Wearable art was Kathy Moore’s 2 a.m. idea.
The longtime art educator had been struggling to come up with ways to fund a growing art department at T.L. Hanna High School in Anderson where four instructors teach more than 600 art students. While class offerings had increased dramatically in recent years, funding had not.
“I knew that complaining is not effective, so I had to come up with something,” Moore said. “I knew I had talented students, that we had to do something big, and that our arts community and community at large would step up and support us.”
Born out of frustration, the Wearable Art Exhibition has been the saving grace of T.L. Hanna’s visual arts program. Now in its third year, each annual show has raised about $3,500 – enough to not only purchase art supplies for T.L. Hanna students, but also provide community outreach programs for young students in the Anderson area.
“One of our goals with the Wearable Art show is to give back to the local community that supports us,” Moore said.
In addition to the show at the Anderson Arts Center, T.L. Hanna art students will staged a special Wearable Art showing for Title 1 elementary schools in the Anderson area. Dollars raised from the Feb. 22 Arts enter event covered transportation and a reception for approximately 125 young students, along with four full-week scholarships to summer art camp at Anderson Arts Center.
The Wearable Art Exhibition featured 80 designs including full-length dresses, suits and full-bodied masks during segments such as Recycled and Unconventional Materials, Cardboard Mask and Trompe l’oeil.
This year’s event also included a Foodie segment with outfits fashioned from paper and plastic supplies from Guy’s Pizza, Groucho’s, Bojangles, Wendy’s, Freddy’s, Food Lion, Jimmy John’s, Krispy Kreme, McDonalds and Burger King.
Senior Nia Curry made a Freddy’s-themed full-length dress and matching fascinator using: 15 large plastic bags; 57 mini, small and kid’s cups; one kids ice cream shirt; a Freddy’s frisbee; five spoons; three forks; one knife; and a straw.
Senior Thomas Roznowski crafted a Bojangles jacket and matching top hat from 17 takeout boxes, nine bowls, 31 hash brown bags, 12 drink cups, 19 fry bags and seven bags.
In the Recycled and Unconventional Materials segment, Junior Anna Blaine Sanderson made a skirt and matching top from sixty 45 RPM records and 10 record jackets. Junior Savannah Patterson fashioned a full-length dress and matching fascinator from 167 Chobani Yogurt cups, 112 Chobani yogurt tin foil labels and five outside Chobani Yogurt wrappers.
“My Dad eats yogurt every day so I thought we would have plenty of cups,” Patterson said. “But we ended up having to eat more than 100 cups of yogurt.”
To see the work of T.L. Hanna High School’s visual arts students, follow @kmoorestudentart on Instagram.
