LIFE

Sealey teacher takes art lesson outside

Amanda Karioth Thompson
Council on Culture & Arts

Natalie Hyder is on a mission to re-introduce her students and their families to their own community. As the art teacher at Sealey elementary school, she knows public art is a powerful tool that can be used to accomplish this goal. Tallahassee has more than 200 outdoor murals, sculptures, windows, memorials, and monuments that are accessible to anyone, at any time. Each piece is unique and may range from iconic, to historic, to quirky. “Public art is a reflection of our community’s culture and our students’ evolving public history,” said Hyder.

Walkers learning about Mark Dickson's Birds Bus Shelter

In an effort to engage her students with the treasures in their own backyard, Hyder developed and introduced them to public art lessons and classroom projects. As a culminating activity, she invited Sealey students, parents, grandparents, teachers, and administrators to participate in a public art walk. Designed by the Council on Culture & Arts, the area’s arts agency, the walking route highlights artworks in the All Saints district. Building on the success of last year’s Sealey excursion featuring COCA’s downtown public art walk, this new tour provides a look at nearly three dozen outdoor public artworks.

“I love that we introduced them to Railroad Square because that’s an area that families might not know about,” said Hyder. “I hear parents and families say, ‘I didn’t even know this was here.’  It is amazing how many times we can pass by something and never really look at it.”

The Rorison family echoed those sentiments. Christopher and Meron and their children Nathan, Natalie, and Madeline represented five of the more than 100 art walk participants. Christopher shared “unless you have certain things to do, you don’t go to certain places, so this lets us see some things that we just didn’t know about. I didn’t know about the Art Alley and I thought it was really cool to be able to see different sides of the city.”

Christopher’s son Nathan is a fourth-grader at Sealey and he was especially enthusiastic about the art walk. Pondering the importance of our community’s public art, he mused “without public art, what would the city be? It would just be a normal place, but with art, it stands out.” 

Art walk participants discussing future accomplishments

Art Alley was a highlight of the tour for numerous reasons. What was once a dark, narrow pathway between Saint Francis and Gaines Streets, has been completely renovated. It now serves as a public display space for artists of all ages and skill levels, thanks to the tenacity and vision of FSU art professor Paul Rutkovsky. Committed to encouraging emerging artists, Rutkovsky was happy to collaborate with Sealey.

Local ceramicist Susan Stelzmann also provided support. With her help, Sealey students created poetry stones to be exhibited in the Art Alley rain garden. Stelzmann is responsible for one of the public artworks featured on the new walking route, and Hyder was eager for her students to meet, learn from, and work with a practicing local artist.

“The Art Alley, where Sealey’s poetry stones are now located, has been vandalized recently,” lamented Hyder. “Students who feel a sense of ownership or a deep connection to an area are more likely to want to take care of it. During the installation of the poetry stones, a student shared how it would be ‘cool if they hung out in the Art Alley when they get to high school and they could remember when they made this piece of public art.’ A connection was made between this community space and my student.”

To assist with those connections, Hyder provided a scavenger hunt with clues that challenged participants to pay attention to the details in the art along the walk.  The scavenger hunt required more than just a passing glance. Families were encouraged to extend beyond the act of simply looking and enter the realm of truly seeing, where artworks become more meaningful and personal.

This was exactly Hyder’s aim. “I think a lot of students identify with just their neighborhood or just their school and they don’t realize that they’re part of something much bigger. Fostering our students’ connection to public art in their community can give our youth a sense of pride and belonging. It helps build ties and it gives them a sense of ownership. This is their public art. When they realize that, it can build loyalties to their community and hopefully encourage them to stay as active members.”

If you would like to experience COCA’s new All Saints public art walk, you can get all the details at www.tallahasseearts.org/all-saints-public-art-walk.


Amanda Karioth Thompson is the Education and Exhibitions Director for the Council on Culture & Arts. COCA is the capital area’s umbrella agency for arts and culture (www.tallahasseearts.org).

Sealey art teacher and walk coordinator Natalie Hyder.