ART INSTALLATIONS

FROM WALTER BARTON, OCTOBER 2024

The origins of the 6th grade student art installations come from work I did with sculptor Art Benson. As a sculptor, he built sculptures for people to live in. He was  the head of the sculpture department at Maryland Institute, College of Art, where I got my degree. Working with Art, helping him build his dream (a 75ft sailing vessel he and his wife later lived in and sailed on, the “Havilina Queen”) I found deep connections with his ideas about art and how it can serve people’s lives in deeply meaningful and functional ways when used intentionally in creating living spaces. 

The very first installation at CTE was the tile installation above the mirrors in the bathroom down in the Ute wing. Students researched the history, art, and environment of the Ute people of Colorado and created tiles based on those 3 categories. Patty Ulrich , a mother in the neighborhood with a student at CTE and who was a tile artist herself, taught me how to create, glaze and install tile artworks and was a great inspiration and teacher for me as we created the 1st installation.

At first, with each 6th grade class, I planned the theme, chose the location, and media each class would use. Working with students, I learned how creative and expressive our students are and how important it was for the students to lead as much of the decision making process as possible. So I developed a teaching process where each 6th grade class cooperatively chose and designed their theme, their location in the building, and worked with me to decide which material and or process would work best for their idea and taught them any art techniques or processes it required. Classes then had to divide their design into sections, and plan how each student would have a section to create and make sure it would all fit back together! Finally we would install them.   

As you walk through the halls of CTE and encounter the art of past students created during their time here, see what they saw.  There is a mural dedicated to 9/11 made by a class that was in kindergarten when it happened, art of favorite movies or books, that captured children’s imaginations, Colorado favorite activities, land and animals, their experience of the pandemic,  favorite sports, art dedicated to lost classmates, an outdoor gaga ball pit, humorous work, overall the creative, joyful, art of children who still see the world as wondrous and exciting who want to share with you their perspectives.