Art In Transit

Tom Stanley - Charlotte, NC

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Stanley worked with the Art Club at Hidden Valley Elementary on September 17-18 and the Citizens School's after school program at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School on November 14. At both schools the artist taught the students about public art in Charlotte and across the nation. He also explained how he was working to produce public art for the light rail station that would serve Hidden Valley and other nearby neighborhoods. The artist then invited the students to assist in the development of his public art for Tom Hunter station. At the elementary school, the artist taught students to draw and cut out silhouette images of their homes, which he incorporated into the glass windscreen art and fencing. At Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, students wrote poems and prose about their neighborhood, which the artist chose words from that were laser cut into the shelter columns.

“As an educator, I often find that the best ideas can be generated by young people whose energy and intuitive approach to images and words can be refreshing, direct and honest,” 
-Tom Stanley.



2012 Student Workshops

LYNX Blue Line Extension artist Tom Stanley is incorporating public art into the Tom Hunter station. He visited with the nearby Hidden Valley Community Association (HVCA) in 2012 to gather information and learn the history about the community. During the course of these meetings, the HVCA suggested getting the children's perspective of the community by working with students at nearby schools. 

That fall, Tom Stanley did just that. The artist worked with 20 students from two Hidden Valley neighborhood schools to involve them in the process of integrating public art at the future Tom Hunter light rail station. 

 

 

​2016 Update with CMS Students

Four years later, on December 19, 2016, Artist Tom Stanley was able to reconnect with some the students for an update on the Tom Hunter Station art.  Now in the 9th and 10th grades,  eight of the 19 students who participated in the 2012 workshops were able to come together at Vance High School to see what the artist created for the Tom Hunter Light Rail Station that was inspired by and incorporates their art. CATS' CEO, John Lewis, welcomed the students and thanked them for their contributions to the Station.  The students talked with Stanley about his windscreen, column cladding, benches and fencing designs for the station and saw samples of the art that is in fabrication and will be installed in 2017.



 

Students from Vance High School, Berry High School and North Mecklenburg High School meet with Tom Stanley, LYNX Blue Line Extension Artist for the Tom Hunter Station to review the​ artwork incorporated into the windscreen glass by Tom Stanley.​ 

 

CATS CEO John Lewis speaks to students about being a part of the Blue Line Extension Project and making a permanent impact on the city of Charlotte. 

The students were also given the opportunity to share their experience with a film crew who is creating a short documentary about the artist's work for the Station.  The students commented about what inspired them and how they felt empowered by the opportunity to participate in a permanent project for Charlotte.

  

Students Makahi Clark (left) and Viridiana Cristerna (right) being interviewed about their experience working with the artist and seeing their art integrated into the Tom Hunter Light Rail Station. These interviews will be in an educational video about artist, Tom Stanley's work for the Tom Hunter Station.

In addition to the students, their parents, Councilman Greg Phipps, representatives from the Citizens Schools Program and from CMS and were able to see, in detail, the final art designs for the Tom Hunter Station. All expressed interest and enthusiasm for seeing the art at the Station opening in 2017.

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Tom Stanley is a practicing artist and retired as Chair of the Department of Fine Arts at Winthrop University in 2017. In addition to teaching, exhibiting and lecturing about art, Stanley has received numerous commissions to create permanent public art, often collaborating with fellow artist Shaun Cassidy. Stanley earned his MFA in Painting and MA in Applied Art History from the University of South Carolina in Columbia. He also earned a BA in Studio Art from Belmont Abbey/Sacred Heart Colleges in Belmont, NC.



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