyone. The dress code, particularly for girls, was as strict as the one-piece-of-paper rule for distributed art materials. But there was something in those rules more important than the constrictions placed on a childs young social life. There was a sense of honor, and the extension of respect. They made it very clear, if you dropped out, they would never fill that spot, impressing the honor of being a Tam OShanter on the children, says Braughler. But theres no question about it: Being able to go to that museum, participate in the classit was a real treat. I cant say why I never thought to say, OK, Ive had enough, I quit. But I didnt. And it was a real hardship on my parents and the other parents. It was rigorous instruction, recalls Emil Sauer. But Fitzpatrick was so enthusiastic onstageif I was drowsy, within a few minutes Id be wide awake. He always had the attention of the whole room. That requires real mastery.

artistic experience that she might never have received elsewhere. As an African-American girl growing up in the less-than-affluent Pittsburgh neighborhood of Knoxville in the early 1970s, Leach notes that positive artistic influences were few and far between: There was her own household, with artist and musician parents, and, well, that was about it. But immediately upon being chosen for a scholarship to The Art Connection, Leach was sure Carnegie Museum of Art was where she belonged. This was the 1970s, shortly after the civil rights movement, and my public school teachers were trying, but they were older, and it just wasnt there, says Leach. The teachers at the Carnegie were of an attitude that was very open, very engagingthey were younger and artists, and they were the first ones who talked to me the same way as other students. Even when theyd comment on your work, it was so different from public school art teachers, it was really beautiful for me. It was my first step outside of the neighborhood, and my first taste of artistic freedom. Freedom might not be the first word associated with the Fitzpatrick-era Tam OShanters. But today, freedomat least within the classs well-defined structure is an idea that is jealously guarded by Carnegie Museum of Arts Saturday art class instructors and students alike. The Art Connection taught me to go outside the boundaries, says Marian Day, a mid-1990s alumna who today is the sole art teacher for Cornell School District, which includes students from Coraopolis and Neville Island. They were very supportive of that freedom. It was a big lesson to learnthat what I had pictured in my head at first wasnt necessarily the final product. I learned that I enjoyed the journey more than the final piece itself.

vitch discussed with her fifth-grade class landscapes by diverse artists, from Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet to Pittsburghs famed folk painter John Kane. Any art class can discuss Van Gogh and Kane, but The Art Connection has the unique opportunity to do so while standing in front of the actual work. And despite their agebarely breaking double-digits Andrykovitchs students are never quiet when it comes to discussing the museums collection. Theyre not shy, she laughs. At each painting, I sit them down and have them share their observations. Its a good exercise in getting them to elaboratein changing something visual into something verbal. They learn to justify their responses, which is empowering to the students, because theres no right or wrong answer. The Museum of Art teaches its students not necessarily how to achieve the absolute pinnacle of drawing technique but how to see and understand nuances in whatever it is they see. One of the side effects of this method, albeit an important, purposeful one, is an understanding of art as a potential career path. Ryan Freytag spent the better part of his early life in The Art Connectionfirst as a student, then, while studying art at Carnegie Mellon University, as a teachers assistant to his former instructor, Ed Spar. Now 29, Freytag works next to Christiane Leach as the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council manager of cultural policy and research. Its a career path he attributes directly to his time at the museums Saturday art classes. One week every semester wed do a behind the scenes lesson looking at something like the creation of a museum exhibition, says Freytag. It inspired me to work in the arts. I went into art in college knowing I didnt want to be an art teacher, but that I probably wasnt going to be a professional artist, either. But I knew from my classes that there were all these other options; so many other doors to open.
Originally published in Carnegie Magazine, vol. 73, no.1 (Spring 2009), pp 3236.

The Taste of Artistic Freedom

When Braughler and Sauer were students, Andy Warhol was just another graphic designer in New York Cityhimself a former Tam OShanter under Fitzpatricks tutelageand Pop art, Abstract Expressionism, even Cubism were largely new concepts to everyday Pittsburghers. Saturday art classes lasted through changing artistic trends by remaining a malleable program rooted in a deep respect for the students and their learning experience. We approach our students with an assumption, not of maturity, but of intelligence, says Marilyn Russell, Carnegie Museum of Arts chair and curator of education. Sometimes in younger grades, art isnt always thought of as having the rigor that a math class might have. But for people who appreciate art, its about what you see in the world, and what you believe to be noteworthy. And thats serious. In addition to her day job at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council, Christiane Leach is a well-regarded and multi-talented artist, musician, and poet. And to her, a lot of that goes back to the Saturdays she happily sacrificed to Palette classes as a childin exchange for an egalitarian educational and

