art/vision/voice - Maryland Institute College of Art

50 art / vision / voice
university. Sr. Lurana also actively sought out real-world opportunities
for artists through what was known as the Xavier Art Guild, a program that
allowed students such as John Scott to acquire hands-on professional
training from public art commissions.
In addition to sending Xavier students into the community, Sister
Lurana and other art department faculty were instrumental in bringing
youth to campus in a program called the Junior School of Art, which allowed
young people to become familiar with the arts in a college atmosphere.
The career paths of both John Scott and Richard Thomas were
shaped by this history of community involvement at Xavier, and by the
charismatic leadership of their mentors Sr. Lurana Neely and professor
Numa Roussave, who taught students that they had a responsibility to
pass on what they had learned to the next generation. According to Scott,
the response to “thank you” from his mentors at Xavier was always,
“pass it on.”
Thomas began teaching art in 1989 at “35,” as McDonogh 35 High
School is affectionately called in the community, in the back of a cramped
classroom that he shared with another teacher. That group was bounced
around to several tiny spaces until one year, when Thomas and his
students commandeered the teachers’ lounge with an old-fashioned sit-in.
Pieces of Power began at the end of the Reagan era, when youths were
faced with tremendous amounts of violence in their lives and in society,
and, as Thomas believes, when the “whole gang mentality started.”
Thomas’ goal was to create “a positive gang,” and a few gang members
actually joined pop.
Both Scott and Thomas have participated in cap program projects,
each has a history of community focus in his work, and each has an
abiding commitment to community arts as a vehicle for “passing it on.”
Richard Thomas credits his teacher John Scott, and the philosophies he
picked up as a student at Xavier, with providing him with the concepts
of “community arts” that have informed his own experiences as an
artist and educator.
Despite their shared influences and their influence on each other,
it is clear that the two men’s ideas about the best methods for “passing it
on” and the nature and purpose of community arts diverge. Some of
these differences are discussed in this case, which consists of excerpts
from a taped conversation between the two at John Scott’s studio in
spring 2004. Gina Charbonnet, Coordinator of Xavier’s Community Arts
Partnerships, and Karen Celestan also participated in this conversation.
sister lurana mixing cement for
a project with frank hayden and
ernest ross in 1956.
sister lurana and richard thomas
at an art opening in 1990.
john scott talks with students
at a student art opening in 1997.