An exhibition of the work of Panther Valley students who participated in the spring semester's Artist-in-Residence Project is currently showing at the Allentown Art Museum in conjunction with the exhibit, "Victor Stabin—Daedal Doodle: An Extraordinary Journey through the Alphabet".

The Allentown Art Museum had, as part of an Arts In Education Partnership of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, provided funding for artist Victor Stabin of Jim Thorpe to hold a series of workshops for students of the Panther Valley School District. He ran a first series in 2011, and returned in 2012 for an expanded program co-funded by the Panther Valley School District.

The 2012 program, funded by Allentown Art Museum Arts and Education Manager Kathy Odorizzi and organized by Panther Valley High School art teacher Kimberlee Burkett, drew 70 students to a ten-session workshop. Elementary, middle and senior high school students collaborated in teams under the guidance of nationally recognized artist-in-residence Victor Stabin to design, create and publish a graphic alphabet book.

The workshop was based on Daedal Doodle, which is both the name of Stabin's graphic alphabet book and that of an educational approach marrying the fine arts of writing and drawing to create an illustrated book. Stabin's original alphabet book is sold in his own studio and offered at art museums.

While reading to his daughter, Stabin turned to the dictionary for words of inspiration. "The dictionary is the universe alphabetized," he said. "As I put this together, I realized I was coming up with some unique stuff using a simple process that could be brought into a classroom situation."

At the workshop, Stabin had students look up unfamiliar words in the dictionary; put them together in strings of words beginning with the same letter; create drawings that illustrated the meaning of the alliterative words; write short stories describing the scenes depicted in their illustrations, and create cartography fonts of the selected letters. When all 26 letters and the words, illustrations, stories and fonts were collected, Burkett assembled them and published them as a book, Daedal Doodle 2.0.

"This is such a fantastic compilation of the class's work" Stabin said. "I've never seen anything like it in an art school. It shows what the kids can do. I feel like I've opened up the doorway to these kids' imaginations. They can get inspired to do stuff like this in the future by understanding how powerful words are, and by dipping into the dictionary for inspiration, because it's something they can do for the rest of their lives."

On Saturday, June 16, 60 people representing Panther Valley students and their families gathered for a ceremony at the Art Ways Gallery of the Allentown Art Museum. The book, Daedal Doodle 2.0, was unveiled and the students were able to see their work on display at the museum.

"We are here today to celebrate the accomplishments of the Panther Valley students," Kathy Odorizzi began. "The high quality and their dedication to this work is apparent. You should all be proud."

Kimberlee Burkett explained how the elementary, middle and high school units of the Panther Valley School District worked together, scheduled the students, organized transportation, and made available teaches to make the project possible. "We finalized it with this book," she said. "I think this is a really cool thing for the kids to have."

"There are many standards that are required to be taught to students at all levels," she continued. "This project fulfills what we are supposed to be doing with students in the high school, the middle school, and the elementary school. We're supposed to be collaborating—working together with other people, and this was evident."

"This was one of the best projects I've ever had," said Steve Hajcak, the first of several students that addressed the get-together, and who read his team's story and spoke about the process of creating an illustration based on the letter "I". "I loved drawing since I was a little kid—since I could pick up a pencil."

"It's a gateway situation where kids get to use their imagination in a new way," Stabin said. "Words are gate openers.

"What's really fantastic is how words are building blocks for creating things in new and different ways. I'm very proud of the kids. I think these cartoons are super sophisticated and go beyond what I think anyone would've expected," he concluded.

The exhibition "Victor Stabin—Daedal Doodle: An Extraordinary Journey through the Alphabet", and the works of the Panther Valley students,"Daedal Doodle 2.0", are on display at the Art Ways Gallery at the Allentown Art Museum, 31 North 5th Street in Allentown, Pa., through September 9. For information, call 610-432-4333, or visit allentownartmuseum.org.

© Al Zagofsky 2012