Creating Public Art

After reading the article Creating Public Art ThroughIntergenerational Collaboration by Mel Alexenberg and Miriam Benjamin, it made me realize how little I know about the art that is around me. Growing up in Florida and spending a lot of time in Biscayne and spending time wherethe “Legacy Thrones” are located, I never really realizedwhat they meant or what significant meaning they had until now. Reading this article opened up my eyes to how art students are getting involved in the community and reaching out to different types of groups to help create suchsignificant works of art. The process that took to make this project into an amazing piece of work took a lot of effort and it shocks me how I never knew about it. Making the three ceramic sculptures each representing a different group of people is really amazing and the groups that were picked to represent these sculptures are really well thought of since the diversity in Miami is present throughout the whole city. There are many different types of group that make up the population but the three biggest groups are Hispanic,Jewish, and African American. Letting elders be the ones to help make the sculpture makes the sculpture have more meaning too, due to the fact that they are the ones that have experienced more in their culture than anyone else. Having these three groups of women in a room was probably really interesting since they all have different experiences and stories. They also are groups that will not interact with each other on a daily basis since they all live in particular homes. Collaborating together and helping each other, these women made a really successful work of art in which they probably had no training for but together, they learned the ropes of artistry and had an amazing experience together learning about different cultures. After reading about thisproject, it really got me thinking of how little people are involved in their communities. There is not a lot of worksof art like this one. This article really inspired me to try something like this project in my own community.

Alexenberg, Mel; Benjamin, Miriam Art Eduction; sep 2004; 57,5; ProQuest Social Science Premiun Collection pg. 13

Creating public art through intergenerational collaboration

Reading the article, “Creating public art through intergenerational collaboration" by Mel

Alexenberg and Miriam Benjamin, the article talks about participatory art, public art, facilitating the collaboration of young and old, and intercultural art experiences that they encounter from making collaborative art work called the “Legacy Thrones”. The project was out of twenty women between the age of 70-85 from three different ethnic groups, and 40 art students, which created a team of one elder and two art students. During the project, the participants learned about each other’s cultures, as well as how much experiences and values they shared in experiences and in values.

This article gave me a big impression of senior citizen educations and artist as teachers. When I was reading this article, I had a connection with the video we watched in Art Ed 211, “Young at heart”. I never realized the importance of senior citizen education, but this article gave me an impression of how meaningful it is to work with the senor citizens. For senior citizens, making art would not only keep them from getting dementia or other memory-type of diseases, but it would give chance for them to make great art from the history of life that they came from.

Through this article, I was able to think about what community art is, and how it could affect the community and what it means to work together with others. When the article explained they are working with senior citizens, I thought they wouldn’t be able to make such great artwork, but having such expand of life history, I one again realized art is not only about making from what they are capable of, but master piece comes from each individual identity and beliefs.

From this article, I realized there are endless things to learn from teaching, and art is not only about working alone, but also creating with others and learning from one another.

• This video gives impression of what community art is, how people engage with another in creating art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnnd7U1Ju18

• This video shows education with senior citizen, what it is like to be working with senior citizens and what everyone learns from making art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muD036MjIeA

Alexenberg M. & Benjamin M. (2004). Creating Public Art Through Intergenerational Collaboration. Art Education. 13- 18.

Public and Participatory Art Inspired Thoughts..

Creating Public Art/ Participatory Art

        Reading "Creating Public Art Through Intergenerational Collaboration" by Alexenberg and Benjamin, my mind wandered through several mental images and greater concepts. This article dived into several ideas including postmodern art, participatory and/or public art, cultural and ethnic groups and narratives that can create artworks. The "Legacy Thrones" that were masterfully created and collaborated on by art students and elders from various cultural backgrounds, were publicly installed at the shoreline in Miami. There, the monumental artworks stand tall through all sorts of sun, rain, and gazes and touches from judgmental or encouraging viewers. The most important concept of these thrones is the story behind them that helped with their creation, as well as what fresh eyes take from them. What do tourists, everyday pedestrians, fellow art students, children, elderly, etc. think when they see these pieces? Is it confusion? Excitement? Perhaps those who take a closer look find clues or images of  sentimental value and connections for them? What meanings and explanations do they create for the thrones in their minds?

