Image: Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth
The Amon Carter Museum of American Art has outlined the community-based process behind ‘Carter Collab’, an annual artmaking initiative that brings together the Fort Worth museum, students from local schools and artists selected through its Carter Community Artists program. The project’s stated aim is to produce a large-scale artwork that becomes a lasting part of a participating school’s campus.
In a Carter ARTicles post published August 26, Adam Werner, the museum’s manager of community teaching programs, describes collaboration as the organizing principle of the initiative. Projects begin when a teacher or school staff member submits an idea through the Carter’s website. The museum then works with students and a Carter Community Artist to develop a design shaped by the school’s needs, the students’ imagery and the museum’s collection.
The structure is intended to involve each school community from the beginning of the project through installation. After an idea has been selected, students visit the Carter for a tour and brainstorming session with a participating artist. The museum says these visits are designed to encourage looking, discussion and artmaking, with exercises tailored to the students and each collaboration.
One example began at Shady Brook Elementary, where an art teacher proposed transforming a security fence around the playground after students complained that it was unattractive. The project’s location and purpose prompted connections to Stuart Davis’s ‘Blips and Ifs’, a work in the Carter’s collection, as well as the practice of Carter Community Artist Stuart Hausmann, who worked with the students. The resulting installation used the fence as the site for a colorful artwork based on the students’ sketches.
Another project involved students from Bonnie Brae Elementary and Carter Community Artist Colleen Borsh. Borsh led an interactive sketching tour through the museum’s galleries, and the students’ drawings became the foundation for a mural installed behind the school garden. The museum also describes a project at Rosemont Middle School developed with Carter Community Artist Brenda Melgoza Ciardiello. Photographs accompanying the article show the finished works at all three school campuses.
The article emphasizes that the working method changes according to the school and student group. In one session held during a school “fine arts night,” families were invited to learn about the project and contribute to the artwork together. The museum presents the completed murals and installation as additions to their respective campuses, reflecting the shared ideas of students, teachers, artists and museum staff.
‘Carter Collab’ sits within the Carter’s broader Carter Community Artists initiative, which supports and works with local artists while connecting them with museum events and community programs. The museum selects four local artists each year to help plan and lead experiences at the Carter and elsewhere in the community. Applications for the 2027 cohort are open through September 7, 2026, while schools and administrators with ideas for future ‘Carter Collab’ projects are invited to submit proposals through the museum.
