Culminating Project Powerpoint

PennDot Road Sign Art
Meadville Pennsylvania
Route 322
¼ mile long
Began in the summer of 2001
Allegheny College’s Arts & Environment Initiative

Why it was made:
PennDOT wanted to beautify their grounds and increase awareness of their existence in the community.

The artists:
Professor Amara Geffen
Reba Ozimek
Amanda MacElfresh
Katrina Butkas
Julie Hersh
Ethan Vandervort
Kelly Mack

Read Between the Signs 2003-2004

Signs & Flowers
Built in 2001
Won the Team Innovation Award in 2002
Sculptures are 10’-12’ tall
There are 11 flowers total.
Materials used were remnants of old road signs, shoulder dirt, and ground up tires.

Read Between the Signs 2003-2004
Celebrates the landscape of Crawford County
Sculpture is 7’-10’ tall and has a span of 1,200’
Runs along Route 6
Includes kinetic elements: 10’ Ferris wheel, 20’ stream with jumping fish, and pinwheel snowflakes.
Powered by solar power, and wind.

“ Each of these projects utilizes pedagogy of engagement, with place based, active learning at the heart of our work to make a difference in our community and in peoples lives.”
- Amara Geffen

Why did they choose Crawford County as the scene?
Are the road signs used from Erie, the state of Pennsylvania, or from all over the U.S.?
Why did the artists choose to create flower sculptures?
What is the large red building sculpture? Is it a real building in Crawford County?
Questions:

Questions

The sun made the multiple colored road signs appear glittery.
The different locations of Crawford County: the Crawford Co. fair, pumpkin farm, etc…
The road they reference with the sculpture is Route 6; which travels along the entire sculpture.
The detail in each sculpture: the flowers pot in the window, the animals, the telephone , the changing of the seasons.

Could hear the roar of Penndot trucks that were created out of the road signs.
People ice-skating and fishing on the lake.
All of the flowers were representations of real flowers: roses, daisies, tulips…
The feel of the rubbery ground up tires used for soil.
Each flower also had leaves made out of green road signs.

I noticed that people would beep at us, possibly because we looked like tourists with our cameras.
I noticed that different patterns were used with the cuts of the signs to make different textures (I.e. sheep with swirl cut signs).
I noticed that there were different seasons depicted in the artwork along with different landscapes, such as farms and mountains.
I noticed that some objects were three-dimensional while others were flat.

I noticed the ice fisherman on Lake Erie.
I noticed no signs were in pink or purple.
I noticed there were a lot of animals.
I noticed the three-dimensional snowflakes that moved.
I noticed the dead deer in the ditch.

Tubing down Ski Round Top on hills of snow.
Skiing at Peak n Peek.
Farms near my grandma’s house.
Shopping at farmers markets.
Picking pumpkins at Halloween.
Family beach trips.
Celebrating my birthday at Presque Isle.
A horse ranch by my neighborhood.
Learning how to ride a horse for the first time.
Personal Connections

There was a ‘PA Don’t Litter Sign’ that I noticed at the piece of art that I never saw in PA before. When I was driving back to college, I saw that ‘PA Don’t Litter Sign’ on a stretch of the highway I always take to get to Mercyhurst.
I like to recycle and reuse. So seeing all the street signs being reused really made me happy and I was a bit overwhelmed at what people can do with items that would normally be thrown away.
When I was thinking about how the artists cut different pieces of metal, I was reminded about a shop project that I did in 7 th grade where I made a metal box.

Math: Shapes of signs, amounts of a certain sign: size, shape, color, location where students could do fractions or probability, simple math in a portion of the wall like how many signs were used to create a certain landscape, animal, or building.

Science: Why don’t the signs rust? How could the weather conditions affect the signs, especially with snow piling up along the bottom of the signs?

Reading: Take an inventory of what a section of the signs say, Students can read excerpts of how people work together to build a piece of art or how people recycle

Writing: Have students write a response based on a prompt about recycling stating that the ‘Between the Signs’ work of art utilizes recycled and reused street signs or how can one students recycling make a difference

Art: Have students create their own street sign to portray a message they think is important, Have students sketch a street sign or portion of street sings from the work of art either in person, from a picture, or from a website

How does the ‘Read Between the Signs’ art make you feel about recycling and reusing items that you would not normally be used or would rather throw away?
How do certain pieces fit together in a puzzle-like form in this work of art? Is it because of teamwork or because of experienced people or something else?
If the creators used some other recyclable material to create the artwork, do you think it would make the same impact on you and others, like the use of street signs does?
If you had a choice of what road, state, country, etc to depict with the street sign artwork, what would you chose? What scenes would you depict? What details would you use to make the piece more realistic?
If the exhibit was located somewhere else (such as a beautiful valley, rather than a highway) would the artwork have the same impact and meaning behind it?

Line of Inquiry How would changing the location of this exhibit from a suburban community to a secluded woodland scene --or-- changing the materials used from recycled road signs to different material, impact your overall perception of the value and relevance of this work of art in its community?

Culminating Project Powerpoint

by mchalk36 on May 04, 2009

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