The Oak Street Gallery of First Congregational United Church of Christ
located at 20 Oak Street, Asheville is pleased to announce the April 2024 exhibit of
artwork created by students at Lucy S. Herring Elementary School in Asheville, and their art teacher, Robbie Lipe.
located at 20 Oak Street, Asheville is pleased to announce the April 2024 exhibit of
artwork created by students at Lucy S. Herring Elementary School in Asheville, and their art teacher, Robbie Lipe.
About Lucy S. Herring Elementary:
Lucy S. Herring Elementary is a vibrant school located in W. Asheville, with a magnet theme of Ecology. Our focus on ecology can best be described as a specific lens applied to everything we do here at Lucy S. Herring. Our mission statement says that Lucy S. Herring is a collaborative community that values diversity and fosters responsibility, individual excellence and environmental stewardship. Our objectives then are to bring ecological ideas and lessons into our work. We have three outdoor classrooms that we utilize on a weekly basis. We have a garden coordinator who works with our teachers to plan lessons that involve our core science standards. Our students plant, harvest, and cook plants from our garden. Throughout the school teachers collaborate with our community partners FEAST, Roots Foundation, Greenworks, and Riverlink to develop short and long term projects that have an ecological focus. Our classes often meet outside for hands-on learning in our garden and our outdoor classrooms. Our Ecology Week in the Fall and our STEAM Week in the Spring, provide students an opportunity to work with community members and share their knowledge with each other and the community. Students at Lucy S. Herring explore all subject areas through hands-on activities and discover the importance of civic responsibility to make a difference in the community and the world.
Robbie Lipe is the awesome art teacher at Lucy S. Herring Elementary School in W. Asheville. She loves getting her students so excited about doing art that they forget that "they (think) they can't do it." Mrs. Lipe teaches with enthusiasm & energy, introducing students to artists from across the world, many of them contemporary artists. She wants her students to be able to know artists that will be creating art during their lifetime. Some of her favorite artists to introduce are Andy Goldsworthy, NC native Patrick Dougherty, Kehinde Wiley, Amy Sherald, Sarah Sze, Cai Guo-Quiang, Ai Wei Wei, Jaime Gili, Anish Kapoor, Lourdes Villagomez, Mel Chin (lives in WNC now), Nancy Holt, and Michelle Courier, just to name a few. Sometimes she gets time to paint herself. She is an environmental artist, who incorporates the physical, tactile sense of connectedness to a place by using objects and textures embedded within the paintings.
"My art has always been influenced by my environment. My childhood was spent barefoot and outdoors, just a few miles away from Florida beaches and with my parents’ strict rule against littering. My teen years were spent in Ohio, hearing about the EPA and ecology from my father. My art seeks to raise the question of the delicate balance between a healthy relationship with nature and an unhealthy one. I have unearthed common themes running throughout my collection of paintings: the presence of natural elements in imagery, creation versus destruction, and contemporary art influences. In exploring the duality of creation and destruction in life and culture, the question is raised of the interdependent relationship between humans and their environment."
Robbie Lipe, NBCT MAEd
She/her/hers (Why is this important?)
2017-2018 North Carolina Art Educator of the Year
Awesome Art Teacher
Site Coordinator, Herring Hearts after school group
Lucy S. Herring Elementary
Asheville City Schools
Asheville, North Carolina
Lucy S. Herring Elementary is a vibrant school located in W. Asheville, with a magnet theme of Ecology. Our focus on ecology can best be described as a specific lens applied to everything we do here at Lucy S. Herring. Our mission statement says that Lucy S. Herring is a collaborative community that values diversity and fosters responsibility, individual excellence and environmental stewardship. Our objectives then are to bring ecological ideas and lessons into our work. We have three outdoor classrooms that we utilize on a weekly basis. We have a garden coordinator who works with our teachers to plan lessons that involve our core science standards. Our students plant, harvest, and cook plants from our garden. Throughout the school teachers collaborate with our community partners FEAST, Roots Foundation, Greenworks, and Riverlink to develop short and long term projects that have an ecological focus. Our classes often meet outside for hands-on learning in our garden and our outdoor classrooms. Our Ecology Week in the Fall and our STEAM Week in the Spring, provide students an opportunity to work with community members and share their knowledge with each other and the community. Students at Lucy S. Herring explore all subject areas through hands-on activities and discover the importance of civic responsibility to make a difference in the community and the world.
Robbie Lipe is the awesome art teacher at Lucy S. Herring Elementary School in W. Asheville. She loves getting her students so excited about doing art that they forget that "they (think) they can't do it." Mrs. Lipe teaches with enthusiasm & energy, introducing students to artists from across the world, many of them contemporary artists. She wants her students to be able to know artists that will be creating art during their lifetime. Some of her favorite artists to introduce are Andy Goldsworthy, NC native Patrick Dougherty, Kehinde Wiley, Amy Sherald, Sarah Sze, Cai Guo-Quiang, Ai Wei Wei, Jaime Gili, Anish Kapoor, Lourdes Villagomez, Mel Chin (lives in WNC now), Nancy Holt, and Michelle Courier, just to name a few. Sometimes she gets time to paint herself. She is an environmental artist, who incorporates the physical, tactile sense of connectedness to a place by using objects and textures embedded within the paintings.
"My art has always been influenced by my environment. My childhood was spent barefoot and outdoors, just a few miles away from Florida beaches and with my parents’ strict rule against littering. My teen years were spent in Ohio, hearing about the EPA and ecology from my father. My art seeks to raise the question of the delicate balance between a healthy relationship with nature and an unhealthy one. I have unearthed common themes running throughout my collection of paintings: the presence of natural elements in imagery, creation versus destruction, and contemporary art influences. In exploring the duality of creation and destruction in life and culture, the question is raised of the interdependent relationship between humans and their environment."
Robbie Lipe, NBCT MAEd
She/her/hers (Why is this important?)
2017-2018 North Carolina Art Educator of the Year
Awesome Art Teacher
Site Coordinator, Herring Hearts after school group
Lucy S. Herring Elementary
Asheville City Schools
Asheville, North Carolina