During the beginning of September, iLead students in Lori Miracle’s class took on another community service project. I say “another” project because their school year last year was filled with work for others. They did everything from make greeting cards for the nursing home patients to making posters and signs to raise awareness against school violence and racial discrimination.
This type of project was a first for them…it was to provide materials for the art program for women at the Knox County Detention Center. Brenda Richardson of Berea College began the art program for the female inmates and quickly brought local artist, Starr Rossman, on board. Starr is the owner of Art & Soul on the Court Square in Barbourville. The program was started to give the inmates an outlet to relieve stress, a chance for self-expression, and an opportunity to be creative.
This particular project was for the female inmates to create collages of pictures that they felt depicted their personalities, emotions, and things that they love or had an interest in. The students were tasked with cropping and clipping images from a wide variety of magazines. The students clipped everything from varieties of candy and quotes to perfume.
Rossman reported to the students upon completion of the collages, “The ladies truly enjoyed the pictures and creating the collages and they wanted to thank you all for your work.” The collages are on display in the windows of Art & Soul.