MEADVILLE —
“It was about life and death,” said Allyson Zolnai of Meadville. “In the middle, it represented life, it was a big orange flower.
“Wait,” she said, “it was either yellow or orange, I can’t remember which.”
Zolnai is describing an art installation that she and two other artists were involved with recently.
“And in the layer outside of that, it represented death. It had dead leaves and sticks and things like that. And the very outside layer, that represented reproduction.”
Zolnai is 10 years old, by the way.
“In between there were clovers for luck and little white flowers for hope,” she said.
Zolnai, along with dozens of kids like her, are participating in the Meadville Family YMCA’s Summer Day Camp.
Each Monday a group of interns from Allegheny College’s Center for Economic and Environmental Development come to the camp and lead the kids in various art projects.
And even they’re impressed by the depth and insight displayed in the work of their young students.
“They are always so surprising,” Teresa Bensel, one of the CEED interns and a soon-to-be junior at Allegheny College.
“Kids just naturally think outside of the box,” she said. “And they went way beyond my expectations. It’s a joy to see them catch on to ideas and then run past anything I even say. It’s just a joy.”
CEED usually concerns itself with larger, community-wide projects like the revitalization of Shadybrook Park or the various beatification projects around Mill Run.
The group’s work with the YMCA camp is on a smaller scale. But it’s rewarding, say those involved.
“I haven’t had a lot of experience working with kids,” said CEED intern Emma Cook, also a junior at Allegheny. “But I feel really strongly that art plays a big role in children’s lives. It gives them a chance to express themselves.”
In a way, the YMCA camp project suits the mission of the CEED rather well.
“We use art as a community development tool,” explains Bensel. “A lot of people don’t see how art can directly connect to a community’s growth, and how art can work to make spaces into places.”
The YMCA camp gives the CEED folks a chance to spread that message to the community while it’s still young and impressionable.
The kids see to be taking to that message quite well.
“When we went back in the woods, that was my favorite one so far,” said Kayla Boehm, 10, who worked on the life-and-death piece with Zolnai and Britani Ditch, 12. All these girls are from Meadville.
“We grabbed stuff out of the woods and we made this thing,” said Boehm. “There was a flower in the middle, and the difference between life and death, and after we went out farther it dies. And then we put some rocks dirt around it and that’s where it reproduces.”
Wow. That’s pretty deep.
“Yeah,” she said.
Each week of the YMCA camp there is a different theme. And the CEED instructors try to tailor their projects to that theme.
For instance, this week the theme is “Oh, the Drama of it All.” And for today’s art project the class will be making masks. The shapes of the masks will be inspired by birds, with feathers, different shaped beaks, etc.
Last week’s theme, which produced the above work, was titled “Is this Art?” The instructors drew inspiration from the British artist Andy Goldsworthy, who uses items found in nature to create his pieces.
According to Cook, “When we walked into the woods the day before to kind of check it out we saw a lot of greens and browns. It’s not as colorful as, say, the fall. We were a little bit worried that it wouldn’t be too colorful.”
Yet, those little artists came through again.
“When the students came in, they found all these colors that we missed — yellow flowers, red leaves,” said Cook. “They saw all these things that we didn’t see when we were walking around.”
Pete Chiodo can be reached at 724-6370 or by e-mail at pchiodo@meadvilletribune.com.
Local News
Allegheny-YMCA project uses art as a community development tool
- Local News
-
-
If Conneaut Lake was home for your ‘love story,’ tell it on Monday
Nancy Aubel remembers the summers she spent at Conneaut Lake in the 1940s and ’50s as if they were yesterday.
-
‘Thug behavior’ lands man in jail; bail $200,000
A Meadville man is in Crawford County jail in lieu of $200,000 bail following a dual arraignment on Pennsylvania State Police and Meadville City Police charges stemming from a string of events that began Sunday between 3 and 4 p.m. in West Mead Township and ended several hours later in Meadville.
-
Community agencies planning Children's Fair for April
As Crawford County child abuse numbers rank among the most disturbing in the state, officials of local courts and agencies are busy finding ways to increase public awareness of child abuse and its prevention.
-
Ice would be nice for upcoming fishing tournaments
The 2012 Conneaut Lake Ice Fishing Tournament is scheduled for Feb. 25, but organizer Jerry Van Tassel isn’t holding his breath when it comes to running the event as planned.
-
Budget, aesthetics a balancing act at Armory
The next time there’s a moment or two to spare for quiet contemplation, pause in the vicinity of the City of Meadville’s picturesque Diamond Park. Let your eyes rest on Parkside Commons, the meticulously refurbished structure at the northeast end of the park that was once known as “the old junior high.” Make a point of focusing on the windows.
-
Former rockers Drywater enjoying glow from album's rebirth
It’s funny how perceptions can differ from one person to the next; how what sparkles in one set of eyes can appear tarnished in another.
-
Edinboro site eyed for retirement homes
About two years after halting expansion plans into the Conneaut Lake area, Meadville-based Wesbury United Methodist Retirement Community now is looking to expand north into Erie County, possibly sometime in 2013.
-
Langley voted in as Meadville City Council's new member
“Pleased” is the word that best describes Bob Langley’s response to the news that he had been selected to fill Meadville City Council’s vacant seat.
-
French Creek conservation group to benefit from environmentalist's talk
When one of the world’s best known environmentalists, the author and activist Bill McKibben, speaks next week at Allegheny College, his audience will likely be putting some money where its heart is — right into French Creek.
-
Vernon Police chief suspects 'human interaction' in Sunday fire
An investigation is continuing into a weekend fire that destroyed a historic structure in Vernon Township, and Vernon police are urging anyone with information to give them a call.
- More Local News Headlines
-
If Conneaut Lake was home for your ‘love story,’ tell it on Monday






