Bring Back a Week (2005-2007)

Bring Back A Week (BBAW) is a collaboration between Jo Novelli, GE Washington, Melinda Bergman and Deb Salac. It is an in-class workshop implemented as an exercise in contemporary art practice for advanced art students helping them sharpen their awareness of metaphor and meaning making.

First, the BBAW team presents documentation from several durational performances primarily concerned with everyday life. Then students are asked to reflect on the repetition of objects, or feelings or thoughts that occupy their daily life. Next, students return to the classroom with the beginnings of a collection that represents their daily experience. These materials are used to generate a two or three dimensional art work developed through discussion. Finally the work is exhibited at Daughters of the Frozen North, a Phoenix gallery and studio space located in the heart of Roosevelt Row.

The results celebrate the individuality of each student and are as diverse as the particpating student body: no two art works ever look the same. The project takes a month, from start to finish, for classes that meet daily.

BBAW was also offered as a two-part professional development workshop for Junior High and High School art and partnering classroom teachers coupled with in-class project support in Glendale, Peoria and Scottsdale.

This project was generously underwritten, in part, by the City of Glendale Arts Commission.