Financial gift to student program inspires gift of art
By Meliqueica Meadows
For the St. Louis American
The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis recently announced that it had received a generous donation from Emily Rauh Pulitzer of $5.4 million dollars. The money will help fund art education programs like New Art in the Neighborhood (NAN), which gives local high school students the opportunity to build their portfolios and learn about careers in art.
Moved by Pulitzer’s generosity, NAN student Stan Chisholm gave the benefactor what he considers his best work to date.
“I want to thank you for supporting the Contemporary and helping kids like me become artists,” Chisholm told Pulitzer as he presented her with Villain, the largest piece in an 11-piece series.
The Eureka High School senior credited NAN with helping him build his portfolio by inspiring him to make “projects that I normally wouldn’t have done in class,” he said. That portfolio and skills he gained in NAN earned him a spot in the 2005 freshman class of an important art school.
“I didn’t know what I was going to do for college until, like, October,” he said. “I had no clue. I never really thought about it. Then, back in October, I went to portfolio day at Wash. U.”
The university was so impressed with his work, Chisholm said, that he was offered admission even though he had not formally applied. His story is the perfect example of why NAN was created.
“It was started 10 years ago by the former director of education (at the Contemporary) and a group of people from Washington University who identified this lack of formal arts education for high school students,” said Kelly Scheffer, director of education and outreach at the museum.
“Many schools do not have a lot of money for art and can’t do the kinds of projects that we can. They started this program to help build portfolios and do things that they can’t do in school.”
Art education programs like NAN give local students the opportunity to “do digital and video and to have a live model to do figure drawing from and all the things that the schools might not have the budget to do,” Scheffer said. “It’s a way for these teenagers to talk to other kids who like art, and it’s a small class so they get a lot of one-on-one attention.”
Chisholm said he has enjoyed art since he was a child, but the attention and direction he received in NAN helped him develop the skills needed for a successful career. He feels that Pulitzer’s donation will help other aspiring artists as well.
“I think it’s very helpful,” Chisholm said of Pulitzer’s donation. “I’ve really been seeing just how art and money depend on each other. It’s nice to have someone important who cares about art.”
Scheffer said the donation is “something that’s going to completely change the scope of what we can do here, especially in education.”
Currently, NAN only has space for 20 students. With the new donation, Scheffer hopes to expand the program into a second class so more students will have the opportunity to experience art.
“I think that it gives them an opportunity that they wouldn’t have elsewhere, especially to work with local artists,” she said.
“It also gives them a place to go where they are with a group of people who enjoy the same thing. It’s not only a place to make art, but it’s a way to get themselves in a community.”
For more information about New Art in the Neighborhood and other art education programs at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, email Kelly.scheffer@contemporarystl.org.
