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FSOW Rise Up
Students and parents from the Friends School of Wilmington recently participated in the organization and creation of a spectacular art exhibit at the Cameron Art Museum entitled, Rise Up Wilmington. The exhibit features a massive sculpture made up of ladders donated by local residents, schools and churches. The sculpture, which contains hundreds of ladders and reaches heights of nearly 30 feet, will be on display at the Cameron Art Museum through the month of April, 2012.
The idea for the ladder sculpture exhibit came from renowned Virginia artist, Charlie Brouwer, who has developed similar ladder sculptures in several other cities around the country. To gain support for the creation of the exhibit, Brouwer visited the Friends School of Wilmington (which has been working closely with the Cameron Art Museum’s art education department on other projects) to explain the meaning and purpose of the exhibit. According to Friends School art teacher, Amy Hall, Brouwer’s ladder sculptures symbolize several things, including:
- The high reaching hopes and dreams of the Wilmington Community and of the individuals within the community
- The sharing of resources and the act of coming together to accomplish those dreams
- The work that has to be done to make dreams come true
- The proof that amazing heights can be reached when individuals agree to work together for a common goal
Many Friends School parents and staff donated ladders for the sculpture and Friends School students painted two special ladders during art class to present to Mr. Brouwer. The brightly painted ladders were presented by Friends School students to Brouwer at the Cameron Art Museum on Wednesday, March 28th. Brouwer asked the students to choose the locations for the special, hand-painted ladders within the sculpture. Some of the ladders will be returned to their owners after the exhibit is over, but many will be donated to the Habitat for Humanity organization.
