Kevin Sampson has spent decades making art from found objects — an ashtray, a chair, some animal bones, a model train car.
Now he’s become a piece of animated art.
Sampson is set to get “Arthurized” and play himself in an upcoming episode of the PBS series “Arthur.”
“It came out of the blue,” Sampson, 66, tells NJ Advance Media. “It was just something so different ... I never thought I’d wind up a cartoon.”
“Arthur,” which premiered in 1996, is based on the children’s books by Marc Brown and is one of the longest-running animated series for children, winning seven Emmys over 23 seasons. The series follows the everyday adventures of an anthropomorphic young aardvark, his friends and family.
Newark artist Kevin Sampson filmed the episode of "Arthur" in 2019.PBS Kids
Sampson will appear in animated form in “George Scraps His Sculpture,” an episode of “Arthur” set to premiere March 10. The Newark resident will also be in a live-action portion of the show with a group of Newark elementary school students.
In the episode, “Arthur” regular George has to come up with a sculpture for an art fair. At a loss, he asks for advice from friends and goes around trying to copy and mix different existing sculptures, like Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” and Edgar Degas’ “The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer.”
Sampson comes to George’s aid, showing him how he takes inspiration from objects at a local recycling facility. George visits Sampson’s exhibit — which is filled with real examples of the artist’s work — and ends up making a “friendship train” out of his friends’ trash.
“I think the lesson for kids here is that there’s no one right way to be an artist,” says associate producer Deborah Frank.
“Arthur,” a PBS Kids series, is produced by WGBH in Boston. The episode featuring Sampson was filmed in January and February 2019. Newark students appear (as themselves, not as cartoons) in the “And Now a Word from Us Kids” segment.
Frank says Marc Brown, the author of the “Arthur” books, and his wife, author and artist Laurene Krasny Brown, wanted to include outsider artists in the TV series. So producers contacted the American Folk Art Museum in New York, where a curator suggested Sampson.
The artist recorded his voice for the animated part, then filmed with students from Branch Brook School for the live-action portion of the episode. He knows his “Arthurized” self is on point because his granddaughter Nora, 6, recognized him right away in the cartoon rendering he sent to his daughter Lauren.
Kevin Sampson in the recording studio for "Arthur."Deborah Frank/WGBH Kids/PBS Kids
“As soon as she found out that I was going to be on the show, she began religiously watching,” Sampson says.
Sampson, who grew up in Elizabeth, has been living in Newark since 1993. His work can be found at the Cavin-Morris Gallery in New York.
The artist formerly worked as a Scotch Plains police officer and was the first African American composite sketch artist in the country. After leaving the force, he went to art school and started teaching. Mentoring young artists is his passion, he says.
Kevin Sampson helps George find his own idea for a sculpture.PBS Kids
In the episode, the kids from Branch Brook School visit Sampson’s studio in Newark and see his found-object art.
The students also visit the Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University in Newark, where “Mr. Kevin” leads them in a class and they build their own sculptures.
“We made different things out of objects that were outside, like tree branches,” says Emma Roman, 10.
In the time since the episode was filmed, Branch Brook School has closed, so it’s bittersweet, says Kathy Calello Chencharik, who has been an art teacher in Newark for 23 years. After the school shut down in June, she became a teacher at Sir Isaac Newton Elementary School in Newark.
Kevin Sampson being filmed at a wood shop where he works for an episode of "Arthur."PBS Kids
“They were just so excited,” she says of the former Branch Brook students. Calello Chencharik would often take Branch Brook students on field trips to see Sampson’s studio in the Ironbound. The artist reached out to the teacher to get students involved after learning he’d be on “Arthur.”
“It was an amazing experience for them,” Calello Chencharik says.
The teacher first connected with Sampson through the Paul Robeson Galleries, which the artist calls his home away from home.
“I’ve taught all over Newark through the Paul Robeson Gallery,” he says.
Newark students, seen here at artist Kevin Sampson's Newark studio, will appear in the episode of "Arthur."Courtesy Kevin Sampson/Kathy Calello Chencharik
The gallery employs artists like Sampson as expert educators in their fields. A piece of his work is currently being installed as part of a show there.
“He’s like the elder statesman,” says Anonda Bell, director of the gallery.
“He is a phenomenal artist,” she says of Sampson. “His work is like a rendering of the workings of his mind. His drawings are exquisite.”
Since Sampson’s sculptures are made of found objects, his art carries a message of accessibility, she says:
“It means that if you’re creative, you can just make stuff wherever you are.”
The episode of “Arthur” featuring artist Kevin Sampson and Newark students can be seen at the following times and channels:
- WNET/Thirteen main channel: 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 10; 6:30 a.m. Friday, March 19; 6:30 a.m. Sunday, March 21.
- WNET/Thirteen PBS Kids 24/7 channel: 1 and 9 p.m. Wednesday, March 10; 1 and 9 p.m. Friday, March 19.
- NJ PBS (formerly NJTV): 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 10; 1:30 p.m. Friday, March 19.
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Amy Kuperinsky may be reached at akuperinsky@njadvancemedia.com and followed at @AmyKup on Twitter.
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