Launched in 2016, the Grum Project has brought more than two dozen visiting artists to campus. Here are some of the amazing lessons they’ve imparted.
The Grum Project, Williston’s groundbreaking visiting artist program, turns 10 this year. Named by its benefactors, multi media artist Pat Ingram Bone ’65 and her husband, Steve, the project to date has brought to campus more than two dozen artists—musicians, actors, visual artists, dancers, and more—for mini residencies, presentations, and performances that have enriched the entire school community.
Bone’s inspiration for the Williston project was her own experience with an artist-in-residence program she oversaw as the parent-teacher fellowship president at a school in San Juan Capistrano. “I saw a large positive reaction in faculty, parents, and students,” she recalls. “It confirmed my opinion that everyone is an artist and is ready to try new things or comment on them.”
The Grum Project has had a similar impact on the Williston community, allowing students to experience new forms of artistic expression, but also demonstrating that art can be a lifelong passion with a host of personal and professional benefits. “We study the arts in our classes, but having practicing and professional artists come here and share their crafts with us makes the manifestations of what we teach tangible,” notes Visual and Performing Arts Department Head and Grum Project administrator Natania Hume. “It also allows us to experience art forms and cultures that we would not otherwise be aware of, and enhances our arts programs by connecting the real arts world to our school in new and exciting ways.”
Below you’ll find just a few of the many ways the Grum Project has transformed the Williston campus and community in its 10-year run.
They’ve helped us see art as a bridge to others
Singer-songwriter Matt Butler performed his traveling show Reckless Son for the school community in 2024, a work inspired by the artist’s performances in more than 100 jails and prisons across the country. Acclaimed by Spin magazine, which in 2023 named him artist of the year and nominated Reckless Son for album of the year, Butler’s show is “an attempt to humanize and give voice to the incarcerated,” he explained. “Songs can penetrate people’s defenses and generate intimacy and create trust almost instantaneously.” During his visit, Butler toured the campus with his wife, Anna Mohrman ’97. After the show, he answered questions from students.
They’ve taught us that art helps us express who we are
During his six-day residency in 2020, Los Angeles–based artist Kiel Johnson worked with students to create individualized cardboard trophies that celebrated personal victories, small and large (“I did the dishes,” announced one. “I stayed hydrated,” read another.) Tracing the arc of his own career at an assembly, Johnson recounted how a quirky drawing of all his possessions led to his making cardboard sculptures and eventually work for Uber, Walmart, Disney, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Getty Center. “Life is short,” he told the students. “Don’t be following other people’s dreams. If you pursue your dream 150%, life will open up to you.”
They brought new beauty to campus
During his one-week residency in 2025, muralist Ryan Adams—with help from Williston students—created a bespoke mural on the second floor of the Reed Campus Center. Celebrating the words “Williston Creates!” in Adams’ signature geometric style, the work was given its final color palette only after a student vote. Adams spoke about his artistic process during an assembly, then worked with students to paint the mural over the next four days, having taped and numbered the sections so all could participate. “I love when people can help with the mural, because it’s their environment—it’s their space,” he explained. “I’ve had people come up to me and tell me that they painted one triangle on a piece. To see that effect and see that people have a sense of ownership over it is so cool.”
They’ve helped us imagine the future
For four days in 2023, Ghanaian-Canadian artist Ekow Nimako brought his futuristic Lego-design work to campus, centered around a provocative question: What will Williston’s campus look like in a thousand years? Nimako challenged students and faculty members to think deeply about what they want Williston to look like for their descendants’ descendants. Students and Nimako then designed and built an answer, using thousands of white Lego bricks. The striking four-foot-by-six-foot model—completed over three days and one long night—is on display in the Reed Campus Center. “It’s a message of hope for the future,” said the artist.
They showed us the power of the spoken word
Two-time National Poetry Slam champion Anis Mojgani brought his wit and insight to campus during a three-day visit in April 2018. The author of five books of poetry and an artist who has performed at venues as diverse as the House of Blues and the United Nations, Mojgani captivated students with his stage presence and easy approachability at a special Friday night Spoken Word Festival. In Williston’s classrooms he worked with English and Directing students, who prepared for the sessions by reading, watching, and reciting spoken word poems.
They’ve shown how creativity makes us human
In his three-day residency in 2023, singer, actor (his credits include productions of Hamilton and In the Heights), writer, and voiceover artist Daniel James Belnavis worked with the cast of the school musical Something Rotten!, lectured on creativity and the power of imagination, and then hosted a workshop for Middle School students on creativity and expression. “I hope they can take away that it’s OK to still be figuring it out,” he noted afterward. “Something I was stressing with the theater students, and even during the presentations, is how it’s so important to bring yourself to everything you do, and to be human.”
They inspired us with their dedication to craft
The award-winning a cappella group Pitch Slapped, based at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, performed at assembly and led workshops with the school’s choral groups in February 2017. Two-time winners of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, held at Lincoln Center in New York City, the group has appeared on NBC’s The Sing-Off and America’s Got Talent and was named one of the top 5 a cappella groups in the country by USA Today.
They’ve shown how art can solve real-world problems
A 2025 visit by Stanford University designer and researcher Charlotte McCurdy introduced students to her thought-provoking research, which focuses on climate change and the development of sustainable materials, in particular within the world of fashion. (On display at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is a dress she co-created with fashion designer Phillip Lim, made with sea algae sequins.) After an introductory talk at an all-school assembly, McCurdy taught classes in two Williston classrooms, challenging students to rethink how clothing is made. “They came up with great ideas in just these 15-to-20-minute exercises,” she noted.
They’ve challenged us to think in new ways
An abstract artist and playwright with synesthesia—she experiences sound as color, texture, and motion—Sarah Kraning brought her distinctive perspective to Williston in 2024, discussing her artwork with students and her writing with eighth graders, who were then rehearsing Kraning’s play Soundscapes, about a character who shares Kraning’s sensory trait. After her talk at the Middle School, Kraning was impressed by the questions she was asked. “Having a large group of students ask questions about how somebody else perceives the world—that’s a really lovely thing,” she said. “That’s a thing we need more of in this world.”