Art piece celebrates diversity among the children and families of the school

Sydney Jordan, a former teaching assistant at Kent
State's Child Development Center and now student
activities coordinator with Kent State’s Center for Student
Involvement, assists a child with a weaving project that
focused on diversity.

The children at the Kent State University Child Development Center collaborated with Kent State students and staff on a weaving project that focused on diversity, titled A Tapestry of Acceptance and Expression. The weaving was presented on behalf of the children to civil rights leader Julian Bond who was keynote speaker at Kent State’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on Jan. 22. The artwork was a way to involve the children with the ideas of diversity and acceptance while giving them the opportunity to channel their artistic abilities. It was inspired by an artwork created by another group of children at the center three years ago, titled The Skin I’m In, which focused on a semesterlong investigation of diversity.

Sydney Jordan, student activities coordinator with Kent State’s Center for Student Involvement, says the children enjoyed working on the weaving in class.

“The university has a planning committee made of representatives from various departments across campus," Jordan says. “The focus was to involve everyone on campus in the celebration to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., even the youngest children within our Kent State community.”

The weaving has multiple facets to describe uniqueness and differences of the families in the school community. Different types of textiles represent the range of countries that families in the Child Development Center are from. A variety of yarn on the artwork signifies the many unique types and textures of the children’s hair. Certain fabrics were used to represent a variety of skin tones. Interwoven in the artwork is a large twisted rope to symbolize how differences are entwined together to become a connected school community.

Terri Cardy, outdoor educator at the Child Development Center, says the idea of teaching respect for differences and acceptance of everyone is not just a theme for a week, but an ongoing concept in all of the classrooms.

“The message that we want for all children is that we are all different, but we have many similarities, which bring us together as a community,” Cardy says.

Two Kent State students assisted the children with the weaving. Kelley Lee and Kerie Johannes, both students in the College of the Arts, worked together with the children to create the artwork.

“College students are having the opportunity to share their artistic skills with younger children, and the children of the Child Development Center are having the opportunity to work with artists from campus,” Jordan says. “For the children, it introduces them to different forms of artistic expression, gives them another opportunity to work collaboratively and discusses a topic they are interested in and that is relevant to their lives.”

For more information about Kent State’s Child Development Center, visit http://www2.kent.edu/ehhs/cdc/index.cfm.