        

      

   I believe that any "good" art, especially public art, makes viewers think. It may first simply gain attention from its sudden installation, unique form or other attributes that are puzzling to the public. Which is enough! But if it can make its viewers engage and try to think of answers and/or personally connect, that is fantastic. If the piece can also have the public interact, or participate to create it or once it is installed, that is double fantastic in my eyes! I think of an artwork being more successful sometimes when there is more thought or unique meaning behind it. Having several different hands and minds working on an art piece can only make it more dense, right!? Like this! Multiple participants and bold statements through art.

   I kept bouncing between the ideas of participatory art, and public installation art as I read through this week's article. I loved it! I liked how the article felt like it had several lenses to it, like the legacy thrones themselves. As cheesy as it sounds, at the end of the day, it's all left up to the artists, or writers and the audience to interpret it all for themselves and leave with what they want. A good article, a good art piece, a good song, should all let the audience leave with at least one small thought or one small connection they made. 

Now in relation into installation/public art and because we're all cold and grumpy.. watch this clip.

But really, watch it..   "unconventional art"

Alexenberg M. & Benjamin M. (2004). Creating Public Art Through Intergenerational Collaboration. Art Education. 13- 18.

Sperber I. (2004). Legacy Thrones. Retrieved from http://www.miamiartzine.com/archived-issues/issue89/2right.htm

Smoke and Mirrors: Art Teacher as Magician

Smoke and Mirrors: Art Teacher as Magician

Hathaway, Nan E. Art Education66.3 (May 2013): 9-15.

“Authentic, meaningful learning can occur when art educators rethink the traditional, mimicry-based art lesson model and instead facilitate student-directed learning, encouraging collaboration and exploration of spontaneous creativity.”

I found this article very interesting because it shows the difficult task teachers face to facilitate learning rather than managing projects. This article plays on the theme that art teachers need to promote the child's ability to develop his or her mind by respecting the child as an artist and engage students in authentic, meaningful learning. “Instead of smoke and mirrors, good teaching is more like a dance between teacher and student: a dance in which the child leads.”

The author uses an example of how an art teacher performs a lesion in a magic trick like setting where the teacher lays out the assignment and the example and has all of the media used to make the projects laid out. In the end the author made a point that this isn’t really engaging the students as artist because in the end even though the teacher thinks they are giving the students creative freedom the finished products are often so similar that students cant pick out their art amongst the other students.

I like this article because even though the example used had a classroom of second graders, the idea behind turning the classroom into a studio could be used for all levels of art teaching. This article explains to teachers how to shift creative control from teacher to learner. 

Topics from art history and issues are essential in present-day practice art classroom. They are intertwined together in the studio structure, where students can thrive. Students need to be encouraged to act as problem finders, not just problem solvers, as they identify and evaluate art challenges drawn from interests, and knowledge. “In a studio-learning environment all the components desired and expected in a comprehensive art program skills, techniques, art history, approach to work, aesthetics and conventions, reflection and critique- are integrated in response to student inquiry and creative activity.”

Art education should not be about tricks and deception. Art educators would better serve their students by engaging students in authentic, meaningful learning. “Instead of smoke and mirrors, good teaching is more like a dance between teacher and student: a dance in which the child leads.”

Water and Design Ethics

Water–it’s vital for life, it’s scarce, it’s a major global issue. We all know that; we have been told since childhood to conserve water, to not let the faucet run while we brush our teeth. But I think that there is more that we could be teaching kids about it. Frankly, I think we could all stand to be a little more educated about it.

Water has been an interest of mine since high school. I think that everyone has a few social, environmental, or political issues that really resonate with them. For me, that’s water. It’s something that I keep coming back to, perhaps because the issues surrounding it disturb me enough that I can’t quite forget about it.

Brian Collier, "Some Properties of
Water: Phase 1, Collection and
Documentation", installation view,
CEPA, Buffalo, NY, 2003.

