The Project

Artists Reaching Classrooms exposes high school art students to careers in the arts. The program begins with a trip to the Taft Museum of Art, where students explore the collection and select an artist and artwork to research. They return a month later to present what they learned to their classmates. Three artists, working in a wide range of media from painting to industrial design, visit each classroom to discuss careers in art. Classes also visit an artist’s studio. The students create artwork in response to their experience and discover how their artwork fits within the continuum of art making throughout history. They also learn how to write an artist’s statement that accompanies their work in the culminating exhibition at the downtown branch of the Cincinnati Public Library. Adam Schmidt’s painting was inspired by Cedric Cox, an Artist Reaching Classrooms teaching artist. Grant Leung’s piece was inspired by the Dutch painting “Still Life with Tilted Basket of Fruit, Vase of Flowers, and Shells” by Balthasar van der Ast, a work in the Taft Museum of Art.