Garrison, NY

The Builder’s Club at The Storm King School has done it again! Thinking Inside the Box, the sculpture created by the students in the spring of 2017, is on display at Farm Project 2017 Collaborative Concepts  exhibition at Saunders Farm in Garrison, NY. This is the third consecutive year the Club’s work has been featured at the show. “The Storm King School has been privileged to be part of this professional sculptor’s exhibit,” says Visual and Performing Arts Chair John Carruthers. “For the third year in a row, ours is the only student-level work to be included in the line-up.”

Farm Project 2017 began on Saturday, September 2 and will be ongoing through Saturday, October 28, 2017. The show is free of charge and open to the public from 10 am to dusk. Mr. Carruthers and some of students were present at the opening event held on September 2 to represent Storm King.

 

 

According to Carruthers, Thinking Inside the Box is a sculpture that was inspired by the wire drawings of artist Alexander Calder. The installation, made of industrial materials, was constructed as a collaborative effort of the Builder’s Club, including seniors Nancy Fan and Polina Shklovskaya, sophomore Dorothy Mao, and 2017 graduates Richard Chen, Grace Song, and Vicky Liu.

 

 

“Each piece we do in Builder’s Club starts with an exploration of materials,” explained Mr. Carruthers when talking about how the sculpture came to be. “We think about what materials we want to work with and where the piece will be shown. As the piece was built in the courtyard outside the Art Center, and exhibited outdoors in a field with freely roaming cows, we looked at materials that would stand up to those conditions.”

“We wanted to work in wire, so we tried different types of heavy duty electrical cable and industrial materials that could be bent or manipulated,” continued Carruthers. “We did a small maquette in easily bendable wire and then scaled that up using the industrial materials. We had an interesting spring last year with late snowfalls and cold weather, so the students showed some wonderful grit working outside in wet and cold conditions. Also, the industrial nature of the materials made them challenging to cut, bend, and keep in a desired shape. The students worked hard to creatively problem solve the best use of the materials and to rethink approaches when something wasn’t working out. They had a great attitude throughout!”

 

About Collaborative Concepts

Collaborative Concepts is a non-profit arts organization based on the idea that professional artists working together can achieve artful accomplishments and provide the community with exceptional cultural experiences. Since its founding in 1999, Collaborative Concepts has curated more than 40 exhibitions in galleries and outdoor settings in the Hudson Valley.

Each year, Collaborative Concepts invites local and national artists to participate in the Farm Project where their sculptures are strategically placed throughout the Saunders Farm, a 140-acre historic working farm located in Garrison, New York.  The rolling hills and wooded glens of Saunders Farm, situated across the Hudson River from West Point, culminate in panoramic views of the Hudson Highlands. “It’s a great show in a wonderful location- a working cow farm in Garrison, NY, that for two months is filled with great professional-level sculpture,” says Carruthers. And his most important piece of advice for visitors:  “Wear boots, and be careful where you step!”