Before the pandemic turned our social tides, T.L. Hanna High School art students came together for a creative cause.
For the past three years, Kathy Moore, an art teacher at T.L. Hanna, along with fellow instructors Johnny Nutt, Stephanie Raspet, and Chris Stanzione, has been organizing the Wearable Art Exhibition, an annual fundraiser fashion show, and they are already working on the 2021 installment.
Her students, along with T.L. Hanna instructors and local artists, brought the exhibition to life on February 22 at the Anderson Arts Center, creating and modeling the wearable art, and managing the production from start to finish.
Each show has raised more than $3,500, funds that go directly to the T.L. Hanna Visual Arts Department. This money goes toward buying new supplies and equipment, but it also impacts younger students in the district.
For the exhibition this year, the high school students gave a special performance at the Anderson Arts Center for a Title 1 elementary school, and four young artists were awarded scholarships for a week-long summer camp at Anderson Arts Center.
The Wearable Art Exhibition brings to light creativity that can be found in the commonplace. The segments this year included “Unconventional Materials,” “Trompe L’oeil,” “Foodie,” “Cardboard Masks,” and “Hand-Painted Denim Jackets.”
Each category is a nod to environmentalism and creative thinking. Shift dresses and vests were made out of window-shade material and painted in the trompe l’oeil style, and recycled materials were used to create nearly 35 different designs.
These T.L. Hanna students show the promise of creative possibility, which is perhaps needed now more than ever.