This interest in water is what prompted me to read an article by Angela Cornelius, Ernie Sherow, and B. Stephen Carpenter, Water: Social Issues and Contemporary Art Education. This article looks at installation art involving water and the collection of it from different places, as well as its transient nature. It also talks about the “visual culture of bottled water” (p. 27). In this portion of the article, it discusses the potential to study graphic design through the design of bottled water, specifically labels. And I think that this is an interesting and valuable thing to discuss with students. It promotes design principles, which are useful both on their own as well as introducing graphic design as a potential area of study and a career option. But I could not help but feel like the way that the article approached this was a bit lacking. Yes, it is important to understand how to make a persuasive design and dissect what it is about a design that makes it persuasive. Though it was not explicitly stated in the article, I think that this lesson could easily cover the idea that we are often being persuaded by a consumer culture without even realizing it. But I also think that there is the potential to apply this in a more holistic way. The article promotes itself as “An interdisciplinary curriculum for grades 9-12” (p. 25). But what about the environmental aspect of this bottle design? What about the ethics of it? Students are essentially practicing marketing a product that harms the environment. For a truly interdisciplinary curriculum, these are vital aspects to consider when approaching package design, especially design for such a controversial and important product that is inherently full of ethical concerns. I think that it is also important to discuss with students the ethical concerns that come with all kinds of art and design. What kind of impact does your work have on the world? As artists and designers, there is an inherent responsibility to evaluate the implications and effects of work.

I think that this is a project that has a lot of amazing potential, and it is one that can be truly interdisciplinary. The article talks about collecting water from different sources and putting into plastic water bottles. This is based on the work of professional artists dealing with the importance of water in their work, specifically focusing on Brian Collier. I think that this is a great starting point, but I also think that paired with the study of package design, it could be turned into more at a high school level. The ethics of bottled water and their environmental impact is a highly relevant issue in today’s society. I think that it is important for students to be asking themselves where their water comes from, and what exactly makes the water in plastic bottles different from any other water. If they collect water from the school fountain in a used plastic bottle that once contained Aquafina water, the refilled water is just as drinkable.

These would be interesting concepts for students to explore in their label designs. I think that this design project could be used as an avenue for students to convey a critical commentary through visual means while learning basic design principles. I believe it would be a good mixture of conceptual content and technical instruction.

Resources:

Collier, B. (2010, ). Some properties of water. Retrieved from http://greenmuseum.org/content/work_index/img_id-629__prev_size-0__artist_id-104__work_id-153.html

Surfrider Foundation. (2010, March 4). Rise above plastics - plastics kill. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6IP3_aRFtA

Cornelius, A., Carpenter, B., & Sherow, E. (2010). Water: social issues and contemporary art education. Art Education, 63(6), 25-31.

Making the art room a more rich environment.

                Artwork is a product of its environment, what affects me the day of conception of a piece or where I am as I am working on something affects the quality of my work. I read a case study titled “Designing an Art Room for Effective Learning.” The major theme of the article was about designing and organizing an art classroom to achieve the best learning environment for the student.  The author was observing another facilitator who was helping the architects on the construction of her classroom.  The first thing addressed was safety.

                The description was very reminiscent of my high school classroom’s setup.  The instructional and work room was very spacious because the supplies are kept in large closets.  I never really thought of this as a safety measure.  These closets both required a key and obtaining the teacher’s permission to get in.  The kiln was kept in a separate closet due to it’s high temperatures causing a safety concern.  Work materials that are being used generally stay within the classroom but more dangerous and age appropriate tools are kept out of reach. In high school, I always thought that this was a tool against theft of art supplies but now I understand that it is also for the student’s safety.

                Psychological security is something that I never paid any mind towards.  At the collegiate level of art, classrooms no longer provide this security.  An art room is filled with hard materials, thick tables that are made to be able to withstand being drawn on as well having class being pounded into them.  Some students, psychologically, do not feel safe in this coarse environment.  This environment feels cold and unwelcoming.  To negate this feeling the facilitator added things such a natural window lights and soft decor.  Adding decorations such as bright works and soft items like stuffed animals or even a welcoming coatrack adds significantly to the room. 

