RASMUSON FOUNDATION GRANTS
The Sitka Sound Science Center is the proud recipient of two Rasmuson Foundation Grants administered by the State of Alaska Council on the Arts. In 2009 the SSSC was awarded $1000 for the Art Education Access and $6000 for the Art Education Project grant. The goal was to teach students about the marine life of Sitka Sound through artistic expression and exploration.
The Access grant funds art projects that occur within the school day, and nine students from Gaylen Needham’s Painting and Drawing class at Sitka High School designed and created two beautiful 6 foot murals that are now on display in the Molly O. Ahlgren Aquarium. The Project grant funds art projects that occur in an out-of-school setting, and twelve students and two local artists came together during the last three weeks of summer vacation and over the Christmas Holiday to create a breathtaking educational kiosk as well as a fun and interactive mural and backdrop for our 800-gallon enclosure. These works of art are on display at the Ahlgren Aquarium and we hope to be creating more Rasmuson funded artwork in the future!
ART EDUCATION ACCESS "Sitka Sound Beneath the Waves"
Shore's End
Shallow to Deep
The students transferred their drawings from sketchpads onto the panels.
They all wanted to include deep dwelling fish that are difficult to keep alive at the aquarium, such as yellow eye rockfish, as their subjects.
Each theme began to take shape as details and colors were painted in. The result was a montage of marine animals that occur within Sitka Sound, some of whom are residents at the Molly Ahlgren Aquarium.
ART EDUCATION PROJECT "Marine Life of Sitka Sound"
Predator panel exhibiting the diverse animals that the students chose as their subjects. Artist Keith Gibson is shown making adjustments to the kiosk.
Decorated war bonnet with 3-dimensional media including plastic “cedar” branches and glass to illustrate its unusual fins.
Rainbow star on predator panel. Rainbow Starfish are prolific members of Sitka Sound marine communities. Paper mache, chenille, and acrylic.
Cetacean panel, the whale's fluke is paper mache. The porthole is the frame from an old school clock. Artist DJ Robidou mentored the students in her style of acrylic painting.
Killer whale surfing beneath a starry sky, acrylic and glitter.
Excerpt from poem inscribed in glitter and paint on "porthole", which is made of paper. The text reads “ in a sky full of fishes where day turns to night”.
Intertidal habitat on the echinoderms/crustaceans panel is illustrated with eelgrass, clams shells, starfish, and a crab.
Echinoderms/crustaceans panel. Volunteer Henry Larsen demonstrates how to find the answer to the limerick painted on the panel by opening the hatch door.
Decorator crab Oregonia gracilis with informational text is the answer to the limerick. Glass, shell, plastic on bubble wrap and wire frame.
The St. Lazaria panel with tufted puffins, giant Pacific octopus, black Katy chitons, kelp bed, green isopod, and limerick/haiku.
The tufted puffins nest is the answer to the poem on this panel, and is constructed from artists excelsior formed over a frame; the eggs are plasticine.
Green isopod made from plasticine and glass, hiding in the kelp at the bottom of the St. Lazaria panel.
ART EDUCATION PROJECT "Under the Sea"
Mural design-this is the schematic that the students came up with for the carnival type backdrop and attraction.
Model Henry Larsen as the spotted octopus.