Play and process-based art abound in the summer issue! Art teachers share lessons in which students can take risks and experiment with materials in a stress-free environment. Students create artful sound sticks to express emotions, assemble 3D hats inspired by art careers, collaborate or work solo to engineer mixed-media parade floats, draw colorful portraits with exaggerated expressions, and more.
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To what degree does play find expression in your art room? I have always found it to be a benefit for both me and my students. For a variety of perspectives, I asked our contributing editors to share their thoughts on play. Read my Editor’s Letter to see what they wrote.
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After I read aloud the book, What Sound Is Morning? By Grant Snider (Chronicle Books, 2020), I introduce students to the work of artist Susan Philipsz, who creates art that explores the power of sound to create emotions. Students then create artful sound sticks using a variety of found objects. The lesson ends with students using their sound sticks to make sounds to express different emotions.
Recently, I visited students at Lessenger Elementary in Madison Heights, Michigan, to highlight the issues created by single-use plastic. It is my generation, the Boomers, who began the acceleration of plastic, burdening the younger generations with the need to take action and find solutions. Through a grant awarded by the Michigan Council for the Arts, I worked with students to create an awareness of our unrestrained use of plastic. The semester-long exploration consisted of a school-wide art project and individual student art projects.
One of my goals is to educate students on the many art-related careers available today. I believe it’s important to start this conversation early to allow students to explore options that are the best fit for them. When my students leave my classroom, I want them to know there are options if they wish to pursue a career in the arts. This year, I shared a different art career with students each time we met. This was done through video clips, articles, guest speakers, and more. I also developed a lesson for them so they could delve deeper into art careers.
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Who doesn’t love a parade? Parades are celebratory, festive, and colorful, and the floats display an endless variety of themes. The pageantry of a parade is exhilarating and makes everyone feel good. What better way to showcase student artwork than by parading it through the halls of your school? Although parades are typically very grand, our parade would need to be significantly scaled down. Introducing STEAM into my art room, I challenged my middle-school students to create their own miniature versions of a parade float.
In the Spring of 2020, we were all working remotely with our students. I ditched any hope of following my usual curriculum and focused on finding imaginative and exciting assignments that would help students through these difficult days. Luckily, I joined a newly formed social media group where a very cool photography lesson using toys was featured. The objective was to create a sense of realism by making small toys fit into life-sized settings. Since the majority of my seventh- and eighth-grade students owned or had access to a cell-phone camera, I was sure this project would be a winner.
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Using oil pastels, my Advanced Drawing students tackled portraits with vibrant color and expressive style. My strategy for helping them work with bright colors is to first research examples of different color schemes and have students use one as a reference. I told students that we would be creating contorted portraits by giving our subjects exaggerated expressions. The features could be pushed or pulled; the tongue could stick out; eyes could bulge or be tightly closed.
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At the end of the semester, I wanted to create an exciting and fast-paced micro lab where students could explore composition, layering, image, and color. As high-school teachers know, the end of a semester can drag on, and the goal is to get the art room “closed down.” Opportunities like this allow students to take risks in their art-making without having to worry about a grade or a finished product.
During the last period of the day at Dover-Sherborn Middle School, students in grades six through eight are fortunate to have several options on how to use their time. Their choices include an open music studio, the library, a coding lab, and the drop-in art studio. The open studio program started as a pilot six years ago in response to a district-wide shift to prioritize students’ social and emotional well-being. Although the program started as pilot, it has since become a staple in the culture of the school and a highlight for many students.
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Anne Eder explores fairy tales, ecology, and fantasy through evocative photographs, sculptures, and interdisciplinary projects. She transforms nature into sculptural creatures that inhabit outdoor installations, then develops photographs of the sculptures or other natural objects through alternative processes that hum with the energy of a fairy tale.
