Made In The Shade

Title: Made in the Shade

Client: Clark County Parks and Recreation Location: Las Vegas, NV

Art Site: Von Tobel Park

Vision and Goal: Von Tobel Park is adjacent to Von Tobel Middle School.

Our vision was to create a safe “hang out spot” that would be close to the community center and within the park grounds for the kids within that community. To engage students in this project, which we called “project self-esteem”, we bused a group of art students from VT Middle School to our studio. We discussed with the kids, the importance of respect for self, for others, and for our community. The way we treat others is a reflection of how we feel about ourselves and the importance of self-esteem. In the studio, each student wrote five uplifting words which would be etched into their sculpture in glass and metal bearing their positive words which would become their daily mantra.

For our sculpture, “Made in the Shade” we used the words of the children in each hexagon canopy of this sculpture. The words are cut out of the metal so that when the viewer stands under an art piece, the sun will shine through and bathe the viewer in the positive words of the kids from this community.