By AUBRIE GEORGE | The Moorestown Sun
Students at Moorestown High School are learning, firsthand, what it’s like to do art for a cause.
Under the direction of teacher Julia Ranson, AP art history students at the high school are incorporating lessons they’ve learned about contemporary and post-modern art with an effort to raise money to aid relief efforts for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
“I’ve been teaching them about how a lot of new artists are using art for a cause,” Ranson said. “Then the oil spill happened, and I thought we could incorporate a lot of these things we’ve been learning about using art to raise money, spread awareness and things like that.”
Students in two classes painted a mobile mural, which Ranson described as “whimsical and fun.” The students cut out hundreds of paper pieces made to represent oil droplets and covered the entire mural with them.
Now, for every $1 donation students receive, they remove one paper oil droplet from the mural.
Students began accepting donations from fellow students and staff last week and were able to bring in more than $100 in 40 minutes, Ranson said. The goal is to receive enough donations to eventually remove all of the oil droplets and uncover the mural.
At the end of the project, students plan to donate all of their earnings to the National Wildlife Foundation to aid relief efforts for the oil spill.
Students also set up a signature board, which allows everyone who makes a donation to sign their name. The board, along with the mural, will eventually be permanently mounted somewhere in the high school, Ranson said.
Ranson said she hopes the project will drive home lessons she’s been teaching AP art history students about contemporary and post-modern art.
“There is a lot going on with political activism and getting the audience involved in the art, making the art more about experience,” she said.
When the project was in its planning stages students broke off into committees and were assigned different jobs. One of their goals, Ranson said, is to reach out into the community to raise awareness and solicit donations. Ranson said the students planned to reach out to local businesses as well as those who have been involved with the high school before.
Ranson said the entire school community has been making an effort to get involved through donating money.
“I was so impressed with the kids and their generosity,” she said last week. “They’re not getting anything out of it, they’re just really being generous and it’s awesome.”
