Students film famous Carthage artist

Famous Carthage artist Bob Tommey stared at the camera and waited for a nearby fifth grade student to yell “action.”

Without any further words, he silently turned to his current project — the Carthage Tiger sculpture he hopes one day will sit in front of the new Carthage High School — and began making a few new scratches to the animal’s face. He continued to concentrate on his work until the same child’s voice yelled “Cut!”

A group of fifth grade students from Joplin’s Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School were visiting Tommey’s studio east of Carthage Wednesday morning, filming footage for a movie they are producing that will air later this year on the Washington D.C.-based Kennedy Center’s Web site.

Thomas Jefferson was one of 10 schools nationwide selected to participate in the Kennedy Center’s Interactive Media Bus.

The Media Bus program is designed to allow students the opportunity to tell the story of the arts in their community, which will be shared worldwide on the Internet.

Each of the ten schools selected will receive a media equipment package, and both students and teachers will be trained in storytelling, filmmaking, editing and producing their selected video stories. 

“One of our students at Thomas Jefferson was taking lessons from Mr. Tommey, and we felt it would be great” to do a film on him, said Thomas Jefferson English/humanities Instructor John Peruggia.

Earlier this week, Tommey visited the students in Joplin. According to an ongoing blog, the students “had many story ideas interview questions they created on their own before we even arrived. Production roles were a hot topic for these fifth graders, and they embraced their roles for the pre-interview by following directions, actively listening and paying attention to the details.”
Wednesday morning, the students first filmed sequences of Tommey’s rural studio. Next, they headed indoors to film the artist working on the life-sized tiger.

“They’ve spent the last two weeks learning everything” they could about filming,” he continued. “They are having a lot of fun.”

Tommey didn’t mind the attention. He was calm and collected, softly whistling to himself, as he was instructed by the kids to stand here or to do this or that. He’s also been filmed before, once by a visiting Japanese crew — he’s okay with it, as long as they don’t ask him to act.

“Acting — I could never do that,” he said with a light chuckle. “I can’t pretend, I’d end up giggling.”
Tommey’s words, artwork and studio will be shared with other selected artists across the nation.
Tommey is a nationally known painter and sculptor and also respected art teacher. Since 1978, he has been a founder and driving force behind the Midwest Gathering of the Artists show, held annually in Carthage. Probably his most famous work here in Carthage is his bronze sculpture of TV’s Marlin Perkins, which is found in Central Park. In fact, many artists today say Carthage’s reputation as an art community is largely due to Tommey’s efforts and talents.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is known as the “national center for the performing arts.” It is located on the Potomac River, adjacent to the Watergate complex in the nation’s capitol.

Kennedy Center Senior Press Representative Amanda Hunter said once the film is completed by the schoolchildren, the raw footage will be sent to D.C. for final completion. From there, the film will be uploaded to the www.onlocationproject.org, the Web site maintained by the center, and shared around the world.