Thoughts of a Donkey

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Our current exhibition, Sculpture by Nicola Hicks, lends itself to storytelling. Check out the podcast interview between the artist and 9 year old Eva Heitmann Levenson to get a sense of how the objects resonate with young people.  They talking about living with animals, sculpting with hay, how to start a drawing, and much much more. It’s a great discussion about working throug the creative process.

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We have also created a gallery guide with drawing and writing exercises based on the interviews so you and your students can join the conversation. Please let us know what you come up with!

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A new light

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“The creation of art is not the fulfillment of a need but the creation of a need. The world never needed Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony until he created it. Now we could not live without it.”

“Desire is the forerunner of a new need. It is the yet not state, the yet not made which motivates”
―Louis Kahn

Wishing you all a year of new ideas, new inspiration, new observations that we can no longer live without.

The Educational Value of Field Trips

“The Educational Value of Field Trips,” an article and study done by faculty and researchers at the University of Arkansas offers some enlightenment into the benefits of school visits to cultural institutions like a museum. Using the newly opened Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, researchers were able to gauge the impact a museum experience had on students of all ages. Here is what they discovered:

“Students randomly assigned to receive a school tour of an art museum experience improvements in their knowledge of and ability to think critically about art, display stronger historical empathy, develop higher tolerance, and are more likely to visit such cultural institutions as art museums in the future.”

Check out the full article here.

But I Hate Reading & Writing

After many years in education, it has finally occurred to me that I really need to market the idea of reading and writing to my remedial reading 
students. Reading and writing has always been difficult for them and at the ripe old age of 9, they don't choose either as  free time activities. 
Despite my encouragement of, “practice will make you better” or my pleas:“you’d never say this to your football (basketball/soccer/dance etc) coach," reading and writing remain on the NOT TO DO list for these children. 

So, I decided that I would bring sketch books back to the reading room this year. My goal: Let the kids discover for themselves that they ARE creative and DO have great powers of observation and ideas. For the first 15 minutes of each reading class, the students sketch, write and share ideas. 

 

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Guess what??? They LIKE it! They are beginning to buy into the idea that they are smart…just in a different way from some of their peers.

Very quickly, after the first 3 sessions, I had students requesting sketching/writing time. In the beginning, I collected images from the YCBA collection, book illustrations, and online images from various art museums. I am storing them in what is becoming a rather large power point. Each slide is an image with several writing invitations.

 

Van Gogh: Shoes 1888

Students sketch and write for equal amounts of time.

JWMTurner; The Morning After Deluge 1843

 

Two important observations over the past month:

1) Kids get right to the writing. Not one student (grade 3-5) has uttered the dreaded words, “I don’t know what to write.” Or better yet, “How many sentences does this have to be?”

2) The kids are starting to notice that their writing is getting longer and more detailed. There is pride in their voices when they share. They are excited with the language they are using and making links to literature. They are applying figurative language and making inferences (and actually know what both of those terms mean now!)

Teacher note:

This takes very little planning. Just give students time and opportunity and they will amaze you and, more importantly, amaze themselves.

I sketch and write with my students to model and practice what I preach.

Consortium Notes

During our first visual literacy consortium meeting this year, we began with time in the galleries. Each teacher found a work of art that reflected their own experience beginning the school year. Many found that the experience helped shed new light on the work ahead. Here are some excerpts from the conversation.

Charlice Culvert, art teacher

“Given the fourth floor to explore the concept of what were our expectations for the new school year and where was it going, I knew immediately that I would focus on the abstract art in the Long Gallery. Abstract art allows me to reflect more deeply than representational art; there are no boundaries for the interpretation.

 

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Barbara Hepworth’s stone sculpture is located in front of a window, causing the black surface to seem even darker with the light behind shining through the openings. I thought about how to get through to the other side of the curriculum, expectations, students and everything the new school year brings; would there be surprises on the other side, would I be able to enjoy the journey? I could see some glimpses of what might be, but could not tell exactly what awaited me on the other side.

 

Next, I viewed John Walker’s, Untitled Collage NYC No5. With all its different textures, it reminded me of all the students who enter my classroom and all their different personalities. The complexity of one student could also be seen through this collage. We are all complex in our personalities. How do I respond appropriately to them all?

