Year of the Tiger Public Art Celebration Roars into Summer Camp
at Goodrich Gannett Neighborhood Center
Youth Arts and Culture Project to Culminate in Ingenuity Festival Premiere

A select group of students from Cleveland’s St Clair-Superior neighborhood will be spending the remaining weeks of July with the big cats – without a single trip to the zoo.

The first to fourth graders, participants in Goodrich Gannett Neighborhood Center’s summer camp, will attend arts and culture classes made possible through their community’s Year of the Tiger public art project.  For three weeks, they will explore the cultural history, habitat and physical features of the South Chinese Tiger, a critically endangered species.

Experience artist Melissa Daubert will lead the three-week curriculum which integrates art, science and history.  Students will delve into the legacy of tigers as symbols and characters in Chinese Art and, during a special guest lecture, will learn about the physics of large cats from Brooks Altemus of the Great Lakes Science Center.

As part of each class, Daubert will also guide students in a hands-on art project to create articulated sculptures of the South Chinese Tiger.  Student sculptures will be integrated into an interactive kinetic art installation to premiere at Cleveland’s Ingenuity Festival of Art and Technology September 24-26.

The Year of the Tiger arts and culture class series is made possible by sponsors of the annual public art campaign organized by St Clair Superior Development Corporation.  The youth classes complement the artist-designed tiger sculptures currently installed around Cleveland, which will be sold at the Year of the Tiger Gala Auction event Saturday, September 25, 2010, at Cleveland’s Masonic Temple & Auditorium.

Pictured above: Brooks Altemus from the Great Lakes Science Center explains the basic physics of large cats	Teacher Melissa Daubert explains tigers in Chinese art & symbolism

Each year St. Clair Superior Development Corporation partners with the Organization of Chinese Americans of Greater Cleveland (OCAGC) & artist Melissa Daubert, to implement an educational art program for Cleveland’s inner city children. With the program in its third year, we are thrilled to be able to offer this opportunity for our youth!

The Year of the Tiger Art & Culture program benefits children at Case Elementary School and Goodrich Gannett Neighborhood Center. Each class consists of art projects based specifically on the Chinese culture, as well as guest speakers from the OCAGC organization educating the students about certain aspects of the Chinese culture.  These classes are fully funded by Year of the Tiger Premium Sponsors.

Melissa Daubert, Interactive Works of Art
Daubert’s work is sought after by places of healing and educating and can be found at The Gathering Place (Beachwood, Ohio); Strong National Museum of Play (Rochester, New York); Health Works! Kids’ Museum (South Bend, Indiana); Arkansas Museum of Science (Little Rock, Arkansas) and Akron Children’s Hospital (Akron, Ohio).  She serves on the boards of the Ingenuity Festival and the COSE Arts Network. Daubert is a Seth Rosenberg grant recipient, a COSE Arts Business and Innovation Awards finalist and a National Arts Program Award recipient.  Looking to the future, she leads art education programs for inner-city youth, partnering with community-based arts organizations across northeast Ohio. www.melissadaubert.com