The Side Effects

In todays classes, young people from all over the Pittsburgh area reign over their museumstudents whose parents enroll them, as well as those chosen for one of about 100 annual scholarships. On the first day of the most recent winter session, before heading for the classroom to allow students to try their hand at drawing landscapes, Pittsburgh artist Ashley Andryko-

grade 5

ART & NATURE

The natural world was the thematic inspiration for creative art-making in grade five. Self-portraits helped build careful observation skills as students examined their own images to understand proportion, and to practice effective use of light and shadow to convey lifelike naturalism. A variety of drawing exercises served as preparation for still-life paintings inspired by works in the collection designed to fool the eye with explicit realism. Installation art in Life on Mars, the 2008 Carnegie International, was the context for a group project that transformed the fifth-grade studio into a walk-in work of art and engaged the students in collaborative artistic practice. Students explored the animal world in drawings that ranged from realistic and highly detailed styles to abstractions in four different media focusing on color and texture. They worked through the complete artistic processfrom sketching exercises crucial to formulating ideas and designing compositions to underpainting, color mixing, and paint applicationin order to produce expressive landscape paintings.

Even though its two hours it feels like only thirty minutes because its really fun. We get to do a lot of fun activities like using watercolors and doing free draw. AUsTIN TROHOskI

AM Students
Harry Amplas Julia Biertempfel LaReese Crawford Tatum Grover Abigail Hall Mackenzie Hauger Vance Hudson Olivia Irwin Robert Jones Hailee Mills Daria Och LaShawn Parks Riley Pletcher Olivia Rautio Dakota Rethage Aaron Smolar Louis Suarez Austin Trohoski Nathan Wallace Rachel Woodhall

PM Students
Rene Alberto-Ramirez Madeline Badaczewski Brittany Barsotti Saul Bezner Robert Bianco Loretta Carsone Kevin Clark Ronnie Dunlap Antonio Esposito Cameron Fields Lindsay Fields Jordan Jubeck Zachary Lardas Katelin Lorch Natalya Marinch Asa Neuer Aaron Owens Codie Piotrowski Shayla Salamacha Sam Schoone Peyton Skinker Lisa Tripon

is very interesting So far, class not only learning because Im

to do paintings but also about the history of paintings in the gallery. JUlIA BIERTEmpfEl

grade 6

HIsTORICAl ART

Sixth-grade students explored works in the museum collection from throughout the history of art in order to understand and adapt past styles and techniques in their own work. They identified artistic elements in paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts objects that characterized specific places and periods, and then documented them in drawings and watercolor sketches in handmade design books. Like artists throughout time, the students focused on the human figure in drawing projects, working on accurate proportion and the use of light and shadow to convey three-dimensional form. This work prepared them for wire and clay sculptures of figures in motion. Students worked on mastering Renaissance one-point perspective in observational drawings of architectural spaces; they then transformed elements of their drawings into relief sculptures in clay. Looking to more recent history, students investigated abstraction as an innovation of the 20th century. After sketching and researching favorite abstract works in the galleries, they created an original abstract painting.

Its really fun and I learned things like onepoint perspective and how to stretch canvas. Everybodys nice and there are really good teachers. ABBy ZAdROZNy

AM Students
Tomilola Adebayo Joseph Amadio Margaret Booth Brendan Bruno Nicholas DeLeone Jeremy Eiben Melanie Fetsko Magda Gangwar William Grimm Jennifer Hickey Tiara Hurt Casey Hutton Caroline McAdoo Montana Moore Alexis Palmer Seungbin Shin Andrew Sitterle Emma Somers Taeler Wright Abagail Zadrozny

PM Students
Haley Arlet Georgia Bubash Matthew Burgett Madeline Colker Kelly Dieterle Shea Ehrenberger Jarod Flis Shaquille Grace Cynthia Gu Miriam Levenson Brooke Ley Laura Mangan Isaac Merritt John Novakowski Ivy Ryan Kira Samoilo Deepika Sarma Kanika Sarma Simone Traub Alexandria Williams

like Iaboutthat we get to learnart different styles of

and go to the galleries and see what the artist does. Then we do what we want but make it unique. Ive learned different styles of art I didnt know existed. TIARA HURT

grade 7

ART & EVERydAy lIfE

Becoming observant of the role of art in our daily lives was a focus for the seventh-grade students. They began the year by inventing and describing their concepts for businesses, and designed logos and signs to communicate their visions. Study of the museums collection of furniture and other functional objects connected the students to the world of industrial and product design. They invented a household object and sketched five variations on their designs before sculpting one as a three-dimensional form. Using the formal and thematic characteristics of found objects, the students used additive and subtractive processes to transform old books and cast-off chairs into expressive works of art. This project required them to consider the interrelationship of function, form, materials, and symbolism in their redesign process. They focused on pattern, geometry, and surface in silkscreen designs for fabric that became wall hangings. In a culminating lesson, students learned the history of embroidery and practiced simple techniques, exploring the mediums potential as a form of thread-based drawing.

