MLC's Art Room: The Beating Heart

The Beating Heart of a School: Metropolitan Learning Center’s Art Room

A look behind the scenes at how visual arts are taught at Portland’s alternative public school for K-12 students—by Cibyl E. Kavan, October 11, 2024

Late last school year, I had the privilege to talk with Ned Hascall, the visual arts teacher at the Metropolitan Learning Center, an alternative school in Northwest Portland. When I arrived at MLC in mid-June, the 2023-24 school year was winding down. Hascall only had a few classes that week—one group of high school students and a class of kindergartners.

The interior of MLC is adorned with murals designed and painted by many generations of high school students. On the main floor there is a display of multimedia masks by middle school students. Indeed, the entire school building is covered in student-designed artwork by different generations of students, reflecting the emphasis the school places on empowered, child-centered, experiential learning.

Two flights of wide stairs led me down to the Art Room. There are murals in this short hallway as well. Hascall is busy starting to sort student artwork, monitoring the last clay projects and prepping an easy, end-of-school art project for the kindergartners. To the left of the art room door, just beyond the cubby shelves, are three pottery wheels, a kiln, a large sink, and an area holding ceramic tools and clay projects. As this is the end of the year, a long table at the back of the classroom has multiple stacks of paper and artwork. There are also several small etching presses located nearby and four long work tables for students in the center of the room. It looks and feels like an art studio!

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OCCASIONALLY MLC makes it into the news—as in October 2024 when arts journalist Cibyl Kavan of the online journal Oregon ArtsWatch posted an enjoyable, reasonably in-depth profile of arts teacher Ned Hascall that honored both MLC's origins and Hascall's predecessor, founding teacher Betty Mayther. (ArtsWatch's photo captioner got the school's name wrong a time or two but so it goes.) An excerpt and link are below.

"Students’ masks greet visitors to the Metropolitan Learning Center auditorium." Photo: Cibyl E. Kavan (Oregon ArtsWatch)

"Artwork by present and past MLC students fills the walls of the school." Photo: Cibyl E. Kavan (Oregon ArtsWatch)