Julia Baker and Professor Sharon Gray, Art Education
As stated in my proposal, the overarching goal of this research is to assess how investing time, energy, and talents in improving the physical attributes of a special needs childcare institution in Russia will help art education student teachers become more well rounded, and sensitive educators and artists. I was able to accomplish this by examining my previous trip there, and taking that experience and turning it into a humanitarian effort to help enrich the lives of others, thereby enriching my own life and enhancing my ability to make meaningful art. During my trip to Russia last year I met many orphans who grow up in a rapidly developing country rich in culture, yet their experience is a very different reality. I wanted to find a way of merging the wealth that I saw in Russia’s gilded churches, the hermitage museum in St. Petersburg, and the Kremlin in Moscow with the poverty-stricken villages I visited in the Ural Mountains many miles east.
I chose to create paintings that depict very raw, dark images but that are adorned with gold leaf, reflecting the gilded Russian orthodox relics, also addressed in the triptych-like formation of the three large paintings. I felt the gold juxtaposed with the dark paint colors and textures acknowledges the aspect of human feeling in an adverse environment. It is difficult to fully explain what I saw in Russia, but I feel that it is important for me to paint a picture that describes the situation I was faced with.
Russia continues to retain its rich cultural background while still struggling to face problems of social, and economic divides, poverty, social problems, and a desire to move towards progress and modernity. The majority of Russia’s social problems however, stem from the enormous amount of social orphans. There are currently more orphans in Russia today than there were after WWII. With large amounts of children dropped into orphanages, the quality of care and education provided by these institutions is lacking, to say the least. The orphanage environment that offers these children little to no stability and no sense of responsibility or life skills often plunges youth into life styles that lead to mental illness, homelessness, prostitution, or gang involvement. An issue that I was surprised to be introduced to is the stigma attached to children with mental or physical disabilities. The negative mindset associated with disabled children increases the amount of disabled children put in orphanages. Their parents refuse to take care of them, and they are often exiled to over crowded, under funded, under staffed institutions, and forgotten about, or ignored by society. This viewpoint is not only damaging to these children, but is also damaging to Russia’s attempts at progress. I had the opportunity to visit Karpinsk Orphanage which is an orphanage located about four hours drive from anywhere in the Ural mountains. This orphanage is strictly for children with disabilities. The building is crumbling, and the government actually fines the orphanage for not being up to code when it is the government’s responsibility to keep the institution running well. This orphanage survives off of charitable donations, but still struggles to meet the very most basic of its inhabitant’s needs.
While trying to decide how to go about this research I realized that the only way to create meaningful artwork was to reflect on my past experiences, while also actively making an effort to make a change in the lives of the orphans I visited. As an education student I value learning, but more importantly I value the psychological wellbeing of children. The children I visited at the Karpinsk orphanage need a clean, safe, and child-friendly environment. While in Russia I was introduced to a woman who left her job in Moscow after hearing about this orphanage, moved her family to this destitute town, and devotes her time to painting the re-modeled sections of the orphanages with beautiful murals for the children’s rooms. The orphanage is struggling to get enough donations to complete their renovations, and I asked them if I could donate some of the money from my grant to pay for the renovations of the baby rooms and asked that the local artists paint those specific rooms. With the help of the money from the grant, and from other donations, three rooms were just recently completed. The children in those rooms spend 90% of their days in their small cribs with little stimulation. These children tend to develop dwarfism, and may never learn to walk or receive the appropriate medical care for their disabilities. The art on their walls will give them some visual stimulation, and crib side toys that my mother and I, and some of our friends donated will give the children auditory, and tactile stimulation.
This humanitarian work has made me more sensitive towards children, and helped me to think outside myself, and think of ways to become involved with my world community. My paintings have helped me to take feelings that I have internalized, and find a way to share those feelings, and create awareness for a greater cause. I created four artworks over this past year that each deal with a different aspect of my personal journey. While doing my student teaching this year I brought in my artwork to show my painting class and described to them the concept of telling stories through artwork. One of my students, who I knew was from Russia, was silent as I showed her the artwork, photographs I took of the orphans in the orphanage, and described the social problems Russia faces, and my thoughts and feelings on the subject. I asked her what she thought of my presentation, and asked her if she knew what she wanted to paint for her story telling assignment. She told me she was adopted from a Russian orphanage when she was twelve, and that she wanted to paint from a photograph she has of her own orphanage. This girl, previously, had been unresponsive to my lessons, always talked over me in class, showed multiple behavioral problems, and never turned in any assignments. After sharing with her my experience in Russia, and listening to hers, she finished her project, turned it in on time, and has since been involved in class, and completed her assignments. This young woman has shown me that the subject and work I have been focused on over the past year have indeed helped me become a more sensitive, and attentive educator and artist. I feel this experience as a whole has improved my understanding of my own artistic process, and my motivation to teach children to find enrichment through art making has expanded greatly.