Shaping the future through community collaboration

When Dr. Hilary Braysmith, associate professor of art history, sets out to organize an event, she does it wholeheartedly researching every avenue for new ways to bring art into the city and introduce it to new minds. This year's Sculpt EVV, a community art and music festival in Evansville's Haynie's Corner Arts District, is no exception. While there was not a national call for sculpture entries as in previous years, the plans are by no means scaled back; rather, a schedule was formulated through a grassroots community effort where ideas within the neighborhood spawned new suggestions.

A deep involvement with community partners, both old and new, remains at the heart of Sculpt EVV, and the mission is unchanged. "The name Sculpt EVV was chosen because I like the idea of sculpt meaning shape and create and EVV of course the abbreviation for Evansville," said Braysmith. "Through the arts we are shaping the future of the city; not only giving a shape to the physical geography but to our understanding of what is possible for the future and what we deserve."

Although there are a few marked differences between this year and the previous two, much of the basic format has remained the same. Art booths will be open, free of charge, to local artists wanting to register to sell their work. Neighborhood kids who have been taught art techniques and professional vocabulary over the summer will have the opportunity to educate visitors about African art exhibit and the community sculpture installed by Mark Brendel, artist and USI alumnus, and USI students. Live music will set the mood and plates of smokey barbeque will satisfy the hungry masses.

Amanda Schaefer, youth coordinator at The Potter's Wheel Ministries, has been working with Braysmith to recruit neighborhood youth around age 14 -17 as summer workers. Interested teens complete applications and are interviewed. "This process has been a great experience for our youth," said Schaefer. "We've been working on a lot of different things to prepare them for the world, including working on resumes, interview skills and self-presentation."

USI students participating in Braysmith's summer class Art 489: Special Problems in Outdoor Sculpture Exhibitions will have a rare opportunity to use an unoccupied house to create an immersive art experience. Evansville Brownfields Corporation, which owns the house, has accepted Braysmith's proposal to allow her students the opportunity for an aesthetic intervention. USI student, Jenna Rueger, explains the project as "taking an unoccupied house and turning it into a living work of art - blurring the lines between life and art by taking something not perceived as a positive aspect of a community (an unoccupied house) and transforming it into a space for positivity and creativity." The space will not serve as a gallery to display art, but rather as an artwork itself.

This year's hands-on element for teens involves working with Brendel. He and USI students will teach youths to use hand tools and to prepare wood to create a chess table surrounded by five planters filled with pollinators to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. "We decided to take a spin of the 'chess in the park' idea," said Brendel. "The idea for the project has revolved around several things. One has been having an interactive component, another being that the piece be created using found or recycled materials, and the final has been around what could involve the youth and bring benefit to them. The table, chairs, and planters will all be created from recycled wooden pallets.

This will be the third year that the Boom Squad, a nonprofit organization that teaches percussion to at-risk youth, will be performing at the event. Many Boom Squad kids have also participated in the creation of Sculpt EVV artworks like the relief sculptures that hang outside of the Alhambra Gallery on Adams Street. The opportunity to work with art provided another creative outlet for the kids. "I must say how warm and wonderful Dr. Braysmith was to me and the Boom Squad kids," said James Hale Jr. "We were kind of reserved at first because we were out of our element. Dr. Braysmith and the USI students understood that and they used our creative strengths."

Braysmith plans to teach teens to play chess and educate them in the importance of recycling and about the plants they will be growing in the planters. When asked why she takes an interdisciplinary approach for the course, she said "I think public art demands that. Some people create art for public spaces as though it's in a vacuum, but it isn't. There are many possibilities that artwork can bring into a community."

The public Sculpt EVV event runs from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday, June 7, at the corner of Jefferson and SE Second streets and is free and open to the public. Other activities include a pop-up African art display, the unveiling of a community mural by respected artist, Eric Braysmith, games for children and the reading of a poem written by Marcus Wicker, USI assistant professor of English.

Sponsors include the University of Southern Indiana, City of Evansville, The Potter's Wheel Ministries and Memorial Community Development Corporation.

Event partners are the African American Museum, Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science, and the Goosetown Neighborhood Association.