Capital City Arts Initiative

CCAI’s Artists In Education Program worked with artists Teri Barnes and Kara Savant to produce hands-on art workshops for students at Silver Stage Middle School in Silver Springs, Nevada.

Teri and Kara designed age-appropriate activities for each of the SSMS grade levels, 5^th – 8^th, and worked with 240 students. Fifth graders created ceramic pumpkins for Halloween using pinch-pot techniques. Sixth graders made photographs with using the sun as the printing agent. Seventh graders made clay holiday ornaments using slip and scoring techniques for their original designs. Each eighth grader did a contour drawing of a classmate, then made a wire sculpture using the drawing as a guide; they completed the workshop in a critique session discussing abstraction and perspective.

SSMS principal, Amber Taylor, said, “The artists from CCAI were amazing to work with!” and noted that she looks forward to having the Initiative’s program continue for her students.

Teri Barnes works with various mediums, including photography, ceramics, and printmaking. She uses abstraction to bring texture and visual interest to her work and shares her vision of the details in our daily lives that viewers might normally overlook. Teri is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree at Sierra Nevada University. Previously, she earned both a BFA degree with ceramics emphasis and BA in photography at the University of Nevada, Reno. She enjoys taking art workshops, helping with raku ceramic firings at the Wedge Ceramics Studio, and volunteering with Laika Press.

Kara Savant, a native Nevadan, feels strongly rooted in her home state. As a child, she spent countless hours with her siblings constructing forts out of recycled wood and found hardware out in the rural hills of Elko. Her infatuation of creating something out of nothing later translated into her studies of 3D art practice where she now uses recycled found objects and various materials to construct works of art that speak to the home, gender roles, and everything in between. Kara earned a BFA degree with an emphasis in sculpture from the University of Nevada, Reno. She works at UNR as an art preparator and safety manager for the John Ben Snow Sculpture Center and looks forward to continuing her art education in the near future.  

The Capital City Arts Initiative is an artist-centered not-for-profit organization committed to community engagement in contemporary visual arts through exhibitions, arts education programs, artist residencies, and online activities.

The Capital City Arts Initiative (CCAI) is funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, John and Grace Nauman Foundation, Carson City Cultural Commission, Nevada Arts Council, RISE, Nevada Humanities and the National Endowment for the Humanities, U.S. Bank Foundation, NV Energy Corporation, RISE, Southwest Gas Corporation Foundation, and its sponsors, members, and volunteers.

top image: [l-r] Kara Savant, teacher Rachel Leach, Teri Barnes taken during the 2017 workshop series
bottom image: an eighth grader’s drawing and wire sculpture