SIUE East St. Louis Center for the Performing Arts Students Restore Head Start/Early Head Start Empowerment Sculpture
There comes a time when even the powerful could use some help. The Empowerment Sculpture, in front of the central offices of the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Head Start/Early Head Start on the campus of the SIUE East St. Louis Center, received a needed refresh.
Students from the SIUE East St. Louis Center for the Performing Arts’ summer session revitalized the 15-year-old statue, under the direction of SIUE alumnus Andra Lang Jr., art teacher. The figure consists of three figures reaching out from the same base to represent Head Start/Early Head Start’s commitment to enhancing the development of children, empowering families and strengthening communities.
“The Empowerment Sculpture is beautiful and adds so much to our campus, but it had faded over time,” said Performing Arts Director Homer Simmons. “So, I thought it would be good for our art students to spruce it up.”
In spring 2006, Kitty Lawrence, Empowerment Sculpture designer and then SIUE art therapy graduate student; Gussie Klorer, PhD, then director of the SIUE Graduate Art Therapy program; and Edna Patterson-Petty, SIUE Head Start art therapist, introduced the art project to Head Start/Early Head Start students and parents. The would-be artists painted more than 1,200 river rocks, which were assembled onto the steel sculpture.
“The rocks had faded over time, and the names on them were ineligible,” said Lang. “We used primary colors and spray painted the head and arms. We used a golden color for the center and brown for the base. The brown represents a dirt mound, to give the idea of people being uplifted.”
“I love it,” he added. “The students did an amazing job.”
The SIUE East St. Louis Center for the Performing Arts has a long, rich history. The legendary dancer, anthropologist, and social activist Katherine Dunham founded the Center for Performing Arts at the SIUE East St. Louis Center in 1964. At its peak in the 1990s, the East St. Louis Center for the Performing Arts provided year-round instruction to more than 1,000 youth and became a training ground for professional artists of all disciplines. For decades, the East St. Louis Center for the Performing Arts provided performing arts classes to students and community members to develop local talent and to cultivate a love of the arts. Classes often culminated in musical and theatrical productions.
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Students from the SIUE East St. Louis Center for the Performing Arts’ summer session re-painted the SIUIE Head Start/Early Head Start Empowerment Sculpture.
