The art teachers at Hawthorne Elementary and Genoa and Heritage middle schools are introducing their students to Oaxacan folk art as part of their first-ever art exchange across the district.
Through the Birds of Peace project, fifth-graders in Liz Bash’s art class and seventh-graders in Juls Rathje’s art classes are embossing metal foil to design 3D birds which will carry messages students will send to each other.
“We wanted to do something that was an exchange among schools in Westerville,” Rathje said.
As part of the project, students will create the birds in their respective classrooms. (Rathje’s students completed their designs this week. Bash’s students will work on their birds next week.) They will create messages, which will be attached to their birds. The birds will be part of a student art showcase hosted by the Westerville Public Library during the month of April. Rathje and Bash plan to organize a reception where the elementary and middle school students will come together at the library to see their artwork.
After the showcase, the birds will be returned to their respective schools but the messages students wrote will be exchanged so they’ll see what their elementary and middle school counterparts wrote to them.
“I see this project as a community builder that builds connections and relationships through art,” Bash said.
Dr. Jan Fedorenko, a retired Westerville elementary principal who served as an artist-in-residence at Genoa and Heritage, proposed the idea of having students work on Oaxacan-inspired artistic metalwork and helped teachers on an art form both said was new to them.
Rathje and Bash received a grant from the Arts Council of Westerville for the foil and materials.
Heritage seventh-grader Kayden Smith thought the project was interesting and initially found embossing metal tooling a challenge.
“It’s really fun when you get the hang of it,” she said.