Every year, Alpine’s ARTWALK works to promote the arts in rural West Texas through educational, economic, and entertainment for children, students, patrons, artists, and tourists in Alpine, Big Bend, and surrounding communities. In addition to the two-day celebration of art and music, Alpine’s Gallery Night, Inc. (AGNI) Art in Education provides a venue for Alpine students to experience a particular public art form with a reputable Texas artist.
Recently, during the week of October 13-17, 2014, AGNI hosted the ARTWALK Art in Education program for Alpine High School (AHS) art students with Lilibeth Andre, award winning portrait and sidewalk/street chalk artist from Houston, Texas. In addition to her own demonstration, Lilibeth worked alongside the high school students as they created their own patchwork of pictures reflecting their individual perspectives and visions of the desert eco-system surrounding Alpine.
Approximately 90 students were involved in this original chalk art project on the front porch of AHS. A desert theme served as the focus – area landscapes, animals, birds, and plants. This amazing artwork involved an original sketch from each student which was applied to a scaled paper grid and then transferred to an 18” slab grid for the chalk art process. Students collaborated in teams of two or three to integrate their individual sketches into a three dimensional chalk art piece using a wide assortment of vivid pastel chalk and additional materials provided by AGNI.
Lilibeth facilitated and mentored the students with the finalizing of their work on October 16 and 17. At the same time, she designed, created, and demonstrated her own four sq. ft. chalk art illustration of the amazing rock formations and landscape so well known to the Alpine area. This Alpine High School chalk art project also served as a preview of the larger work Lilibeth created during Alpine ARTWALK, November 21-22.
AGNI feels quite fortunate to have had Lilibeth Andre as the guest artist for Art in Education. In addition to a passion for art, Lilibeth is an acclaimed author and is Associate Director of the Rice University Shell Center for Sustainability in Houston.
Public art and interacting with the community through Art in Education continues to be an important focus for Alpine’s Gallery Night, Inc. Efforts support and assist scholarship for the development of school art programs and endorse community outreach. Such efforts include funding a $1000 scholarship for the Sul Ross State University Art Department and raising $12,000 in the past two years for public and private schools’ art programs and scholarships.
Alpine’s Gallery Night, Inc. is a Texas Commission on the Arts Cultural District.
