Winter Arts Preview

The Art of Collaboration

A creative project between Mt. Hope High and RWU

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A little collaboration is a beautiful thing. This winter, advanced high school artists from Mt. Hope High School (MHHS) will be taking classes at Roger Williams University (RWU) and showing their work at the college. Professor of art Michael Rich has been teaching at RWU since 2000 and serving as Program Coordinator of Visual Art Studies for the past six years. “The collaboration is officially called the Emerging Artist Program at RWU,” he explains.

“Taking advantage of a longstanding agreement with the Town of Bristol, MHHS students are invited to take college classes at the university for credit,” Rich says. “The high school students chosen are those seniors and juniors identified by the art faculty at MHHS as those who excel in the arts and are interested in pursuing art studies at the college level.” The program also allows students to gain the skills that they need to build a portfolio for college application. Rich says, “We selfishly hope that good art students consider Roger Williams when making their educational choices.”

Participating in the collaboration may also help the teens mature since they take the classes side by side with university students. “They learn from one another, interact in the class and participate in reviews, discussions and critiques of each other’s work,” Rich says. “So far, that interchange has been really positive for everyone involved. ”

“The student work on view at RWU is always better than you might expect,” Rich says. “We attract highly talented students, working in a range of styles and media, from drawing to film, and who have interests beyond simply making art. Our good students connect the visual work they do to issues from the larger world that they are studying in their other courses. You will be surprised at what is going on here!”

Rich has been working closely with Kathleen Dwyer, the lead art teacher at Mount Hope who helped to form the partnership. While the duo hasn’t decided on any exact dates for student exhibitions as of yet, they will be posted online just as soon as they do.

roger williams university, emerging artists program, mt. hope high school, bristol, art, students, artists, the bay magazine

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