Artist in Residence Programs for Schools

Patricia Innis, artist and educator, makes connections between the themes found in the Art Park and the curriculum. She develops and presents art and writing activities that integrate topics being taught in the classroom to provide an interactive and creative learning environment. To learn how you can bring Ms. Innis to your school, please contact the Park Director.

Smart Art
Patricia Innis bolsters lesson plans for local teachers

Traverse City Central Grade School, 5th Grade
Teachers: Jaye Lynn Trapp, Tracey Westerman, Laine Kyser,
Steve Balcom and Cherie Correll
Project: Bird Migration

As she plans her next series of multi-site artworks around a theme of bird migration, environmental artist Patricia Innis recently collaborated with local students to help them create their own art based on this subject. Innis and the students from Central Grade School created wire sculpture of birds, and the students incorporated many materials into the artwork including pinecones and feathers.

Students also painted shadows of birds on trees with natural dye on the grounds of their school and at Michigan Legacy Art Park. In an extension of the project, art teacher Cherie Correll worked with students to create ceramic birds and students studied bird migration in their science class.

The project was funded with a grant from Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians 2% Allocation Fund.

Traverse City Central Grade School, 5th Grades
Teachers: Jaye Lynn Trap (social studies) and Cherie Correll (art)
Project: Winter Counts

The Lakota Sioux tribes lived on North America's northern plains and used a pictorial method of recordkeeping called Winter Counts to mark the passage of time. Dating back to the early 1600s, these detailed journals of memorable events were recorded on animal hides using charcoal and dyes. A year spanned from the beginning of one winter to the beginning of the next, thus the name.

Under Patricia Innis' leadership, the lessons learned about the Lakota Sioux's culture and history culminated in the project “Day Counts”. Each student fashioned his or her personal seven-day visual journal on hide-like paper.

The project was funded with a grant from Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians 2% Allocation Fund.

Brethren High School
Teacher: Deb Crandell
Project: Hemingway

In 1916, a fishing trip brought a teenaged Ernest Hemingway and his friend, Lew Clarahan, to Bear Creek, near Brethren. This visit served as a catalyst for the collaborative art project with students at Brethren High School.  

After receiving a thorough introduction to the writer, students created a number of works including Hemingway-inspired watercolors that will go on permanent display in the town’s cultural center when it is complete. 

Andy Priest designed a model of High Bridge, an old railroad bridge near Brethren. It is similar to ones Hemingway and his friend crossed on their way to their fishing spots. Andy hopes to build it with his mentor and father, sculptor Andy Priest Sr.

The students also used homemade black walnut dye to repaint silhouettes of Hemingway and his friend on two trees along Bear Creek at Spirit of the Woods Natural Area. This environmental art installation is repainted annually and is one of the several in the region that pays homage to Hemingway’s 1916 trip.  

Kristine Harvey’s students from Frankfort High School also repainted the Hemmingway silhouettes on their school grounds.  

These installations, originally created in 2005, were funded in part by a Rural Arts Grant from the Michigan Council of Arts and Culture (MCACA) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Local students repaint the figures annually.

Brethren High School
Teacher: Deb Crandell
Project: Eagle Mound

Patricia Innis, Grace Smead, Nick Platz and a group of students created an earthen sculpture, or effigy mound, in the shape of an eagle along a new trail within the school grounds. The eagle has a wingspan of 14 feet and is about 2 feet tall. It is made of topsoil and planted with grass.