Dothan High School Students Participate in
Art Immersion Project with World-Renowned Artist, Butch Anthony
DOTHAN, Ala. – An acclaimed Alabama Artist has partnered with Dothan High School to create a unique art experience for students. The Art Immersion Project with Butch Anthony is a high-profile project that will include hundreds of student-created artworks combined with a single Butch Anthony created sculpture to produce a large-scale installation to highlight the arts at Dothan High School and demonstrate the impact of collaboration.
Under the direction of regional artist Butch Anthony and the Dothan High School art staff along with art volunteers from the Carver Interpretive Museum and the community, students will create their own original pieces of art focusing on a single theme. Additionally, Mr. Anthony will also create a large-scale original artwork within the same theme. With the help from the construction classes at the Dothan Technology Center, all the artworks will be assembled into a single installation.
The theme for this year’s project is Basilosaurus. The Basilosaurus was a pre-historic whale that lived 35 million years ago. Its fossilized bones were first found in Alabama, and it is now the state fossil. When the Basilosaurus lived, it was the top predator of the ocean.
This project is sponsored by an Alabama Art Education Initiative Grant, The Carver Interpretive Museum, The Museum of Natural History at the University of Alabama, the Public Works Department from the City of Dothan, Lowe’s on Montgomery Highway, and Waste Management of Dothan. Collaboration to the project include Dothan High School’s Art Department, Music Department, Dothan Tech’s Build Construction Program, Dothan High’s Chapter of the National Honor Society, Dothan High School Child Nutrition Program, Dothan High’s Spanish and Science Departments.
The project will kick off with an Art Pep Rally on Monday, September 25 at Dothan High School. The event will include celebration and recognition of the Arts by students and staff with performances from Dothan High School’s Pride of the Wolfpack Marching Band and Dothan High School Dance Team. Additionally, Butch Anthony will present his award-winning documentary.
The project will conclude on October 19 with an art exhibition opening on Thursday, October 19.
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About Butch Anthony
Butch Anthony is a contemporary, self-taught artist, maker, and collector of objects and antiques. He grew up on his family's 80-acre property in Seale, Alabama, where he lives and works today in a home he built by hand. He is the creator of the Museum of Wonder and the World’s First Drive Thru Museum. His works have been featured in solo, group, and juried exhibitions across the United States and abroad in venues such as the Akron Museum of Art (Akron, Ohio), Wiregrass Museum of Art (Dothan, Alabama), Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art (Charleston, South Carolina), and the Black Project (London, England). He has been featured on the television series American Pickers and his work in publications including The New York Times, Garden and Gun, and Hyperallergic. Butch was also included in Alabama Creates: 200 Years of Art and Artists, a book which showcases master artists from the state.
