by Linda on September 28, 2009
I had a call the other day from the local Children’s Museum asking if we would like to create a display for their Dia de Los Muertos celebration. Because it is a display meant for children, explained the coordinator, there should be no reference to cigarettes or alcohol. Reasonable parameters. I am always happy to have our work here at school moved out into the world, so I agreed to work on the project.
Traditionally, the objects that represent Dia de Los Muertos are skeletons adorned with objects from life. The visual impact of these displays are profound and poetic. I wanted to allow this to be a project for peronal reflection on loss and the importance of relationships. The project had potential to be moved into a direction of personal relevance and maybe to a place that might be a little uncomfortable for my students. We talked about the idea in the 7th grade class and I passed out paper for some writing and intial sketching. The students became storytellers right away.
I have learned that if you are not prepared to hear the answers, don’t ask the question. So, actually, I was prepared for the kind of stories the students wrote about people lost to them. One student remembered his cousin, who he was very close to, and who loved to skate, who died of a drug overdose. Another student wrote about being out with his cousin, who was a very talented guitarist, and who was shot in a gang-related drive-by as my student looked on. Another remembered a grandfather that he loved very much, but could not remember how his grandfather came to be a paraplegic.
Now we are working to move the visual works towards being a celebration of the relationship rather than a chronicle of the tragedy or loss. I am looking for objects for the students to create their pieces on: a guitar, a skateboard, a wheelchair. Transforming the object into a statement about love and relationship. Honoring the dead. Exploring the transcendental power of love.
I will review the traditional imagery and craft of Dia de Los Muertos with the students so that they can incorporate those images and techniques into the works should that feel relevant. At least there are no images of alcohol or cigarettes. Maybe there will be another home for this exhibit other than the Children’s Museum because I will not censor the voice. I will post pictures as the works progress.
Tagged as:
project-based learning,
visual arts activism
by Linda on September 23, 2009
Yesterday I took my architecture group (three students from last year’s team) around the corner to the local public school. This year we are serving as mentors to that school as they participate in the School of the Future Design Competition. After last year’s first place win, and given all that we accomplished and learned, it is now time to move all of that out into our community. I want my students to understand the responsibility that comes with receiving such honors.
My students did a great job of sharing what they have learned with the other class. The students had so many questions, and I was so pleased to have my students work in the role as mentors and leaders. I am still so struck with the distance traveled when I think of where we were when we began this process so many eons ago.
We have realized that our responsibility looks like this: Learn it, earn it, live it, teach it. Throw yourself into your learning, take it in through your eyes, your ears, your mind, your heart. Earn your place, your degree, your honors, recognize yourself for all of your achievements. Live what you have learned: move your learning out of your head and put it into action always. Then share: teach others what you have learned, continue the momentum so that it expands exponentially. This is a sustainable learning model.
Tagged as:
architecture,
sustainability education,
visual arts activism
by Linda on September 22, 2009
Beautifully written, complete with a brilliant manifesto that articulates an innovative and imperative vision for education, The Third Teacher Project is a collaboration of many minds from the fields of architecture and design who come together in the shared conviction of a quality education for all.
I discovered the Third Teacher website this summer, when I found that they had written about my students and their participation in the School of the Future Design competition. I was immediately engaged and enheartened to see such profound work being done towards the cause of excellence in education as a fundamental right. Particularly wonderful is the way that the work weaves together the thoughts of many people from a variety of disciplines and develops a new way of seeing curriculum and project based-learning that feels as intuitive as it is visionary as it is activist. I have been blessed with a copy of the book for which I am truly grateful. This work is a voice for justice and transformation. Thanks to all who contributed.
Tagged as:
architecture,
learning environment,
project-based learning,
social justice education
by Linda on September 21, 2009
The 6th graders completed a project last week having to do with rare color and creating new and surprising color relationships. This sounds like a project for a Color and Composition course on the college level, which it actually is, come to think of it. I guess I think my students can do anything. A seemingly simple project, more difficult than it appears. I will post the specifices another time in the “Projects” section of this blog.
We have never spent time talking about color wheels, and I ran them through a quick explanation of warm and cool color, and spent a little longer talking about color representing concept or emotion. But I really believe that our relationship with color is intuitive, so I decided to approach the project in an experiential and intuitive manner.
We study color because color is part of our vocabulary, like words and mathematical formulas and music. We also study line and form and light, because these are parts of our vocabulary also. We need all these languages to give voice to our experiences and ideas and dreams.
I want to teach art as if I am teaching a language. I want my students to understand the power of visual voice. I tell them all the time that each time they engage in the creative process, each time they build or paint or adorn, they are connecting themselves to the great chain of humanity that has honored beauty and voice since the beginning of time, that has recorded its collective experience through pictures and sculptures and structures, enduring in the most painful and difficult of circumstances.
When we talk about rare color, we talk about finding a color that is so personal and so unusual in its relationships to other colors that it tells a story that has never been told. A rare color is the newly invented word or note that expresses the experience with impact and clarity. Rare color holds unimaginable powers of expression. Rare color turns the predictable on its head and asks many questions. Each of us, each human being, is a rare color. And just as a painter can spend a lifetime understanding and developing a palette of rare color, each one of us spends our lifetime trying to understand the power of our own rare color.
Tagged as:
art of teaching,
visual arts activism
