CORCORAN COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

Office of the Secretary

For Immediate Release: July 13, 2000

CONTACT: Joan Moody, DOI
(202) 208-6416;
Natasha Le Bel, Corcoran
(202) 639-1833
email: [email protected]

Photo Opportunity July 17:

Secretary of the Interior Babbitt Praises D.C. Public School Students

for Painting Mural at the Department of the Interior

Celebrating Anacostia River

Washington, DC--On July 17 Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and David C. Levy, President and Director of the Cororan, will join four D.C. public school students from the Corcoran College of Art and Design's Visual Arts Community Outreach Program to publicly 'unveil' a mural by the student artists celebrating the conservation of the Anacostia River. The students are painting the mural for display at the Department of the Interior, which is responsible for fish, wildlife and parklands along the river.

The press availability and photo opportunity will be held at 2:30 p.m. on July 17 on the fourth floor of the Main Interior Building, 1849 C Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. Credentialed media wishing to participate should call 202-208-6416 ahead of time to gain access to the building.

"All of us at the Department of Interior have enjoyed watching the students paint the mural over the past several weeks and are proud that our building will showcase these dramatic scenes of wildlife and people along the Anacostia River," says Interior Secretary Babbitt. "Inspired by the reintroduction of the bald eagle to the river area, the mural colorfully portrays people and their interrelationships with the ecosystem. The students also have graphically demonstrated the potential supportive relationship between art and environmental protection." The return of the eagle, birds and fish, and people fishing, canoeing, and planting along the riverbank are vividly portrayed in large wall panels.

All four students participated in art classes as part of the CANVAS (Corcoran Art: New Visions at School) program, taught by Corcoran faculty at Fletcher-Johnson Middle School in Anacostia, one of the Corcoran's partner community sites. All four live in Anacostia, in southeast Washington, D.C. Shonondra Fogel and Brittany Oliver are sophomores at D.C.'s Woodrow Wilson High School; Derrick Byrd and Brian Carpenter, graduates of the Duke Ellington School for the Arts, plan to attend the Maryland College of Art and Design this fall. Painting the mural has provided a paid summer experience both this summer and last for each of the students.

Through participation in this summer project, the Visual Arts Community Outreach Program brings together local teenagers with common educational and creative goals, and helps them to understand the importance of preserving their communities and natural environments. Working with the Washington-based Earth Conservation Corps (ECC), Julia Moe, who directs The Visual Arts Community Outreach Program's CANVAS program, recruited the students to paint the mural under the guidance of professional artist Judy Southerland.

During the summer of 1999, the students spent time at the ECC offices located in a restored Pump House donated by the Potomac Electric Power Company on the Anacostia River. "Last summer they were introduced to the environmental efforts underway to restore an ecosystem to the river that permits wildlife to survive," says Moe. "Their understanding of these efforts has been eloquently conveyed this summer in the students' designs for the mural."

"We're pleased and excited about the Department of Interior mural," says Marie Kissick, Director of the Corcoran's Visual Arts Community Outreach Program. "It's a testament to our ongoing program with students from Anacostia to further their art and design skills and their understanding of the ecology and rich environment of the Anacostia River."

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