Art Exhibition Enhances Children’s Center
“School opens doors” is message of CFA student’s site-specific art
In the slide show above, Natalie Turturro talks about her thesis project, What Lies Ahead.
Come graduation, Natalie Turturro (CFA’10) will leave her mark on Boston — an installation art exhibition at the nonprofit Ellis Memorial Children’s Center, a settlement house that cares for South End children, disabled adults, and families. Begun sophomore year, Turturro’s thesis project, What Lies Ahead, consists of a vinyl backdrop of the solar system and converted IKEA storage units.
For inspiration, she conducted drawing sessions with the children of Ellis Memorial. She asked them what they would bring if they traveled to outer space. The children drew pictures of rockets, with refrigerators and their mothers in tow. So Turturro decided to take her art thesis project to outer space, with images of children flying around and away.
The purpose of the project, which will be on display indefinitely, was to create site-specific art that would embody the message that “school opens doors.”
“School gives you the tools to fly away wherever you want to and become whatever you want to be,” says Turturro. “I really don’t want it to seem like I did this all on my own; I could not have done this without the help of these people.”
College of Fine Arts lecturer Diane Fargo and John Traub (CFA’11) helped Turturro complete the project, along with support from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), Seaport Graphics, and Blick Art Supply.
Although her undergraduate education at BU is coming to a close, Turturro wants to continue working with children, as an au pair.
Visit Turturro’s installation at the Ellis Memorial Children’s Center, 66 Berkeley Street, Boston.
Anna Webster can be reached at annaweb@bu.edu.
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