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Beyond 23, 2023-2024

Beyond 23 was a collaborative project funded by CultureSource and the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation’s Washtenaw Artist Grant. It paired work created by art students from Ypsilanti Community High School with work created by art students at Ann Arbor Huron High School. Beyond 23 refers to US-23, which is the freeway that acts as the unofficial barrier between the two communities. Both groups of students have a “beyond 23” and many seldom cross that barrier. This project created an opportunity for them, as well as the general public, to better understand and interact with each other.

 

Students were given out-of-use public school library books from the defunct Willow Run Community Schools district to find text to respond to. All of the content is dated and much of it deeply flawed. Students could alter the pages however they’d like; with acrylic or tempera paint, by crossing words out, by drawing over pictures, or anything else they could think of. The pages they marked were cut or torn out and wheatpasted to custom-built 12” x 12” frames. This process was repeated multiple times, creating layers and allowing pages to overlap. 

 

The finished products resemble worn billboards, with no layer fully visible. All 64 12” x 12” frames combined to form one 8’ x 8’ statement piece which showed at Neutral Zone’s 41st Potential Show in Ann Arbor and Riverside Arts Center’s Ypsilanti Community Schools student show.

© 2025 by Nick Azzaro

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