studio beth: 2011

Thursday, August 25, 2011

New school year

Making plans for the new school year. Thinking about new ways to engage the students in looking at art. Thinking about making notebooks with many of the kids that visit our museum.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

I was cleaning out some computer files and found this cool photo collage. This was a 8th grade project from a couple of years ago. Makes me want to take more photos. It's the front of the building where I work. I am sorry to say I am not sure which student made it...

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Monday, March 21, 2011

creativity

We had a group of middle schoolers in the museum last week to look at their show in the Youth Exhibition Space. Such great kids, I loved working with them in their class and at the Museum.
We did the Marshmallow Challenge ( I tweeked the project so that the kids would do " tallest sculpture" in stead of structure).
Fun, and inspiring to see the challenge through their eyes.

Monday, February 28, 2011

In 2008, I had the great honor to curate a show dedicated to the work of Peter Sis, an amazing artist and author. We exhibited the original artwork and artifacts from his book Tibet: Through the Red Box.
I woke up thinking about his book, Tree of Life, about Charles Darwin. All of Peters books are so wonderful, great inspiration as we enter into spring.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

art and education

This painting was made by a 4th grader I worked with, it was inspired by Milton Avery.
I love this from the National Art Education Association:

"Art Means Language
Art is a language of visual images that everyone must learn to read. In art classes, we make visual images, and we study images. Increasingly, these images affect our needs, our daily behavior, our hopes, our opinions, and our ultimate ideals. That is why the individual who cannot understand or read images is incompletely educated. Complete literacy includes the ability to understand, respond to, and talk about visual images. Therefore, to carry out its total mission, art education stimulates language-spoken and written-about visual images. As art teachers we work continuously on the development of critical skills. This is our way of encouraging linguistic skills. By teaching pupils to describe, analyze, and interpret visual images, we enhance their powers of verbal expression. That is no educational frill."

I think this is why I love working with kids.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

poem

Art Sanctuary

by Nikki Giovanni

I would always choose to be the person running
rather than the mob chasing
I would prefer to be the person laughed at
rather than the teenagers laughing
I always admired the men and women who sat down
for their rights
And held in disdain the men and women who spat
on them
Everyone deserves Sanctuary a place to go where you are
safe
Art offers Sanctuary to everyone willing
to open their hearts as well as their eyes

"Art Sanctuary" by Nikki Giovanni, from Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea. ©

I love this poem. One of the many powers of art.

Monday, February 14, 2011

5th graders

36 students from Woodstock Elementary helped transform the Youth Exhibition Space ( day job) with recycled materials. Hundreds of tp tubes. I just saw a version of this project here. So awesome!