Lancaster Middle School staff and students recently were astounded as they passed the art room and saw a gigantic pair of boots. Students walking by would come in and try the boots on! Teachers stopped to pose…and everyone wanted to know “What is going on”?
Those giant boots were purchased by Bank of Lancaster and they asked the LMS art classes to partner with them in decorating the boots. They are the main concept in the Watermen’s Way Project, an artist driven sculpture decorating event designed to honor the men and women who work the waterways and have helped shape a regional identity through decades of hard work and perseverance.
Art teacher Marilyn Sprouse is working with Bank of Lancaster’s marketing officer Kylie Bransford to facilitate the project in the middle school.
“Our young artists are eager to start,” said Sprouse. “In art class, students have been discussing pop art and Andy Warhol’s Soup Cans. Oyster cans from the Northern Neck’s local history will be featured in some way on the boots. Everyone is excited and loves the boots.”
The completed boots will be used in a Bank of Lancaster, soon to be called Virginia Commonwealth Bank, Facebook promotion, “Where are the boots?” with opportunities to win prizes.
The boots will travel with Bank of Lancaster/VCB for approximately two years and then they will become a permanent sculpture at LMS.
Funds from sales of the boots throughout the community benefit the Virginia Watermen’s Association, the Irvington Steamboat Era Museum and the Rappahannock Art League. When they are completed, there will be a special boots reveal ceremony.