Creatives grow better in the South West

Mark Ronson & The Business Intl - The Bike Song

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.

John Berger Presents Nurturing Walls (a book by Tara Books)

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.

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.

Radiohead - Lotus Flower