                The social aspect of learning is very important it can lead to better elaboration of learning.  Having tables as opposed to desks leads to small group discussion and critiques on each other’s works to create better art as well as making an effective system for cleaning tables afterward. That is not uncommon, but the twist she added was making the tables in a horseshoe shape and adding a nice rug into the middle.  The rug creates a comfortable spot for the students to think when having a creative block as well as giving a welcoming spot to present artwork.    From the rug the facilitator is also given an easy walking path to monitor the students.

                The final aspect talked about was giving the room the character of those who were there every day.  The students had the opportunity to hang up their artwork making it a welcoming environment and representative of the students.  Students art were showcased on the door as well as display cases outside the art room.  This added culture and character as well as inspired other teachers to do the same with artworks they received from students. The new art room became a hub for the rest of the school, the heart of the school, somewhere comfortable that was used by all students and faculty alike.

                The reading helped me to better understand how to facilitate an art room as well as it’s importance. The art room was intended to give the students a feeling of security and make it feel as if it was their own studio.  Art is very much a product of it’s environment and if the environment is able to inspire and spread out throughout the school community, students are more likely to concieve creative thoughts and create more rich artwork.

Broome, J. L. (2013). A case study in classroom management and school involvement: Designing an art room for effective learning. Art Education, 66(3), 39-46. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1355279565?accountid=13158

Motivating children art activity

A Perspective on Motivating Children Art Activity

The reading that I chose was called “A perspective on motivating children art activity” by Awogbade and Mabel Oluremi. The author starts the article by explaining the importance of art education how art helps children understand other subjects more clearly. The major theme from this reading was about how to gain motivation from Children in an art classroom. The article also shows the psychological concepts of motivations and its effects on Children art activities. The author focuses on the motivation from primary and second art school level students in Nigeria, which is located in the West Africa. The place like Nigeria, students lose interest in art due to a lack of motivation, poor instruction style, poor educational environment, and lack of qualified art teachers. The author talks about what art educators at Nigeria should focus on to motivate their students to participate and enjoy making art in the classrooms.

The reading refers that in order to get student’s attention from the audience, there should be some strategies in art in the classroom. In the reading, the author mentions that the motivation and achievements were closely related, and if there is achievement, then there will be motivation. More over, the author makes a list of what art educators should do to motivate their students.

1.     Knowing the children’s developmental stage and understanding of the children.

2.     Knowing their abilities and appropriate difficulty level of the material is important.

3.     Be more observant on what is important, meaningful, and interesting to students.

4.     Provide opportunities for discussions that will give more attention what art is, which will arose curiosity towards art making.

5.     Help students to identify and evaluate their art works as they work to trigger accomplishments.

6.     Be enthusiastic, insightful, and positive on commenting student’s work. This will encourage and motivate students in art making, and it will also enhance their interest even beyond the art room. Even obvious comments will help children gain interest in making art.

7.     If the teacher shows the love for the subject, it would occur to most students and they will take this seriously as well.  The attitude of the teacher alone will help and motivate the children’s interest.

The strength of this article was how the author brought up psychological concepts on motivations, which gave better understanding of why and how art educators should teach in ways that the article talked about. Also, this reading was pretty straight forward, so I didn’t have much hard time getting the main point of the article. The only thing I would recommend for this article was to talk more in-depth about the environment and how art education system looks like in Nigeria, since this article was specifically for students and educators in Nigeria.

From reading this article, I was able to connect this reading to my art clubs that I teach at work. I have limited amount of supplies and budget to run my art clubs, so students often loose their interest in making art. This article made me think back to my art club and how I can motivate students in making art. There were so many things that I was able to adapt from this reading, but I really liked how the author said the attitude of the teacher alone will help and motivate the children’s interest. This article made me think back to what kind of art educator I should become in the future.

Work cited

Mabel, O. A. (2013). A perspective on motivating children art activity. Ife Psychologia, 21(2), 128-132. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1440183911?accountid=13158