ON DISPLAY: Dolled up and ready to go

Teacher launches effort to spread creativity

Four-foot dolls have taken over the University of Nevada's Las Vegas and Reno campuses. The woman responsible is Paradise Elementary School art teacher Roz Knight.

The Art People's Parks at UNLV and UNR are Knight's effort to celebrate art, culture and style during Youth Art Month.

"March was Youth Art Month, so I decided to do something dynamic," the teacher said. "I wanted people to see the importance of the arts in education."

The artist also was disappointed with the community's reception for the Las Vegas Cow Parade. She painted the Southwest cow, the Courtesy Car cow and Udderly Lucky, and she helped her students with a cow called Moove Over I'm Reading. When the bovine parade didn't come off with the fanfare Knight expected, she decided to put on a little parade of her own.

"I wanted to show the talent we have. We're not just Sin City. We really are a city filled with the arts."

Since the cow form was taken, Knight had to come up with another blank canvas for participants. She settled on the simple shape of the paper doll. Pulte Homes donated the wood and Steve Thurbie at Palo Verde High School had his students cut out the dolls. Almost 300 of the shapes were cut. More than 100 were sent to Knight's Reno co-organizer, high school art teacher Patricia Fenkell, and the rest were kept in Las Vegas.

Knight sent out a call for artists young and old. For $5, artists were given a flat wood doll to adorn as they wished. Schoolchildren, art teachers and even professional artists answered the call and turned in a variety of creations. From Parson Elementary School art teacher Stephanie Miller's sketched dolls to a re-creation of Vincent van Gogh courtesy of Rowe Elementary art teacher Sara Stottler, artists went all out. While some dolls were painted, others were decorated with collage, tiles, mirrors and more.

"I like the one with the basketball head," Knight's student Javier Reyes said.

This year's artists will get to keep the dolls. Paradise Elementary plans to permanently place dolls created by Paradise students and staff in the school courtyard. Next year, Knight hopes to repeat the exhibit and hold an auction to sell the best dolls.

"My hope is that artists will buy two -- one to keep and one to auction," she said.

This year, the organizer involved the Shade Tree shelter, the Rescue Mission, the Nevada Youth Alliance, UNLV education students and the North Las Vegas Detention Employees Youth Program. Next year, she would like to spread that participation to youth groups all over the valley.

Funds raised through the event will be used to fund art education scholarships administered by Art Educators of Nevada. Knight said the scholarships will help graduating high school students who wish to pursue art education as a career.

The dolls will be on display, tied to light poles and trees along the walkways at UNLV, through April 13.


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