would have to take so many classes to learn otherwise. The exhibition is so rewarding because you see all the beautiful work and some of it is your art. Its a great feeling. sAmANTHA lINdER

able to experience Ive beentechniques that you many

AM Students
Khondakar Ahmed Kaden Anantarow Kaitlin Bigley Briana Binion Mary Kate Freeman Dontae Hall Sydney Harris Samantha Linder Sean McAdoo Erin McMahon Malik Muldrow Laekin OHara Jonathan Powell Dorian Robinson Sydney Sandidge Desiree Schreiner Caz Tidrick

PM Students
Maria Alberto-Ramirez Eli Badaczewski Julian Branan Francisco Carballido-Dosal Symone Carter Maxwell Fields Lizbeth Flores-Reyes Gene Flowers Maddie Gettman Nassema Graham Trent Green Taylor James Ezrah Richardson Aysha Salter-Volz Michelle Skinner

grade 8

ART REflECTs TImE & plACE

Eighth-grade students spent the year investigating the processes employed by artists and historians to preserve and present specific moments in time. Their Memory Vessels were inspired by comparisons between artifacts from various cultures in the Museums of Art and Natural History and the work of contemporary artist Mike Kelley, who created multimedia depictions of Kandor, the fictional home of Superman. Following on this model, students chose personal memories and designed and built containers they considered appropriate to house them. Responding to Mark Bradfords highly layered paintings of Los Angeles in Life on Mars, the 2008 Carnegie International, students created personal characterizations of their neighborhoods; composed of road maps combined with painting and collage, these works take on different effects when viewed close up or from a distance. In the Anachronistic Story project, students asked themselves how contemporary artists engage with art from the past. Combing the museum for interesting characters from many eras, students created linocut prints and exchanged blocks with each other to combine characters in unexpected ways that tell unique stories.

I liked the box project because everyone could use it to express different things. AdAm HOffmAN

projects are The all the time. different

AM Students
Courtney Barker Shelby Grundy Brana Hill Rosie Hillenbrand Adam Hoffman Benjamin Jackson Aeron Kalbaugh Katrina Klett Elizabeth Koslow Darian Link Emily Lippert Dakota Pletcher Tyler Sing Samantha Spangler Emily VanHorn Arianna Williams

PM Students
Nicole Bianco Lucy Crelli Wendy Levenson Arisai May Nicole Nolla Olivia Rangel Christopher Reese Alina Samoilo Goda Tarcijonas Jasper Wang

like [The Art Connection] a Ilot because art is my life. Its

always what I think about, and this is a step to become better. Its better than school art classes because the projects are more creative and challenging and you have to put more thought into the final goal. AERON kAlBAUgH

grade 9

EmERgINg ARTIsTs

Consistent with the theme of emerging artists, the ninthgrade students learned to ask personally meaningful artistic questions that served as catalysts for creative self-expression. Strengthening and polishing drawing skills was a focus as they began the year with observational sketches in various museum locations. They all contributed to a collaborative mural project, and, inspired by the graffiti work of artist Barry McGee in Life on Mars, the 2008 Carnegie International, the students joined forces in small groups to give visual form to the experience of living in Pittsburgh. Installation art in Life on Mars led to designs for personal installations launched by a favorite story, and each student created a work in clay as a hypothetical addition to Life on Mars. Throughout the year, they honed their skills independently and collaboratively. They sketched two-dimensional works and transformed them into relief sculptures, made plaster casts emulating works in the Hall of Architecture, and culminated the year with self-portraits, each unique in materials, technique, and expressive effect.

Students
Marquise Darnell Amanda Dugan Justin Dumas Noah Gup Nicole Hanlon Bradley Hill Taylor Hill Tayaunna Jackson Nathan Lancaster David Love Samantha McGehan James Novakowski Igor Omelchenko Danielle Paez Naomi Purnell Emmett Ryan Margaret Saunders Brooke Shaulis DeAnna Shields Michael Siamacco Katie Sitterle Vaughn Skinker Dion White

I love it!

sAm mcgEHAN

have Since I dontkeepsart classes at school, it my creative juices flowing. NAOmI pURNEll

alumni

Students in the Hall of Sculpture, 1940s

When Mr. Fitzpatrick walked on to the stage, there was an instant hush as we were instructed of the theme for that day. It was a wonderful experience ...especially at that young age. BERNICE HIBBARd 1960s

