MARFA –– Come to the Chinati Foundation on Sunday, April 28, for Community Day, when Shorthorn artists from Marfa High School will show (and sell!) screen prints and digital art made this spring. The images are strange, fantastic and goofy, and some of them will be available to purchase from the artists themselves.
“Community Day always entails special programming engaging the museum’s hometown,” said Michael Roch, Chinati’s director of education and curricula. “Part of this year’s event is a two-part celebration of Marfa students.” Custom tote bags and assorted screen prints the students made will be for sale from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Chinati’s Art Lab. Then, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., all are invited to spend time with an exhibition of their work in Chinati’s Arena, accompanied by a free dinner and music from the Marfa ISD Parent-Teacher Organization. “It will be a great evening with neighbors and friends,” Roch said.
I’d rather be in Marfa showcases a compilation of work by 19 Shorthorn artists. Chinati educators and MHS art teacher Adele Powers collaborate every spring on a large-scale, multi-week project that involves each of the school’s art students. This year’s effort began with a trip to the El Paso Museum of Art’s Border Biennial, where they considered how art made from a range of individuals can, or cannot, come together to present an overarching idea. From there, each student was tasked with creating and manipulating images they made on their own or sourced from the internet.
Pearl Hesselden, manager of education and intern programs at Chinati, and Education Intern Emily Fule tutored the Shorthorns in the use of Adobe Photoshop. They were each asked to make three images: a self-portrait, a narrative work and an abstract piece. What emerged were boldly colored and layered images informed by fantasy, heroics, silliness or thoughtful introspection. The students next moved from the digital world to the analog world, where they were introduced to screen printing, a millennia-old technique in which the use of a stencil creates and recreates multiple prints of a single image.
“Pearl and Emily encouraged students to think about how a self-portrait can change through color, scale, transparency and layering,” Roch said. “Lastly, students used their stencils on tote bags, resulting in limited edition portraits.”
All proceeds from the art and merchandise table will go directly to the art class for an end-of-year, out-of-town trip. Cash is preferred; Venmo will be available, but the class cannot take debit or credit cards.
Community Day 2024 schedule
We invite you to join us for Community Day on Sunday, April 28! The program will include open viewing, an exhibition of artwork by Marfa ISD students, a free community dinner supported by the Marfa ISD Parent-Teacher Organization, music, and more. The full schedule is as follows:
- 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. – Open hours at the Judd Foundation Art Studio with coffee and donuts in the Agave Garden, 124 West Oak Street
- 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. – Open viewing of select Chinati Foundation spaces, 1 Cavalry Row
- 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. – Art and merchandise table with work by Marfa ISD students at Chinati’s Art Lab, 1 Cavalry Row
- 4:15 p.m. – Gallery talk on the work of Ingólfur Arnarsson with Caitlin Murray, director of the Chinati Foundation, 1 Cavalry Row
- 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. – Exhibition of artwork by Marfa ISD students in the Arena at Chinati, accompanied by a 5:30 p.m. dinner supported by the Marfa ISD PTO and music by D.J. Prepney432, 701 Katherine Street
Everyone is welcome. Free to all.
Community Day is made possible with support from Ben E. Keith, El Cosmico, Glazers Beer & Beverage, Jenny Laird, and Marfa National Bank.Chinati’s educational and public programming is generously supported by the Prentice Farrar & Alline Ford Brown Foundation, the Cowles Charitable Trust, the Carl B. & Florence E. King Foundation, the Warren Skaaren Charitable Trust, #startsmall, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the Union Pacific Foundation.