Friday, December 26, 2008
By FRANKLIN HAYES
Staff Reporter
Educators at Foley Middle School will be given a rare opportunity in spring to showcase a unique art curriculum. The school was chosen as one of 10 across the nation — and the only school in Alabama — to participate in a program sponsored by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, a Washington, D.C.-based educational facility that is administered by the Smithsonian Institution.
Students will create a documentary about Fairhope artist Ricky Trione, a blind painter who visits students and demonstrates his ability to create visual art.
Trione said he lost his sight after two freak acci dents. In 1993, a logging truck slung a rock through his car window that permanently damaged his left eye, he said. Seven years later, his car stalled and he pulled over along Ala. 59 near Stockton, he said. While he was outside inspecting his vehicle, an 18-wheeler passing by blew a tire and a fragment struck him in the face, knocking him unconscious, he said. His next memory was waking up in the hospital and learning that he was blind.
Mobile Press-Register
