“The Art of Giving Back,” a Univerity of Alabama Honors College course, is giving students more than credit hours this week. The class is culminating an event called the Good Art Show, which will give students the satisfaction of helping the community by selling art they’ve created and through making donations to a local nonprofit organization.
The show will sell student-produced works to benefit Tuscaloosa’s One Place, a family resource center that works with students in after-school programs and provides parenting classes in the city.
“We’re not claiming that we’re selling good, high art,” said Tonya Nelson, the UA professor instructing the class. “It’s about building this artful life that feeds into your values. The class examines the difference between saying and doing. We’re promising that it’s doing ‘good,’ and it’s important that we do.”
A collection of pieces from students and donors will be sold at the catered event in an open-market style, distributing projects across themed tables at previously set prices. Profits from the students’ works will be donated directly to TOP, and 50 percent of the revenue made from any donated works is given to the nonprofit.
Amanda Waller, director of development at Tuscaloosa’s One Place, said she is very grateful for the class’s donations.
“We are a nonprofit organization,” Waller said. “We operate on grants and private donations. Private donations are essential to funding because grants do not cover everything.”
Giving donations is not the only way the class gives back to the community. The students taking the course also serve as volunteers in art mentoring programs with local schools and lead art projects with children in schools that don’t offer a traditional art program.
“They come in and do projects with the children,” Waller said. “It’s wonderful, and we’re very thankful. The students that come in really make a difference. It’s different coming from a college student than an adult. The kids think they’re cool.”
Nelson said her students’ work ties together with their broader examinations of themselves, and the class is a combination of student growth, artistic sensitivity and social responsibility.
“It’s not at all an art class.” Nelson said. “We talk about things like, ‘How are you going to build this life?’”
The class, Nelson said, and everything it entails for its students, is a lot like shaping a sculpture.
“It’s a really exciting time to think about creating this life that you want,” Nelson said. “Your life is kind of your own personal art project.”
The art show is free to attend and will take place on Nov. 27 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Nott Hall.
