AMY SZPARA

PHOTO: Enjoying history, Marilyn Lambert of the Talented Arts Program at East St. John High School is working with a group to get people interested in the parish’s rich heritage. Standing with one of her own pieces of art that focuses on parish history, Lambert also plans to participate in the creation of a St. John photo collage mural. (Staff Photo by Amy Szpara) When Janine Ward attended an art conference in Baton Rouge a short while ago, she became inspired by what she heard. She decided there was a real need for St. John Parish residents to know their history, for the elder residents to pass on their stories to the younger of the population. She thought one way to do it would be through art. Ward said the speaker at the conference told the crowd everyone has stories and everyone has heroes in their stories. He was concerned the youths in society were not learning about their communities, which he termed “their tribes.” Instead, they were becoming disconnected to the positive people and positive tales about their communities and moving toward the negative connection to gangs and other bad groups. “His purpose was to get kids to become part of the community and gain knowledge,” said Ward. She has the same purpose. After learning about a program developed to get older people and younger people talking and sharing ideas, Ward decided that she would like to do the same thing in St. John Parish. She is now forming a bandwagon of people who are storytellers and know the rich history of the parish, the things that aren’t found in history books. Ward also wants to tell the history through art by creating six-foot-tall panels that will be joined to form a masterpiece of collaged photographs from St. John Parish. Through a technique called photographic separation, where through the use of computer technology colors in the photos can be separated from the images, Ward and a team of student artists will work on the project. Then the images, which will be outlined in a way that Ward said is similar to a coloring book, can be put onto a fabric to be painted by the community as a whole. “It’s almost like paint by numbers. We can take it to the schools, churches, to the nursing homes, and everyone can paint on the mural,” said Ward. After the painting is complete, other artists will put it up and seal it. Assisting Ward are students from the Talented Arts Program in St. John Parish, who will help with the process and the painting. “It will be a unifying element,” she said. Ward said what they want to do is increase student knowledge of community. “We want to come together and start getting the community to get photos together. We want to get all the businesses to do a photo history of their business as well,” said Ward, adding that the committee she is forming would choose from all of those photos for the mural. She would like for the businesses to put their photo histories on display to the public for about a month, then photos would be chosen for the mural. “We want to do all kinds of things, though,” she said. “We want children to do interviews with parents, grandparents. We’d like the kids to do essays on the photographs.” Ward mentioned that Cajun French is becoming a distant memory, and she would like for kids to learn more about it. “I can just see all of this snowballing. It would get people talking about their history,” she said. “If we don’t tell the stories to each other then the stories die.” The first meeting for the project to educate the community on St. John history took place June 5. “Wanted,” read the flyers that Ward handed out in the community. Wanted are visionaries and storytellers, people who can tell about the past and dream about the future. She wants to establish a committee that will help unite St. John citizens in their cultural heritage. She would like for this committee to work with the schools, businesses and citizens to gather the information. Ward said that she has been driving around trying to find a place where the mural could stand. Since there are few tall buildings in the parish, she has even considered building a tall wall. In the meantime, members of the committee will find a site and write grants to get funding for the project. Wilbert Ocmond, assistant superintendent of schools, is writing a grant for the project that is due July 1. He is hoping to obtain between $8,000 and $10,000 from the Decentralized Arts Program. He is also applying for another grant, which will probably get another $2,500 for the project. Working closely with Ward are two of her art students, Heather Becnel and Marilyn Lambert. They attended the first forum and have become very excited about the idea of the program. “We’ll be helping Ms. Ward get the project together, then we’ll go out and get churches and schools to get photos together to have a photo contest,” said Lambert, who is an 18-year-old art student in the Talented Arts Program who wants to someday be a wildlife artist. “We’ll, then be putting it together and doing the collage. We’ll get together and do the painting.” Lambert added that she thinks the focus on St. John history and the mural are good ideas. “We may start with a small group, but more people will get together once we get started,” she said. She added that her grandfather told her stories and she remembers them vividly. She hopes that the history telling will inspire other students in the area. Lambert said that it might keep kids off the streets. “It might change some of their lives,” she said. She said she enjoys working with Ward. “This is my dream,” said Ward. “I think if we do this, we can elevate the stories and the heroes of St. John Parish forever.”