Curated by teacher Robert Richardson, "Heal Me" involved the participation of all four classes of art majors at Arts High.
NEWARK -- You don't need to read Dale Russakoff's critically acclaimed new book "The Prize" to know that Newark's public schools are under increasing pressure to perform -- especially as privately run charter schools compete for the same resources.
The stress on the schools was largely responsible for the election of Ras Baraka -- a former principal and a profound critic of school reform -- as mayor last year.
Given the top-down nature of charterization, however, we rarely hear from the people most affected by the budget cuts forced on public schools: the students themselves. On Friday, Oct. 16, the art majors at Arts High School -- the oldest arts high in the United States, founded in 1931 -- will open an exhibition titled "Heal Me" devoted to student responses to all the stresses in their lives, including violence, divorce, drugs, neighborhood decay, and, yes, school reform.
RELATED: Author Dale Russakoff discusses new book on Newark School Reform
Curated by teacher Robert Richardson, "Heal Me" involved the participation of all four classes of art majors at the school, who were encouraged to draw or write on torn pieces of colored paper about some aspect of their lives that was painful to them.
Those drawings and poems were then assembled into nine-foot-tall sheets with "band-aids" -- basically, strips of gauze and tape -- and hung from the gallery ceiling to form a cylinder. The illuminated paper scraps were also collaged together on the wall of the gallery to spell out the title of the show.
On Friday, at the formal opening, students will read their poems or perform their raps from within the "cage" formed by these sheets of torn paper. The performances range from senior Kayla Muldrow's stream-of-consciousness poetry to Stanley Willis's rap about teen love and disappointment, accompanied by a beat composed on the school's Music Tech computer.
The "cage" of drawings and messages built by students for "Heal Me." Students entered the cage to create their performance pieces at the exhibition opening Oct. 16. Over 50 students participated in the school-wide show: Freshmen tore the papers; videographer Sabrina Enrriquez produced a film about making the art (her film will be in the show); and everyone made drawings or wrote messages.
The emotional reach can be penetrating, like the sketch of a tearful eye surrounded by commands, including "Just leave," "You're Nuthin'," and "Go Away."
There are plenty of teen tropes -- skulls, cartoon references, and pop culture jokes. But the overall feeling one gets from meeting these remarkably poised art students is earnest determination. (The group staged a partial rehearsal for this reviewer the weekend before opening.)
"I think the intent is to destroy the reputation of public schools in order to make way for charterization," says senior Aricelis Checo, who has been a member of the Newark Student Union, which has held several demonstrations against the cuts, since 2013.
Asked about the perception that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's much-ballyhooed $100 million gift to Newark schools in 2010 must have been a boon to the system, Checo replies, "The schools never saw that money. Just a small part of it could have fixed the infrastructure of our school, bought new equipment, all the obvious things. But it went to well-paid advisors, not students.
In June, Arts High laid off James Manno, its popular Performing Arts Director, who had raised private funds for contemporary technology (including the computers Willis used to accompany his rap), and the school librarian. (Manno has since been appointed vice-principal at Barringer High School.) This fall, as the school year was starting, the system was required to find hundreds of thousands more in cuts with little warning.
Interim principal Ricardo Pedro did not reply to requests for comment.
Arts High has a distinguished history. The fourth floor of the main building once housed the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Art, a college-level program (now defunct) whose faculty included Enid Bell, Irv Docktor, Robert Conover and Grigory Gurevitch.
The main entrance is an Art Deco extravaganza, complete with a mosaic mural in WPA style and a stained glass window. Maintenance is definitely needed, though -- teacher Robert Richardson mounted a canvas called "Bill of Rights" about sexual harassment to cover a gaping hole in the gallery wall.
Richardson, 56, who has taught at Arts High for eight years, shows frequently around Newark, often at City Without Walls and similar alternative spaces. His style is very much in the Newark found-object sculptural tradition, and he often collaborates with students. "Heal Me" includes two Richardsonian bushel basket-sized plaster eggs, both earth-cast, one decorated with Venus of Willendorf figures (part of an art history class) and the other, fitted into a shopping cart, filled with air-dried clay "babies" fashioned by sculpture students.
"I think I learn more from these kids as an artist than they do from me," Richardson says.
"Heal Me"
Where: Elita J. Caldwell Gallery, second floor, Arts High School, 550 Martin Luther King Blvd., Newark
When: Oct. 16-Nov. 30. Gallery open during school hours; arrangements can be made with the school for public visits by calling (973) 733-7391
How much: Free
Dan Bischoff may be reached at danbischoff55@gmail.com. Find NJ.com on Facebook.