Brian contributes to the Arts Connect Neighbors Project
Brian Counihan is part of this new approach to BUILDING COMMUNITY in Roanoke. He is personally offering two workshops to bring neighborhoods alive to strengthen relationships by offering fun learning experiences so that people may create connections through his artist-led programming to reinforce community belonging.
The Neighborhood Scroll: A Crankie Portrait Project for All Ages
In this 90-minute workshop, artist and educator Brian Counihan will introduce a storytelling art form rooted in Appalachian tradition. Crankies, or moving panoramas, are drawings or paintings that can be manually scrolled within a boxed “stage.” Participants will develop basic scripts, create imagery, and use their crafting skills to create a portrait of an important place, person, or event in the neighborhood. Future workshops can include making complete performance-ready crankies in a preferred media, such as quilting, collage or watercolors.
Block Printing with a Steam Roller: Making a Neighborhood Image for a Steamroller Print Event
In this 90-minute workshop, artist and educator Brian Counihan will guide a collaborative woodblock design project that can be printed as a giant banner-sized image using a steamroller as a press. In this workshop we’ll collectively develop the visual content, consider how the banner can have a positive effect on the neighborhood, and think about how and where the banner-sized image can be displayed. Every neighborhood has something important to say, and banner-sized prints are loads of fun. They also draw lots of attention, especially when they’re printed with a steamroller!