Ill always have fond memories of those classes. Spending every Saturday at the museumlike my second home. CElINdA BlACk 19701975 I remember [Mr. Fitzpatricks] Goooood morning boys and girls, and our unison response, Good Mooooorning Mr. Fitzpatrick, at which he would launch into his presentation, Today we are going to draw. [I read] an interview of Fitzpatrick in one of the Pittsburgh Sunday magazines, where he talked about his home in Oakland, and he always had one empty white wall to think on, an amenity Ive maintained for myself too, even in small apartments. mARy NEll HAwk 19631968 I was lucky enough to have begun art classes at the Carnegie when I was about eight. I remember being taken up to the balcony in the Hall of Architecture for the first time and feeling like I had been admitted into a secret club. JEssIE VIOlET lARsON All the children lined up (very orderly I might say!) in the cold and dark to await our class. The line snaked so far back!...What a wonderful and nurturing program this was for children from all over Pittsburgh and from all economic levels. dENIsE kAlINOwskI, m.d. My friend, Janice, and I became Tam OShanters in the eighth grade. After two years, we became Palettes, carrying our tin cans and paint brushes proudly on the street car. After our lessons, we would always run all over the museum. We knew it like the back of our hands. OlIVIA sCHmIdT The seed of artistic inclination, the soil of early disciplined teaching and the water of encouragement produced a blossoma life in the visual arts. Thanks Mr. Fitzpatrick! Thanks Mom and Dad! Thanks Carnegie! NICHOlAs p. pApAs The Saturday Classes were a foundation for my future as an artist. I loved drawing and sculpting, the feel of all of the various materials and papers, the infinite possibility of a visual exploration of people, plants, animals, environments, machines, minerals, the universe. EmIl A. sAUER 1960s

Instructor Scott Grosch, 1980s

My memories from The Art Connection are some of my happiest memories of middle and high school. I looked forward to Saturday morning all week! The classes were the biggest influence in leading me to study art. I am now a public school art teacher. mARIAN dAy 19931998 Despite rising early on Saturday mornings I was thrilled to go to class. I always knew the program was special but did not realize until much older exactly how special. sHEllEy OBRIEN dOlAN 19631965 I have nothing but fond memories of the class and Mr. Fitzpatrick! The highlight of my three years was having one of my drawings selected for the cover of a Pittsburgh Symphony presentation. lAwRENCE d. kIsElICA 19611964 [One] of Mr. Fitzpatricks notable sayings: I hope none of you plan to miss any classes this year. If youre absent, it must be because youre gravely ill and about to die, or because youre getting married, in which case we all want to be invited. Although I no longer work in the field of art, Mr. Fitzpatricks lessons still resonate in me. I still fill my notebooks with neatly-printed notes and ideas. And when I travel, go on a hike, or simply look out of my window, I always make it a point to follow his advice: Look to see to remember! CHARlEs REEsE 1960s We worked in different areas of the museum, my favorite being at the great dinosaur exhibit. There was great inspiration, no matter what exhibit you selected. ROBERT H. pOHl 19431945

Student Marian Day with Instructor Ed Spahr, 1990s

Students on the Music Hall stage, 1970s

THE art CONNECTION

Faculty
Grade 5 Ashley Andrykovitch holds an M.A. in Elementary Education and
an Art Education Certificate from Seton Hill University. She received her B.A. in Studio Art from Saint Vincent College and a certificate in 19th- and 20th-century Fine Art from Sothebys Institute. She is an exhibiting artist in Pittsburgh and Greensburg, PA.

Grade 6 Erin Shaw received a B.A. from American University majoring in

Studio Art and Education and earned a K12 visual art teaching certification. In addition to TAC, Erin teaches extensively at the museum and elsewhere, and works as a dancer, gymnastics coach, and artist.

Grade 7 Emily Acita holds a B.F.A. in Fiber and Material Studies from the
Cleveland Institute of Art. She works in screen printing and fiber art, and has community murals on view in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. In 2007, Emily and a fellow artist opened an art studio and gallery space called Birds of a Feather in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh

Grade 8 Laura Bailey, an Art Connection alumna, received her B.F.A. from
Penn State Universitys Schreyer Honors College with minors in Art History and Italian. She is the recipient of a Fulbright scholarship for teaching, which she completed in Vicenza, Italy, in 2008.

Grade 9 Vanessa Kettering holds a B.S. in Art Education and a B.F.A. from
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. In addition to TAC, she teaches the Imagine Charter Schools extended day program. Vanessa is a working artist, currently pursuing sculpture at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts.

Ashley Andrykovitch, Lead Educator, Childrens Programs Robert Karstadt, Assistant Curator of Education Juliet Pusateri, Interim Childrens Studio Manager Marilyn M. Russell, Curator of Education