Kingsport Public Art Committee Invites the Community to Participate in
An Art Project for the Kingsport Higher Education Center

KINGSPORT, TN - The Kingsport Public Art Committee is pleased to announce the award of the Kingsport Higher Education Center Community Art Project to Patti Lawrence.  In December 2008 a Request for Proposals for art projects in conjunction with the Kingsport Center for Higher Education was released to the community. Public Art Projects are funded by the City of Kingsport’s Percent for Art Program that allocates three quarters of one percent of the construction budget for the acquisition, installation and maintenance of art for public places.  Additionally, the First Tennessee Foundation provided a $10,000 grant to the Kingsport Public Art Committee for this community art project which allows the artist to work with schools and with the community in building the mobile.
 
Patti Lawrence, the owner of The Gallery of Local Artists located at 158 Broad Street, holds a BFA from School of Visual Arts, New York, NY and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Montclair State University in Upper Montclair, NJ.  Since 1990 she has been an active teacher/instructor in the arts having worked with the Knoxville Museum of Art, Oak Ridge Children’s Museum, and Hands On! Museum in Johnson City.  2007 she opened her own gallery on Broad Street with business hours 11- 2 PM Tuesday through Saturday and by appointment.
 
Lawrence’s proposal won praise from the Kingsport Higher Education Center selection committee.  Chairman Mary Banks said, “We loved Patti’s concept right away.  She caught the essence of the community art project and incorporated environmentally friendly and sustainable elements in the proposed construction.”  Others serving on the selection committee for the Kingsport Higher Education Center included Jeff Fleming, David Mason, Chris Campbell and the architect Li Wang.
 
According to Lawrence’s proposal, “I have come up with a wonderful idea for the Higher Education Center Community Art Project.  When completed, a dazzling, colorful mobile of swirling translucent birds will inhabit the atrium of the building, reflecting jewel tones of light throughout the space and transforming it into a magical aviary.”  Lawrence will create the birds from recycled plastic containers which is in-keeping with the building’s environmentally advanced LEED certification.  Lawrence will suspend the birds as a mobile in the 3-story atrium. Lawrence explains, “The old adage, ‘Birds of a feather…’ comes to mind, and yet we see in the mobile that different birds can ‘flock together’ in a cohesive community, each individual being beautiful on its own, yet becoming more important as part of the whole.  The symbolism of the birds as us combines Kingsport’s history as a bird sanctuary and its present and future as a place that many have migrated to from other parts of the country and the world.”
 
Lawrence has already conducted one teacher in-service training session for art teachers of the Kingsport City School system.  She is also available to visit with any school in Sullivan County to explain her project at the Kingsport Higher Education Center and work with art teachers on a similar project.  In addition she has a variety of lesson-plans that educators can use to allow students to participate with “Birds of a Feather”.  Lawrence has set two workshops that are free to the public for anyone in the community to participate in ‘bird building’.  On Saturday, October 17 and November 14, from 11 AM to 2 PM, the public is invited to learn more about the mobile and to assist with the building of a bird.  For more information on the classes or to register for he workshops call Patti Lawrence at 423-367-9211.
 
Targeted installation for the ‘Bird of a Feather’ mobile is April 2010.  Community efforts will also be documented and celebrated at that time at the Kingsport Higher Education Center.