Students, artist collaborate on Wellington fundraiser project

ThisWeek UA 4/7/11

http://www.thisweeknews.com/live/content/upperarlington/stories/2011/04/06/students-artist-collaborate-on-wellington-fundraiser-project.html?sid=104

Internationally recognized photographer and multi-media artist, Ann Hamilton, will put fundraising in focus at the 2011 Wellington School Arts Premiere event.

This year’s event begins at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 16 in the school’s Rick O’Hara Room – part of the new $17-million addition that opened this year. Tickets for the event start at $70 and are available by phone at 614-324-1645 or online at www.wellington.org.

Each grade will produce a collaborative piece of art to be auctioned during a live auction; new for this year is a silent auction, which will feature individual students’ art.

The Arts Premiere is Wellington’s signature annual fundraising event. Since 1996, the event has raised $1.7-million, according to the school website. Wellington parents organize the event each year. The 2011 event chairs are Lisa Doran, Andy Thomas and Sue and Scott Smith.

Sue Smith and Doran have been involved in the event for the last decade, and Doran has chaired the event four times. They were responsible for recruiting Hamilton to create a special student art project, which will be unveiled at the event.

“We wanted to bring in a respected artist that is well known to make this event even more special. Ann was perfect, because she fit that and she is a Wellington parent,” Smith said.

Doran and Smith approached Hamilton, an art professor at the Ohio State University, during a soccer match; all three have sons on the Wellington team.

Jenny Fine, a former graduate student of Hamilton’s, and Wellington senior Nick Basko, then were enlisted to help lead the project under Hamilton’s direction.

“Lisa [Doran] approached me and said she wanted a project that would leave a piece of public art in the school,” Hamilton said. “By using the students as subjects, it became very personal to Wellington.”

Students were asked to sit for portraits in front of a pinhole camera, which is a light-proof box with a single small hole in one side and photographic paper on the other, inside wall. The photographer operates the camera by lifting a light-proof flap to reveal the pinhole and expose the paper.

“I’ve done pinhole projects in the past, and what inspired me to do this for Wellington is how the camera registers time and space,” Hamilton said.

She discovered that the optimal amount of time to capture a portrait, particularly with the kindergarten students, was using a two minute exposure; longer than that and the kids wouldn’t remain still.

One of Hamilton and Fine’s favorite parts of the project, according to Hamilton, was watching the photographs develop.

“The kids would point and giggle as they watched their portraits develop,” Hamilton said. “We’ve had so much fun with this and been so surprised by the images that turned out. The students and parents that we’ve worked with are just fabulous.”

The finished project will be comprised of several large canvases with a collage of the portraits printed on them and smaller prints of the portraits, which will be available for sale as a part of the fundraiser.

Doran and Smith said they want event attendees to expect a lot of exciting surprises throughout the evening thanks to the “tireless efforts of the event volunteers.”

“We see this art project as a gift that celebrates our school’s commitment to embracing the arts community,” Doran said. “I couldn’t be prouder of this event than I am for this year.”