BY DEBBIE TUMA
Staff writer
The students in Lori William's sixth grade art class were looking at paintings and sculptures by well-known Native Americans, whose work is museum quality, from around the country. Yet none of these children were in a museum; in fact, they hadn't even left their classroom at Macedonia Middle School.
These students, and others from area schools, were participating in a special program brought to them by the "Artrain USA," a traveling exhibit of major, museum quality artworks which tour the country by train. The intention of this train is to expose young people, who do not live close to major art museums, to still see their treasures.
Although this old freight railroad train was at first scheduled to come to Berkeley County, plans were changed when CSX Railroad decided they couJd not use the siding track to park their train for the week they needed lobe here.
Nathan Zamarron, Tour Manager of "Artrain USA," and one of several traveling artists teaching the students at Macedonia Middle School and others last week, said this frequently happens in pans of the country.
"We can reach about 30 percent of the country's communities, with our five-car, stainless steel, vintage train, but the other 70 percent we sometimes
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can't reach because we can't get the train in, either because there's no access, or there's insufficient sidings, or liability issues," he said. "So we're looking at ways 'outside the box' to bring our valuable programs to students." He said his organization is now expanding and re-evaluating ways to best achieve their mission which is to enrich lives and build better communities through the arts. The "Art Train USA" was founded by Helen Miliken and E. Ray Scott, bounding Director of the Michigan Council of the Arts, who started this train in Michigan, and later the National Endowment for the Arts expanded it nationally.
Libba Carroll, Chairwoman of St. Stephen Historical and Cultural Affairs group, got the idea to bring this train to her County, when she first saw it in 2000, in Conway, South Carolina. "It sat on the sidetrack there for a week, and, and the students got such a kick out of going into the 1940's cars, where this wonderful artwork was hung on the wajls, and displayed like a portable museum," she said. "I though it. would be a great educational opportunity to bring it to our rural area." She and her group raised the money to house the artists from the "Artrain" in St. Stephen, and to pay for the art supplies. But unfonu-nately. they could not get the train.
Instead, a group of talented young artists from this train have been bringing their cultural program into five schools here. Last
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Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, they showed slides of the artwork, and led an classes, in Bonner Elementary School, Macedonia Middle School, St. Stephen Elementary and Middle Schools, and Timberland High School.
"Our traveling train exhibits change about every four years, and we shared our present exhibit, "Native Views: Influence of Modern Culture," with the students," said Maria Cardenas, of "Artrain." She showed slides of pop culture, reflected in the Native Anħei paintings, asking the students to identify things they recognized.
"I saw Spiderman in one painting, and two coyotes dancing, in another one," said Shey Davis, a sixth grader at Macedonia Middle School. "I never saw this kind of an before. I think it's 'off the chain.'"
Lori Williams, visual art teacher at the school, said, "I think it's important to bring cultural heritage and art history to this area, and it's great to have them focus on our children. This age group is all about popular culture, and by bringing it to the art class, they can see that an is in everything."
The "Artrain" artists instructed the students to make their own drawings of "pop culture," which will be part of a large community mural, showing the culture and heritage of Berkeley County. The completed mural will eventually be hung in the future Francis Marion Interpretive Center.
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