Central New York Community Arts Council’s Arts in Education Institute

In partnership with the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees

Utica, New York

Mission

The Central New York Community Arts Council’s Arts in Education Institute provides teachers and students with the means to stimulate their perceptions, expand their critical thinking, and to develop their imaginations through the investigation of the creative process of the arts and its integration in to the curriculum.  The Institute works to establish collaboration between regional community organizations, artists, educators, and their students. 

The Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees promotes the well-being of culturally diverse individuals and families within our community by welcoming our new neighbors, refugees and immigrants, and by providing individual and community-centered activities designed to create opportunity and facilitate understanding.

Routes of Dislocation

A collaborative Arts in Education project focusing on the stories of Utica-area refugee community members.

Community Context

Utica, New York, a city of 60,000, has a two hundred-year history of attracting immigrants and refugees. The immigrant communities that have settled in the city include Italian, Irish, German, Polish, and Arab populations. Oneida County was recently identified as having the fourth highest concentration of refugees in the United States. The City of Utica is comprised of a refugee population of nearly 12%. Refugees are resettled to the region by The Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees (MVRCR), one of the largest resettlement agencies in the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service Network.

The Utica City School District (UCSD) encompasses 12 buildings, with various configurations of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. The average free school lunch program ranges from 38% to 92 %, with the majority averaging in the 60-80+ percentile. Overall average for the district is 75%, yet two buildings are over 90%. Along with the children of immigrant and refugee families, Utica also has a diverse population of African-American, Native American, Asian-Pacific, Hispanic and Caucasian students.

From the beginning (in 1979), the MVRCR has assisted refugees from more than 31 countries, including Bosnia, Cambodia, Czechoslovakia, Haiti, Hungary, Laos, Poland, Romania, the former Soviet Union, Vietnam, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, China, Somalia, Burma and others.

Routes of Dislocation

The Arts in Education Institute (AEI) and the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees (MVRCR) embarked on an exciting venture called Routes of Dislocation. The goal was to bring awareness, insight, and a deeper understanding of the new refugee neighbors in the Utica community by hearing their stories. An art exhibit also entitled Routes of Dislocation , featuring the work of Joan Carlon, was exhibited at the MVRCR and was free and open to the public from June–December 2007. The exhibit was available during a regional conference held at MVRCR, during the MVRCR’s cultural festival and AEI’s summer training for teachers and the public.

Seventy teachers and teaching artists from Oneida and Herkimer counties enrolled in workshops to study the ink drawings and refugee stories, tour the MVRCR, and visit the exhibit. An integral part of the project focused on the teachers and teaching artists touring the center and engaging in dialogue with several clients/refugees. Many teachers in the Utica City school district have children of refugee families—Vietnamese, Bosnian, Sudanese, and Burmese—in their school districts, and 32 different languages/dialects are spoken by the students in the district. During fall 2007, 125 children and their teachers studied the Routes of Dislocation unit with teaching artist Leigh Yardley to prepare for their visit to MVRCR. AT MVRCR, the students viewed the exhibit, met with artist Joan Carlon, spoke with several refugee adults who visited their classes. Children had many questions for the refugees and in turn, the children were also asked questions.

During these sessions, the path of communication opened, deepening the level of understanding among students. For example, new insights emerged when several Bosnian children volunteered that their homes in Bosnia had burned during the war. The Routes of Dislocation experience provided a safe place to begin sharing their own stories.

A bit about the artist: Joan Carlon's desire to create ink drawings based on stories of forced emigration was first motivated by the power of the stories themselves. Impacted by personal experiences, Carlon reveals, "It seemed natural for me to become interested in history and in the stories of civilians whose lives are irrevocably changed by war; the Vietnamese, Cubans, Bosnians and now Africans from Sudan, Somalia and Liberia. It is the stories of these people that I have collected and that have inspired this group of drawings."

The stories come from a collection of tales from newspapers and personal narratives told directly to Carlon. The drawings themselves balance the raw subject matter with Carlon's interest in space, rhythm, and strong contrast. As she writes, "The drawings string silhouetted black images, areas of grey wash, and graphite pencil across the picture plane and empty spaces. The most recent drawings incorporate pieces of stories, clothing, and bodies moving in clusters that simultaneously hold together and fly apart, echoing the disharmony of the refugee experience.” The sequence of silhouetted forms incorporate bold red letters and separate wall labels that memorialize personal experiences with war, adaptation to new cultures and hopes for the future.

The following letter, written to artist Joan Carlon from teaching artist Leigh Yardley, speaks volumes about the project’s impact.

11/16/07

Hi Joan -               

I thought you would like to hear about our reflection of your work. All three classes had very thoughtful understandings about what they saw; they talked about the different elements and developed meanings on their own from them. They were very attentive to everything you said, many were able to share in our reflection the comments you made about the work. They recalled individual pieces by their titles with detailed descriptions that led us into a discussion of titles and how they can help us make meaning when looking at art. The fourth grade class blew me away when they recalled at least 8-9 by title and descriptions.

They all understood why we stopped some of the questions with the refugees and spoke I think with empathy about the reason. They cited the man whose ear was disfigured as someone who may have been hurt and did not want to upset him. They all expressed understanding of the meaning of the activity I did with them (making choices of 5 belongings they could take if they were to leave their home). They were very appreciative that you shared your drawing from your childhood, and could describe for me much of what you brought. They were intrigued with the limited palette of red white and black, we had not previously worked with color as symbolic but they understood it in your work. Finally, I gave them pen and ink to use asking them to just draw with it, that artists need to play with new material before they use it. For the remaining time in each class you could have heard a pin drop they were completely and utterly focused on these materials. They had great appreciation for the way you used it. They loved using it, many asked where they could buy some, they wanted more. Always leave them wanting more.

Leigh Yardley, teaching artist

Learn more

To learn more about the Central New York Community Arts Council’s Arts in Education Institute, visit www.cnyarts.com/education . Also visit www.mvrc.org for information about the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees.

Contact

Lesley Tillotson

315.724.1113, x2914

ltillotson (at) cnyarts.com

Photos, top to bottom

Artist Joan Carlon at the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees with students from the Utica City school district, November 2007.

Artist Joan Carlon at the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees with students from Utica City Elementary School, November 2007.

Joan Carlon with students from Utica City School district at MVRCR.  

Teaching artist Leigh Yardley with students from UCSD leading an activity with students.

Photos, Gina Murtagh, courtesy of Central New York Community Arts Council.

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