As Haddonfield residents went to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 8, they may have noticed some very colorful sandwich boards that pointed out where to vote.
Haddonfield Middle School students did their part to get the public out and voting by putting up signs they designed as part of a civic art project last year, saying “Vote Here.” The point of the project was to teach students about democracy and to get the students’ art in the eye public, as well as to encourage the community to vote.
“This whole year this election has been on everyone’s mind, especially with the presidential election. We thought putting out the signs to encourage voting again (would be great),” said Caren Izzo, civics and government teacher at Haddonfield Middle School.
The project was inspired by Next Stop: Democracy!, a Philadelphia-based voter engagement project that uses public art to increase voter turnout in Philadelphia. Last year, Izzo noticed artists working on and putting out artistic sandwich boards that said “Vote Here.” Izzo was inspired and thought it would be a great way to teach students about government and art at the same time.
Izzo applied with the Haddonfield Educational Trust to receive a grant to help fund the project, and it was approved. She teamed with art teacher Erika Gehringer for most of the middle school students to design posters, while the students in the advanced art class created sandwich boards, much like the ones in Philadelphia.
In Izzo’s class, she talked about democracy, what it means to be able to vote, voting and voting rights. She said it didn’t matter the children aren’t old enough to vote; it is about educating them early.
“The younger you are learning about voting, the more likely you’re going to turn out to vote,” Izzo said.
The students had time from February to June to complete their project. They worked in pairs, making the design however they pleased, as long as it was big enough and had the words “Vote Here.”
Izzo said there were many creative results that came out of the project, such as a list of all of the past presidents with the words “Who is next? You Decide!”; a red, white and blue three dimensional art piece; and a woman with textured hair.
“I thought they were very interesting. They all had different interpretations,” Izzo said.
The “Vote Here” sandwich boards were first used in the primaries in June. Izzo said she and the students heard positive responses from the public.
They put out the “Vote Here” signs once again for last week’s general election. Izzo said the response was positive this time as well. She and four past eighth graders, now ninth graders, got up early to put the signs outside each polling location. At Borough Hall, the students encountered an 84-year-old resident who made sure she was the first in line to vote, and she praised all of the artwork and what the sandwich boards mean and accomplish, according to Izzo.
She hopes students feel empowered with what their artwork has done and symbolizes, as well as getting their art for the public to see.
“I think there was learning on a lot of different levels. They learned about the government and art in their classes, but they also learned to put their art out there and become vulnerable, then seeing how other people who didn’t know about the project interacted with it,” Izzo said.
