Experiential Learning Through Meadville Connections
Over the last decade, all three areas of CommArts have created unique experiential learning opportunities for cross-collaboration between students and the Meadville community at large. These projects have helped to foster deeper learning, relationships, and possibilities for both communities together.
Film
14 Filmmakers Project
In 2015 Professor Mike Keeley oversaw a project in which 14 student filmmakers set out to explore the town of Meadville, PA.
Watch 14 Filmmakers Project
940 Park Avenue
Professor Mike Keeley worked with Jeremy Loewer ’17 and Sophie Dodge ’18 on a film about 940 Park Avenue, a property which once housed the largest movie theatre in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Today it is home to @ the bank, a collection of artisans and entrepreneurs. This film relives the glory days of Hollywood, and tells the story of the efforts to save a building and revitalize a downtown.
Watch 940 Park Avenue
Talon: The Missing Link
In fulfillment of his culminating senior thesis, Jeremy Loewer ’17 produced this film and a written report on the relationship between the invention of the zipper and its relationship with the town of Meadville.
Talon: The Missing Link
Theatre
Market Growth
Professor Michael Mehler worked with students and community members to develop a project that mixed art, gardening, and performance together for children and grown-up kids in conjunction with the Second Saturday Community Market.
Devised Projects
Professor Watkins has worked with Allegheny students and community members on a number of projects where student research on a particular concept like electricity ( Ghost(Light) 2015 ), dirt (Playing Dirty 2012), Lschnyan Syndrome, a neurological disease (Chewing Your Fingers to the Bone), and others.
Luna Gale
Professor Mark Cosdon worked with the ARC of Crawford County, Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA), and Women’s Services to help inform his direction for Rebecca Gilman’s play “Luna Gale” which centers on a social worker who is confronted with a difficult dilemma — what to do with a child born to drug-addicted teens. Family secrets, moral ambiguities, faith, biases, and the beleaguered welfare system collide in this contemporary drama.
Media/Rhetoric
Meadiaville
Project imagined and executed by Dr. Emily Yochim and a class of 18 Communication Arts students at Allegheny College with the goal of exposing youth media makers in the Meadville area and to understand the circumstances that these youth are situated in while producing their media.
Visit Meadiaville website
Hope, Help Harvest
Developed out of one of Professor Ishita Sinha Roy’s classes, the project is a student-run philanthropy working to raise awareness about food insecurity and defeat hunger in the Crawford County area, one bite at a time. Through raising funds and awareness, students worked to help food banks in the area provide meals and hope to residents in need.
Visit Hope, Help, Harvest website