A Doorway to Creativity
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum’s Creativity Studio serves as a classroom for assorted art classes and an inspiring meeting space for staff. This summer, it was also a blank canvas for the students of the Art & Leadership Program (A&L), the Museum’s camp for middle school youth.
Three interior doors in the Creativity Studio, which were originally white to match the rest of the walls, were drenched with dynamic color and lively designs during every session of A&L. Santa Fe-based muralist Mia Calsi led participants through the creation process, from idea generation to painting practices, using her professional experience as a guide.
Each session began with a brainstorm—a collection of words, animals, plants, and landscapes to be included—before the group collaborated on the composition of the elements. The entire concept was then sketched by Calsi before each student selected an animal, landscape, or plant to paint with different techniques.
“Everyone brought something to the table. They found out what they enjoyed or what skills they exceled at like blending, building depth, different brush techniques, and color mixing,” Calsi said.
Calsi explained that the goal was for a common theme to create a flow between the three doors, but they would ultimately be a triptych—meaning each door could stand alone as a piece of art but together present a cohesive concept when viewed as a series. The motif was ultimately decided by a prompt provided by the Museum asking for New Mexico landscapes with native flora and fauna to be included.
“We treated this as a professional commission. The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum was our client, and our goal was to produce a beautiful mural that met our client’s needs and that could be enjoyed for many years,” Calsi said.
Three familiar O’Keeffe themes anchor the pieces, “The White Place”, “The Black Place,” and Cerro Pedernal, while familiar O’Keeffe trademarks like antlers, skulls and blue skies make appearances.
The mural project was a collaboration between the A&L program and the community engagement initiative of the Museum’s Art to G.O. Program. Every session or class of the camp was treated as its own “community” in which students learned how to work as a collective group to make their mark on their surrounding environment and bring an idea to life.
Before every mural session, Manager of Community Engagement Chicle Corcoles would lead a discussion with A&L students about what community engagement means and how murals can impact or influence a community. As the pre-determined and O’Keeffe-inspired theme of the murals revolved around nature, Corcoles and the students would also discuss the importance of conservation and preservation of the natural world, specifically the importance of caring for the land and animals found in New Mexico.
In one session, students wondered aloud if a groundhog they were painting needed more definition. As finishing touches were added, they debated on how to describe the fur of the rodent—as “splotchiness” or texture. When they finally decided they were done, all agreed it was could simply be classified as “art.”
The Art & Leadership Program, now in its 27th year, was created as an homage to Georgia O’Keeffe’s lifelong passion for education and learning. The program is designed to address the gap in artistic development between elementary and high school while focusing on independent thinking, building self-esteem, and strengthening self-respect. Museum staff, program leaders, interns, and teaching artists lead the program, offering children an oasis of positive support and encouragement.
See It in Person:
The door murals and other student work will be on view during the Art & Leadership Art Show from August 1 to August 20 at the Santa Fe Community College Visual Arts Gallery (6401 Richards Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87408).
