Come meet Leonard the Spivasaurus, an assemblage dinosaur created by a team of local artists from scrap parts. The parts were collected during a community clean-up day in 2005 as part of the “Rejuvenate Joplin” project. Rejuvenate Joplin is an initiative that has the goal of increasing citizens’ pride in their community. Sponsors of the project include The Joplin Globe, Spiva Center for the Arts and the City of Joplin.

During the community clean-up, citizens partnered with artists to not only pick up trash, but to seek out treasure for an assemblage style art project! The interesting fact is that all of the “treasure” used to make Leonard was trash in someone else’s eyes and found along the streets of Joplin!

Leonard, approximately 9-feet tall, will be on display at Northpark Mall January 23 through March 16.

Visit www.spivaarts.org to learn more about Rejuvenate Joplin

Attention Art Teachers... Get Your Students Involved!

The Joplin Globe’s Newspaper In Education program and Spiva Center for the Arts are sponsoring an assemblage art contest for area schools. The class creating the winning assemblage piece will receive a $50 prize and their work will be displayed in the lobby at Spiva March 10 through April 20.

Here are the details:

1. The contest is for students in grades 5 and up.
2. Each class is invited to create an assemblage piece that can stand alone on a pedestal with a base of 12-inches by 12-inches.
3. Pieces should be no larger that one foot wide by one-to-two feet tall.
4. Students may create whatever assemblage piece they want. However, Spiva invites them to consider creating an assemblage dog to fit in with the photo exhibit by Michael Peven, “Good Dog/Bon Chien,” which will be on display at Spiva March 10 through April 20.
5. Assemblage entries must be dropped off at The Globe by Friday, Feb. 23 for judging.
6. A winner will be selected and notified by Friday, March 2.
7. The winning class will receive a $50 prize, and their assemblage will be on display at Spiva March 10 through April 20.

Assemblage Contest Tips
Although Leonard is a very sophisticated assemblage piece, assemblage art can be created by using smaller-sized scrap materials and a good, strong glue. The angel pictured at right, for example, was created using buttons, bent wire, tin-can lids, bottle caps and scrap metal pieces.
• As a class, decide what you want your finished piece to be.
• Go on an adult-supervised scavenger hunt to collect interesting pieces of scrap materials. Like the “Rejuvenate Joplin” artists who created Leonard, you’ll be cleaning up your community while creating a lasting work of art!
• Once you have collected your items, return to the classroom and decide what pieces could serve for parts on your assemblage.
• If you are missing any pieces, or if none of the pieces you’ve collected will work, do another scavenger hunt later. Or, brainstorm where you could get the pieces with the shapes that you need. Ask your parents to help you check around your home or garage for the right-shaped parts.
• Once you’ve collected your pieces, gather your gluing materials and start creating!