On one skateboard, a wide-eyed smile stretches across the deck. Another features a woman whose elongated neck is adorned with necklaces made from costume jewelry, complementing her animal-print clothing.
The designs were created by Nora Himmelright, a student at Firestone Community Learning Center. Before joining the University of Akron’s Arts LIFT program over the summer, she had no formal art training. Himmelright, 14, initially planned to draw a woman in a bathing suit. After learning she would be using linoleum-cutting techniques, Himmelright switched to an animal-print design. She added one of her favorite quirks: an unusually long neck.
“I’ve always really thought it was funny to just draw really absurdly long necks on characters,” she said.
The finishing touches came from acrylic paint and pieces of metal necklaces that she cut apart and attached to the board.
Himmelright was among seven Akron Public Schools students who spent a week working with professional artists to create original skateboard designs. After art camp, their finished boards were displayed last week at Need Skateshop, a new shop in downtown Akron.
Now in its 25th year, Arts LIFT gives students a chance to work in a college art environment while developing their creativity and connecting with the Akron community.
Over the years, students have worked in a range of media, including printmaking, painting, murals, mosaics, glass and sculpture, with their work displayed throughout the area. The program also aims to challenge stereotypes about young people and give them opportunities to make an impact in their communities.
“Through their creative contributions, they can leave a lasting mark,” said Elisa Gargarella, Arts LIFT’s founder and director.
This year’s program gave Himmelright a chance to try something new, meet students from different schools and become part of Akron’s art community, said her mother.
“At this age,” Allyson Himmelright said, “it’s kind of a struggle sometimes to put yourself out there and do something different. “And it was such a good experience.”
Students’ interests shape their skateboard designs
The other students drew on their own interests to create designs.
One of Marian Steeber’s skateboards features a design inspired by her recent interest in comics, while another draws from the album cover of one of her favorite songs.
Steeber — also a Firestone CLC student — said she chose designs based on things she already enjoyed rather than searching for something unfamiliar.
“I truly did impress myself,” Steeber, 14, said. “I’m typically the type to make art and then never want to look at it ever again. But I do personally really like my two pieces.”
Nature inspired Gwyneth Currie’s designs, which feature bold colors and a mix of paint, glitter and screen printing. The 15-year-old said she hopes to attend fashion school in the future and wants to continue sewing and creating projects with recycled materials.
“I think definitely fashion design in the future is something that I’d love to pursue,” Currie said. “I do want to, like, sewing at home, just, like, recycling and stuff.”
For Olivia Walje, a unicorn set against a black, blue and purple galaxy brought together her love of magic and her interest in skateboard art. “I wanted to make something that represented me and stuff that I like,” Walje, 15, said.
The woman behind the idea
Twenty-five years ago, Gargarella, the Arts LIFT founder and director, joined the University of Akron to help create a program for Akron Public Schools students. The funding came from the estate of Lola Isroff, a self-taught professional folk artist and occasional writer from Akron.
The program was named Arts LIFT, which stands for the Lola Isroff Fund for Teens.
“I created the program so that the kids would have a lot of opportunities to work with professional artists and to have experiences they couldn’t get in a high school classroom,” said Gargarella, who also serves as an associate professor of art education at UA.
From blank skateboards to art
This year’s project brought that mission to skateboards. Gargarella partnered with Need Skateshop, a new shop in downtown Akron, to give students a chance to work with artists on skateboard designs and exhibit their finished pieces in a community business.
“A big part of my goal is to elevate both my students … but also then to elevate some local businesses who are really generous with young people,” Gargarella said.
At Need Skateshop, this summer’s students learned from skater and artist Jay Croft about his career designing skateboard graphics and about the connections he made between the hobby and art.
“Skateboarding is a really cool thing where the art and the music and everything kind of intersect with it,” said Kyle Mowery, the owner of Need Skateshop.
Mowery provided the students with blank skateboards, which they used as canvases. They drew inspiration from the boards displayed in the shop before developing their own layouts and artwork.
“I think they did a great job, especially if they didn’t have a long time to do it,” Mowery said.
Turning those ideas into finished boards required the students to learn new techniques. Linoleum cutting and screen printing allowed them to create stamps and transfer their designs onto the skateboards before adding paint and hand-colored details at the University of Akron’s art studios.
Meryl Engler, the program’s technical instructor, printmaking faculty member and professional artist, guided the students through the process. She also introduced them to the history of skateboarding and skateboard graphics.
“Being able to show work in a public setting is really exciting,” Engler, 36, said. “I think that got people really excited.”
What starts as a week of making art can help shape what comes next. Former Arts LIFT students have told Gargarella how the program influenced their decisions to become art teachers, artists and designers.
“So many of them talked about how profound their experiences were with Arts LIFT in helping them decide what they wanted to be,” Gargarella said.
She hopes this year’s students feel the same one day.
“I’m always trying to build bridges between secondary school and post-secondary,” Gargarella said. “I’m hoping that this gives kids a little taste of what’s to come.”
