Rogers-Lowell Area News

Rogers Middle School Students Investigate Creative Careers While Exploring Downtown Rogers, Rogers Experimental House

Art students from Elmwood Middle School are meeting with creative professionals in downtown Rogers to learn about opportunities to bring their artistic talents to the workplace. Twice each year, Elmwood Middle School Art teacher Cheri Gideon plans the learning experience so students can envision how their art and design interests can be translated into a lucrative career. Approximately 60 students will gather at the Rogers Experimental House, 121 W. Walnut St., on Friday, October 25 from 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. as part of the art and architecture tour of Downtown Rogers.

Gideon doesn’t just teach art, she encourages students to look at ways to use their talents as they make career choices.

“My goal is to inspire these students to dream big and realize art can be a big part of their whole lives,” explained Gideon. For the past four years, Gideon has developed curriculum to incorporate the history of Rogers and to introduce students to architectural elements of buildings and the creative business professionals who live and work in these spaces. The field trips are scheduled in the spring and the fall and provide activities where students not only see and hear about the region but also provide middle school students with the opportunity to look at the community with an artistic eye as they sit down with business professionals to learn how they have made a living doing the things that inspire them.

Artist Susan Blackwood relocated to Northwest Arkansas from Boseman, Montana in the Spring of 2019. An oil and watercolor landscape and portrait painter, she was drawn to the incredible beauty of the Arkansas Ozarks. Through her research, Blackwood learned about the attractive cost of living, the emerging art scene in NWA and the opportunities for professional artists to teach and sell their art. In the short time she has lived here, she found the unexpected bonus of a very welcoming arts community.

Blackwood will share paintings currently on display at the Rogers Experimental House with the middle school students. She is a successful award-winning artist that has painted and taught all over the USA and nine countries around the world. Blackwood’s paintings have hung in galleries and museums, been published by print companies and featured in articles and covers of national magazines, and in books.

“I love talking about my 50 years of experience and all the crazy ways of finding ways to support my artistic passion - my love of Art,” explains Blackwood. “I will be showing them a collection of my paintings and sharing the financial opportunities that come with winning awards and participating in regional and national shows,” she continued.

Blackwood is already participating in area arts organizations and offering classes and workshops including a 4-day painting workshop focusing on Autumn in the Ozarks October 28 – 31 at the Rogers Experimental House. Blackwood is a nationally and internationally recognized, classically trained artist who has made teaching and painting her life’s work. Her business spans from one on one and group instruction, teaching workshops, creating instructional videos, demonstrator/lecturer and host of international painting excursions. Blackwood’s message for the middle school students is simple, “If you like art…let’s figure out how you can make a career out of it.”

Sindhu Varagani, Fashion Designer/CEO of ETHWES clothing line, is also sharing her journey as an entrepreneur in the fashion industry. Her company name is derived from two English words, ETHnic WEStern. She moved to Arkansas from New York two years ago and is actively exhibiting and selling her clothing line in our region and beyond. Varagani was inspired to design at the age of 13 or 14, watching her mother create hand-embroidered embellishments to clothing. Gradually, Varagani learned to stitch and make patterns. She encourages students to follow their dreams, do what makes them feel comfortable and confident. Varagani designs ready-to-wear clothing that is comfortable and versatile. Many pieces are convertible and reversible and have multiple ways to wear them. Her designs incorporate fabrics from India to give an ethnic touch to casual wear. Varagani's designs appear in fashion week NWA and she now serves the organization as a board member of Arkansas Arts and Fashion Forum nonprofit. She offers embroidery and hand painting classes to any age group.

Back by popular demand, this art tour again features David Winfrey, board member of the Rogers Experimental House, corporate attorney and avid maker of things from corrugated-plastic materials. Winfrey, who has been working with this material of choice for nearly twenty years, enjoys the opportunity to show others how to unlock the hidden potential in, and create items out of, repurposed corrugated plastic--the material used to print political yard signs. The students use math, angles and design skills to make three-dimensional items from the otherwise obsolete signs. They learn to make creations that are functional and practical while keeping many “one-and-done” signs out of the landfills. He encourages his participants to think like artists and create like inventors, and then he watches their creative abilities unfold before their eyes.