BE 2: Belonging

One of the concepts that the ‘Burlington Experience 2’ class explored this quarter was belonging: belonging to a place, belonging to a community, belonging to a moment in time. For our final project, we created art inspired by this theme that will be a permanent installation in our classroom space at the Old North End Community Center.

We were lucky to have Isha and Elle guiding the final project. Both are accomplished artists, graduates of last fall’s BCL 5 class and students in our current BE 2 class. They shared images for inspiration, kept us on schedule and consulted with peers along the way.

Elle, Isha and Emma work in multimedia

Quincy volunteered to make a video of the whole process, from concept through to completion. She brought in her own camera and microphone set-up and somehow managed to finish her own fantastic multi-layered painting while also filming everyone else.

Quincy goes even deeper into multimedia, with a paintbrush and camera

Another key person in the success of this project was Migmar Tsering. Born in Tibet and raised in India, he is now the Site Coordinator for the City of Burlington’s Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department in the Old North End Community Center. He is also a talented musician and a great friend of the BCL program. In April, he joined us to play his dranyen and to share his experiences of belonging throughout the many chapters of his fascinating life. Migmar also hung our artwork on the wall as the final step in our project. We offer our thanks to Migmar for his inspiration and his careful installation!

Migmar plays his dranyen after sharing stories about ‘belonging’ with us

“Recounting his personal experience of being schooled in India, away from his family in Tibet and then relocating to America, had an impact on me especially because he had to learn everything again.”

– Matthew, BE 2

We invite you to dive deeper into the concept of belonging through words and images by watching Quincy’s slick video and taking a look at the images of each student’s art below.

Isha Ibrahim – Sustainability

For my piece I chose to use a magazine and cut out pieces to use as the dress. I think the color green can represent sustainability so I used green for the border and reflective plastic on the border as well as a reused piece of plastic.

Dino Kablar – Sustainability

This piece is about how we care for the environment and the natural areas that need protection and the animals that rely on it to survive, like bees.

Mohamed Moge – Natural Spaces

The fox seems to be posing for the wildlife camera we set.

Bridget Comerford-Joyce – Belonging

I chose to show different places that could represent belonging and how they all could be different but still fit together similar to a puzzle. We belong to the universe and the earth’s past and future. We belong to the world around us whether it’s nature or the city. I also chose to include a quote about belonging.

Emma Seiler – Community and Action

My piece of art is representing the values that exist when « you belong in a community ». To be a part of a community means to help the community with actions. The actions are represented by the footprints which mean that, step by step, a community can grow.

Elle Mason – Connection

In my piece, I chose to represent the word connection and show the abstract sense of connection we often feel. Connection to people, a place, or a community, are all represented in this image.