Following a 1-credit experiential learning course at Muskegon Community College, titled "The Art of the Civil War," in which students were taken on a extended weekend-long bus trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; twenty-year-old Ari Norris wrote a life-changing letter to nationally recognized sculptor Gary Casteel.

     Being the last living artist to produce a monument on the expansive Gettysburg National Military Park, Casteel served as one of the course's several in-person "experiences." The group of students joined Gary for a on-site presentation at his sculpture of General James Longstreet, followed by a studio visit to view works in progress. 

     In the weeks following the meeting, Norris began drafting a request to Gary - to become the seventy-year-old artist's first-ever apprentice. Upon receiving Norris' letter, the pair had a life-changing phone call.

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     Norris would go on to join Casteel in Pennsylvania for two subsequent summer-sessions, by the end of which saw the groundwork being laid for Norris' first bronze commission, the Doris Rucks Memorial Sculpture at Muskegon Community College. 

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