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Voices and visions from ArtWorks' Editorial Ink project
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Ramsey Ford (center above) works in the Cincinnati
Art Museum space with two of the Editorial Ink apprentices,
Miles Wolfley (left) and Adriel Johnson. Dean Gollar (opposite
page) gets inspired by Thom Shaw (background).
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You can see a lot of our city from the third floor galleries
in the Cincinnati Art Museum -- the county jail, the pointed
rooftops of Over-the-Rhine, the squared towers tagged with
the names and logos of Cincinnati's largest corporations and
the red stones of City Hall. And this summer, from within
one of those emptied galleries, 16 teenagers and five artists
and writers hunched over folding tables writing and inking
the events that shaped our world as a thick brown haze infected
the view.
ArtWorks, arguably the city's most successful art-based
job-training program, partnered with the Cincinnati Art Museum
to create a space for young people to learn about freedom
of the press and editorial ethics.
Wrapping up its eighth summer recently, nearly 150 apprentices
in 11 projects left ArtWorks armed with not only practical
work skills -- promptness, the ability to follow instructions
and produce real work product -- but also with validation
as working artists.
One of the projects, Editorial Ink, allowed students to
slow down and look at their city, their world and themselves
from new perspectives. It was inspired by the museum's The
Editorial Eye exhibit hanging through Oct. 12.
Every day, talented kids ages 14-18 who otherwise might
have been scooping ice cream, drawing caricatures of tourists
for peanuts at Paramount's King's Island, fingering Play Station
2 or making a ruckus at local pools instead snapped open daily
papers from around the country. And they were paid to do so,
thanks to local corporate support.
Some of these funders -- like Convergys -- even came under
fire from the apprentices, who documented their take on current
events in editorials and cartoons.
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Ramsey Ford (center) works in the Cincinnati Art Museum
space with two of the Editorial Ink apprentices, Miles
Wolfley (left) and Adriel Johnson.
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The professionals who came together to teach these young people
included renowned political artist Thom Shaw; CityBeat columnist
Kathy Y. Wilson; UC College of Design, Art, Architecture & Planning
graduate Ramsey Ford; Northen Kentucky University comic artist
Mike Maydak; and myself, a Clark Montessori English teacher.
Together, we not only pored over headlines from The Village
Voice, The Onion, The New York Times, The
Cincinnati Enquirer and CityBeat, but we dissected
and followed the stories themselves.
For many apprentices, this ritual reading was a first-time
experience. What they didn't know about, we discussed, researched
and figured out.
They worked hard -- six hours a day drafting, sketching,
refining and revising. The apprentices learned writing and
inking skills, and they learned to care about what was happening
around them.
Then they learned how to talk back -- to write and draw
to make a difference. We were on high, amid the clipped gardens
of Eden Park, able to hone editorial perspectives on the everyday
workings of the city, the nation and the world.
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Photo By Jymi Bolden
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Dean Gollar gets inspired by Thom Shaw (background).
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Here you'll find opinions on issues from Northside resident
and tavern shooter Hal McKinney to Saddam Hussein, from the
freedom of teen fashions to Cincinnati's homeless. You'll
find out that teens get it.
A panel of CityBeat editors assembled to pick a selection
of cartoons and columns, eliminating myself and co-teacher Wilson
from choosing favorites, resulting in the best of the best.
(Go here to view the Editorial
Ink Cartoons.)
All hail the teens.
The ArtWorks teaching staff will be featured in a group show
Oct. 4 at the ArtWorks Gallery, 811 Race St., downtown. Editorial
Ink apprentices will have a group show there in January.
E-mail the editor
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