Law Student Paints for Charity
Jon Ciliberto (J.D. '15) is helping celebrate the 75th anniversary of Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Atlanta by participating in their 75 Blue Doors project this month. Ciliberto joined 24 local artists to create three doors representing Boys & Girls Clubs members as part of the citywide project themed on how the Clubs "open doors" to Atlanta youths.
Ciliberto became involved with the project through his friendship with the directors of WonderRoot, a Reynoldstown community art facility and one of the project sponsors. He volunteers with the group, and in addition to his visual art projects, has developed a collaborative presentation on poetry for middle school students.
Although he never studied art in school – his B.A. and M.A. are in philosophy – Ciliberto gravitated to it after graduate school. When he began drawing and painting, he discovered an interest in art and in how it can change a community and might be limited by others.
"I have a natural inclination to small, personal art forms – drawings, chamber music, poetry – in part for the approachable distance between such forms and viewers and listeners," he says.
As a part-time student in his first year, Ciliberto is finding his niche in law, but because of what he calls "the increasing private control over ideas," he has found a growing interest in Intellectual Property and Fair Use law.
Professor emerita Anne Emanuel, who teaches Ciliberto in her evening Criminal Law course, says he brings "rich and diverse talent to the table," and commends him for his focus on charitable projects.
"I do not participate in the institutional art world, but I do contribute to fundraising auctions in an effort to use my abilities to help others," he says. Likewise, he explains that "laws are made to serve the public, and as a lawyer I hope to work toward the public good."
The blue doors are on display through Tuesday, April 30, throughout metro Atlanta. Ciliberto's doors, which introduce Boys and Girls Clubs' Kenyatta, Sony and Jamiah, are on view at Lenox Mall.