Hero Collaboration
Our community is rich, full of experts, masters, and heroes ready to share their journey and experience with learners. This past April a very special and inspiring hero visited Acton and what developed was a fun, creative, and inspiring collaborative process!
It all started with a need. “We need art!” Art makes a space, a school, a home, feel lived in and inspiring. Rather than searching online for that perfect Etsy art to fill our white-walled school lobby we knew there was a greater opportunity right here in our community, a local artist. So, we called up abstract expressionist, Brandy Huerta, and asked her to consider a commission for our school of heroes. Brandy toured our school, said hello to learners, and learned about our unique school model. I asked her simply “Is there any way that we can involve our learners in the creation of your art?” Brandy scratched her head and shared her typical process for large pieces. In a nutshell, Brandy takes long exposure photographs and uses these photographs full of color and light and recreates them with paint for large scale art pieces typically on wood. After she shared her process of needing moving light, an idea struck! Learners love to move and their favorite activity is freeze dance!
So, April 20th Brandy showed up with her camera, I was armed with glow sticks and mini flashlights, and all our Owls danced their hearts out creating a beautiful light show! During Brandy’s visit, she shared her hero story and why she loves being a professional artist. Learners were truly in heaven as many of them have shared that one day they too want to be an artist. Brandy was a true hero and learners treated her so; it was such a beautiful moment of excitement and wonder!
Following Brandy’s visit learners received 18 photo options to choose from for the final piece. Learners shared “I can’t pick one, I’m going to vote for them all!” But in the end through the democratic voting process, learners whittled 18 down to 4 and of the selected 4 Brandy chose her favorite that she was most inspired to paint. Now, after 3 months of waiting, our art collaboration is officially installed and has been unveiled to learners, white sheet reveal and ceremony to boot. This process will forever be remembered in our lobby and we are so grateful to our amazing local art hero, Brandy Huerta!