ArtReach: Confluence
by Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
Exhibition Dates: December 20205 – May 2026
Location: Post-Security, E Concourse
The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (CAM) is pleased to present its annual student showcase from ArtReach, the Museum’s suite of programs for K–12 schools aimed at providing support in classrooms where art is needed most. Through a collaboration with St. Louis Public Schools started in 2017, the ArtReach Partnership ensures a consistent art curriculum is available for students year-round at Vashon and Sumner High Schools. CAM hires and trains a cohort of Resident Teaching Artists (RTAs) to lead art classes twice a week.
During the 2024–25 school year, RTAs and students explored media and concepts related to the theme of confluence, inspired by St. Louis’s proximity to the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Drawing on their own studio practices, Resident Teaching Artists Adrienne Outlaw and Dee Levang each interpreted the theme differently with their students. This iteration of ArtReach: Confluence presents a sample of artwork showing how students worked in a “flow” state with various water-based media and learned about ways to repurpose post-consumer plastic pollution culled from the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
About the Organization: Students from Vashon and Sumner High Schools, Adrienne Outlaw and Dee Levang
Participating Artists from Sumner High School: Syniah Henson, Darihanna Jones, Londyn Ranch, Tre’Sean Smith
Participating Artists from Vashon High School: London Blake, Amynie Bland, Brian Blockette, Elijah Holmes, Demarion Huston, Cameryn “Cam” James, Rihanna Kennell, Minetta McGruder, Darren Oneal, Charles Rozier, Samirah “Mirra” Simpson-Bey, Brandon Smith, Jaleigha Thomas, and Chasidy Weekly
Adrienne Outlaw is a socially engaged, multidisciplinary artist utilizing post-consumer plastic waste as source material to address issues of environmental and societal responsibility. Outlaw holds degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Vanderbilt University. She has exhibited both nationally and abroad in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Her work has been featured in more than a dozen exhibition catalogs and books and has been positively reviewed in various publications including Art in America, Sculpture Magazine, World Sculpture News, and Art Papers. She has earned grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement.
Dee Levang is a multidisciplinary artist who explores abstract visual expression through the use of water, wax, and wool. Themes addressed in her work include stillness, calmness, otherness, memory, and dreams. Originally from Los Angeles, Levang studied graphic design at CalArts. She teaches fiber and encaustic workshops locally and regionally, as well as Continuing Education classes at St. Louis Community College. A member of the International Encaustic Artists, Surface Design Association, and the St. Louis Artists’ Guild, she’s been awarded grants and scholarships from Regional Arts Commission and the International Encaustic Conference.
ArtReach: Confluence is organized for the Lambert Art and Culture Program by Miriam Ruiz, Education Manager at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.
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LOCATION
Post-Security, E Concourse
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