The Arts facet of service focuses on the performing, visual and creative arts with an emphasis on the preservation of our African-American cultural heritage, sharing our history and fostering creativity. Over the past 40 years, The Arts has been a passion for the Missouri City (TX) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated.

 

Signature Arts Program: Classics Through the Ages

Partner in The Arts: The Ensemble Theater
2018-2019

The Ensemble Theater sponsored an interactive Arts module that connected The Links’ Classics Through The Ages Signature Program. Artistic Director Eileen Morris spoke to participants on Theatre Etiquette, the performing arts and STEAM Careers in the Arts. Artists performed excerpts from current season productions, including two vignettes from their holiday productions: Coming Uptown and Da Kink in My Hair. The students presented in poetry, dance and songs that they had prepared in their art classes. A mother of one of the students participated by performing a music presentation.

The Ensemble Theater incentivized student participation by contributing complimentary enrollment into their student Performing Arts classes. The Program Facets incentivized participants with door prizes and a Raffle for Baskets of fresh vegetables grown by an urban community garden of international farmers from Plant It Forward.

 

Transforming Communities, Fulfilling Our Purpose

Partner in The Arts: Blue Ridge Elementary
2017-2018

Rhythm and Flow, Rhythm and Flow. Art has a voice.  Didn’t you know? That voice was heard loud and strong at Blue Ridge Elementary as 5th grade students participated in workshops on various musical instruments. They learned to recognize and categorize the band instruments (woodwind, brass, percussion) and were privy to a musical presentation from the Willow Ridge High School (WRHS) Band. The curriculum also offered the students an opportunity to create individual, expressive poster art music murals that when put together, formed a massive collage. The students ended the semester with a treat by joining MCCL at the Fort Bend Symphony for the Christmas symphony of “Deck the Halls,”where they could see and hear all the instruments they had recently learned about, and complete a scavenger hunt quiz.

For the second semester, we shifted gears to visual arts and began by introducing the 5thgrade art class to 4 prominent African American artists and their unique styles.  The artists chosen were Jacob Lawrence, Amalia Amaki, Kara Walker, and Samuel Lawrence. Our goal was to allow the students to learn the style and prominent characteristics of the work of these 4 artists so that they would recognize them when viewed in public venues such as the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.  A local artist, Israel McCloud, taught the children to paint on canvas, replicating techniques used by the 4 artists they’d learned about.  Over the next 3 weeks the children created beautiful art pieces that we displayed in the halls of the school.  Their names and titles of their work was prominently displayed beside each piece, resembling art displayed in a gallery.  MCCL then met the students on a field trip to the MFA to visit and actually see the works of the artists they’d learned about in class.  Upon entering the museum, the students were excited to recognize a recent major purchase of work by Kara Walker gracing the entry of the museum. The student’s took part in a museum scavenger hunt that included taking pictures of the artists discussed in class.  Canvases, painting supplies and art books were donated to the school.

This program year focused on “Transforming Communities, Fulfilling Our Purpose” and we touched the lives of those young and old. The Arts Facet sponsored a therapeutic Arts Project at the Houston Women’s Center for Women who have been victims of domestic violence. The women in the shelter had an opportunity to creatively express themselves and mentally destress through a painting party that was led by a local artist. We honored the value of sowing the seed of creativity within our community.

We celebrated the end of the program year with a presentation of “Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters” by The Ensemble Theater. The entire student body of 450 students, grades 1-5 were delighted by the performance.

 

Links To Arts

Partner in The Arts: Yellowstone Academy
2014-2015

As secondary school art programs diminish in the United States, students have fewer opportunities for exposure to classical art education as well as African American art.  Exposure to art and an understanding of the importance and role of art in our lives enriches the education experience to assist the student in developing their own creative talents as well as a deeper understanding of how art is a part of our everyday lives and how it is integrated into many fields.

The mission of the “Links to Arts” program was to develop a partnership with Yellowstone Academy to enhance the art education of their students. We accomplished the following goals:

  • The students explored STEM concepts through the study of African masks.  We explored the use of masks in the African culture and focused on understanding two and three-dimensional geometric shapes, symmetry, geography and the study of animals and their behaviors.
  • Drawing on some of the concepts explored in the first lesson, we examined the work of Picasso, who was greatly influenced by African Art and in particular, the geometric shapes reflected in African masks.
  • The last lesson in the series drew on the geometric concepts learned in studying masks by exploring the influence those concepts had on the work of local artist, John Biggers. This lesson showed modern examples of the influence of African Art and explored our own heritage by chronicling the culture of Africa in contemporary art and quilts.
  • Exposing the children to the performing arts that focused on African American history through the presentation of two plays by the Ensemble Theater traveling education program.
  • Provide an opportunity for the children to engage in a performing art experience that also provided an important lesson in civics by enacting the “Trial of the Big Bad Wolf”.

The students of Yellowstone Academy were exposed to the works of Dr. Biggers by a brief lecture given by Dr. Alvia Wardlaw. The students enjoyed a field trip to the University Museum at Texas Southern Universiyu to view the well-known murals of Dr. Biggers.

For Picasso, the students were given cutouts of facial features such as eyes, noses, mouths, etc. to create collages to grasp some of the concepts of cubism. The Cubism movement which was mathematical and geometrical in nature analyzes, breaks up and reassembles subjects in abstract form.

In addition to the visual arts classes, a performing arts component was introduced each year.  In 2014, we presented the play, “I Barbara Jordan” using the Ensemble Theater traveling education program.  This play about the life of the late congressperson Barbara Jordan provided an important opportunity for the students to see a real life story of a hometown hero brought to life on the stage.  In 2015, we presented the play “When Harlem was in Vogue,” also through the Ensemble Theater, with whom we have a collaborative partnership. Both plays allowed the students to see performing art that helped inspire them by giving them a sense of their history as African Americans.

We guided the students in putting on a performance piece, the “Trial of the Big Bad Wolf.” The objectives of this event were: to expose the children to the justice system and the courts in particular; to promote oral advocacy;  to emphasize and explain that there is always more than one side to a story;  to generally encourage respect for the laws and our system of justice;  to help the children understand the importance of jury service as a civic right and responsibility and to provide an opportunity for creative and artistic expression.