 

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The last piece of art I viewed lacked a label so I gave it the title, All Eyes on Me. Scattered all over the painted are three dimensional circular shapes which are eye-like. Red forms, reminiscent of figures, stand facing outward. Black lines move through the composition conveying the feeling of jazz music. My students’ expectations are high, they are energetic and they demand attention. I need to be on my toes at all times.”

 

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 Nick Mead, 2012

Daron Cyr, kindergarten teacher

“Chaotic best sums up my year; lots of lines and colors that seem to never come together. I view visual literacy as a “safe” place for those colors, textures, and lines to play, arrange, rearrange, mingle, change, morph into something visually appealing. The eyes in the piece … like my 4 year olds eying everything – the good, the bad, my reaction, the day, the mood … all the eyes. 

I hope to let their creativity shine unstifled with textures and tools in their desperate fingers. It’s a mindset really: That we are valuable thinkers and creators of ideas and art. 

I sought abstract art because the lines and boldness were almost soothing – a means of decompressing and a way to visualize my room as an art form even amidst the chaos. 

 

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I gave my students their sketchbooks for the first time last week and asked them to do a self portrait – which was exciting and a great first time in their books. Last friday I put up A Couple of Foxhounds from the YCBA collection and after reading the painting together (which is getting better every week) I asked them to use only pencil (which normally would be “boring”) and either try to draw the painting, focus on their favorite part, or draw what it reminds them of.

 

I was in awe of how well my young and challenging learners handled it! Many copied the shadows and shapes in the painting but even more drew their own dogs or family because the dogs reminded them of home.  Everyone was doing something and whether or not it was recognizable to me wasn’t as important as the fact that they were moved to draw something based on what they saw. 

Next week I’m getting ready to start a “Work on Art” center as part of literacy time because it fits perfectly with their need for Oral Language but also because they are engaged and will enjoy choosing a picture card and spending time in their sketchbooks.”

 

Rebecca Looney, art teacher

” The piece I chose to talk about and connect with my students was Peter Howson’s Farewell, Farewell. I felt that this work would invite the most conversations about the back story of all that I looked at. Beginning this year, I’ve noticed conflicts between students occurring much earlier in the year than in years past. Usually they are one student against a couple of others, which seemed to be exemplified by the number of people in this painting. This painting would be a great bridge to talking about relationships and communication.”

 

Karen Williams, art teacher

“The beginning of the year can be exciting and intimidating at the same time:  new students, new school procedures, new administrators, new colleagues, new materials – all new experiences to bring to a new year.

This past YCBA workshop was a reminder of what I took and want to keep from the summer institute.

The art room is a place where things can move S  L  O  W.

The art room is a place where you observe, notice, question.

The art room is a place where individuality is honored.

Although the rush of school year can cause me to overlook these very important things, the meeting served as a good “huddle” time for us, as educators, to reflect on why we are doing what we are doing: To help our students, ourselves and others to learn, to grow and to deepen our experiences not only in art but in all other areas of life as well.”

 

Patti Darragh, reading specialist

Launching the Year

“As I wandered the galleries, thinking about starting the school year with my reading students, this painting jumped off the wall at me. 

 

The Sense of Sight, Philippe Mercier

It emphasizes the power of a visual image. Just as the characters in this narrative are intent on studying this map, my students stretch and move their seats to get a better view of images I present to them.

Looking does not put my challenged readers on the spot. Everyone can look and looking naturally leads to thinking and talking.

I don’t know who is more amazed at students’ responses to art; me or the students themselves.

My advice- try it and be amazed!”

 

Please share your own experiences “launching” visual literacy this year.

Writer Brings in the World While She Keeps It at Bay

The Goldfinch by Donna Tart

In The New York Times article, “Writer Brings in the World While She Keeps It at Bay,” Julie Bosman sits down with novelist Donna Tartt to talk about her latest book, The Goldfinch. Here is what she had to say about her experience with images and writing:

“Taking copies of National Geographic, she would cut out pictures of a zebra or a child, and write a story about the picture. “I wrote books in this way, around images,” Ms. Tartt said, something that didn’t occur to her until “The Goldfinch” — a book that surrounds an image of a luminous yellow-tinged bird — was complete.”

One of our goals here at the Yale Center for British Art is to encourage teachers and students to make these connections between image and writing on a daily basis. Novelist Donna Tartt encapsulates this goal with her novel centered around a Dutch painting. Take a look at this article and see how art has influenced this successful writer. You can also buy a copy of The Goldfinch here.