Sixth-graders chatter with one another in a conference space at Mountain View Campus on a recent afternoon. They quiet down as Paralympic athlete Beth Livingston appears on a large screen to chat with one of Kristen Larkin’s sixth-grade art classes. From across the country, Beth congratulates students on doing a great job with their art.
Beth is one of three Olympic and Paralympic athletes that have guided and inspired Boquet Valley students through art projects that focus on Olympic themes in recent months.
Three of Ms. Kristen Larkin’s art classes were paired with different Olympic and Paralympic athletes who are also artists, and they worked together through Zoom video conference calls and by sharing art over digital channels.
The collaboration is part of an initiative led by Roald Bradstock, a javelin thrower in the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. He created an art genre he calls Olympism, and it has inspired collaborations in local education.
The athletes
Each athlete had inspiring stories to share about their own unique journeys to the Olympics/Paralympics and to being artists.
Working with a sixth-grade class of Griffins, Roald shared how he was inspired by art even while throwing the javelin on the world stage – he competed in the Olympics in hand-painted costumes. He has since participated as an artist at multiple Olympic Games.
Beth shared her story of being an art teacher who lost the use of her legs in a car accident. She learned how to ski on adaptive equipment so well that she competed as a member of Team USA in the Paralympics in Salt Lake City in 2002. Her story is unique to many of her fellow athletes in that she came to it later in life rather than starting to train for it in her youth.
Ms. Larkin’s 10th-grade class worked with Neil Eckersley, a double Olympian in judo who used the exercise and structure of training to manage ADHD and dyslexia. He got into judo at the encouragement of a neighbor as a kid in England who had a lot of energy and struggled a bit academically. He thrived in this active environment, and his creativity later led him to an appreciation of art. He had some great open, honest conversations with the kids about how he does not see ADHD and dyslexia as disabilities but rather as strengths because they allow him to thrive in his chosen environments.
The process
Each class met with their athlete three times over Zoom video calls.
In the first call, everyone learned about the project, and the athlete told students about their journey as both an athlete and an artist. During the second meeting, athletes looked at students’ works in progress and gave feedback and guidance. The final meeting was a celebration of having completed the work.
Roald, Beth and Neil helped select five pieces of art from each of the classes, and those pieces were shown in an art exhibit in celebration of the Winter Olympics at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid. They joined hundreds of other students from Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties at a March celebration to share their work, learn from Olympic athlete artists, and enjoy an accompanying art exhibition from Olympian/Paralympian and internationally acclaimed artist LeRoy Neiman.
The show and the program were hosted by the Al Oerter Foundation/Art of the Olympians, the National Olympic Regional Development Authority, and the LeRoy Neiman and Janet Byrne Foundation.
Our artistic Griffins also collaborated on four mural panels that were assembled at the event along with 20 others sent out to other students across the North Country
Inspiration
As Beth wraps up her last call with our Griffins from across the country, she tells them that it was cool to get to know the students and go through the process with them.
She wants to connect art and athletics in the students minds. She leaves them by saying that in both art and athletics, you can make the biggest impact through repetition and practice.
