AC will host 400 high school students for a creative arts conference

A collaborative tradition of faculty- and artisan-led workshops aimed at inspiring the next generation of artists returns Friday, April 19 to Amarillo College, where 400 high school students will gather for the IGNITE High School Creative Arts Conference.

For the fourth time since 2019 (twice the event fell victim to the pandemic) Amarillo College and the Texas Panhandle Art Education Association will co-present IGNITE, from 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. on AC’s Washington Street Campus.

And this year’s conference features not only morning and afternoon workshops and breakout sessions aplenty, but sandwiched in between those hands-on opportunities will be a midday keynote address given by Caledonia Curry, an acclaimed contemporary artist and filmmaker better known as Swoon.

IGNITE officially kicks off at 8:55 a.m. in Ordway Hall with opening remarks by Brick & Elm magazine’s Jason Boyett, who then will lead a panel discussion featuring four area creatives and focusing on the topic of “Creative Careers.”

Then the 400 students in attendance – from Amarillo, Boys Ranch, Bushland, Canyon, Plainview, River Road, Sanford-Fritch, Spearman, and Texline schools – will fan out to across the campus to attend breakout sessions in the College Union Building and in Byrd, Parcells and Ordway halls.

Presentations will be made by faculty from AC; faculty and students from West Texas A&M University; and some area high school faculty. Museum curators, community artists and art experts, and representatives of the mural creative Blank Spaces also will lead sessions.

For example, Andrew Hall, founder of the HOODOO mural festival, will lead a session called “Promote Yourself as an Artist and Community Murals”; while Deana Craighead, curator of art at Panhandle Plains Historical Museum will present a session called “Dali’s Wonderland.”

Among the more than two dozen additional break-out sessions to be presented are such offerings as “Green Screen,” “Action Drawing,” “Clay Animals,” “Stencils for Simpletons,” and “Henna Body Art.”

The keynote address by Ms. Curry, who around the turn of the century adopted the pseudonym Swoon, will be from 11:25 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. in Ordway Hall. Swoon started out as a street artist and now additionally creates installations and works as a pioneer in how art can create and shape community.

Curry has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in major museums and galleries around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1, New York; the Brooklyn Museum; the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and more. Her work is held in public and private collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and the Detroit Institute of Art.

She is best known as one of the first women street artists to gain international recognition in a male-dominated field, pushing its conceptual limits and paving the way for a generation of women street artists. However, her expansive practice defies genre. In 2015, for example, she founded the Heliotrope Foundation to support collaborative projects that use art to respond to crisis.

“We are glad to welcome these students to AC, and to highlight the academic pathway in the arts from high school, to college, to university,” said Stephanie Jung, AC instructor of art and conference organizer. “And we’re so pleased that Swoon has agreed to be our keynote speaker.

“Our conference is designed to bring young creatives and local arts professionals together to forge connections and introduce students to the many arts resources available locally,” she said. “Fostering the creative spirit and connecting these students to the larger arts community is special, and it’s even better when we can offer a keynote from an artist who’s had such a far-reaching altruistic impact.”

The Texas Panhandle Art Education Association (TPAEA) was founded with the purpose of enriching education through the arts and stimulating the teaching of art as an integral part of the total curriculum throughout the Panhandle. On behalf of the TPAEA and the College, Jung wishes to acknowledge both Art Force Amarillo and the AC Foundation for their generous support of IGNITE 2024.

For more information about IGNITE, please contact Ms. Jung at 405-788-6591, or Shawn Kennedy, president of the TPAEA, at 806-640-4490.