This issue highlights various ways that transformation can inspire creativity and collaboration. Young students work together on a school-wide clay mosaic inspired by The Very Hungry Caterpillar, elementary students transform recycled cardboard by creating landscape-inspired low-reliefs, middle-school students demonstrate contrast and balance by turning recycled materials into wearable art, high-school students study the surrealist works of Giuseppe Arcimboldo and create their own inspired drawings from everyday objects, and more.
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Transformation can happen at any time—when youʼre listening to an artist talk, attending an art opening, reading a book, watching a documentary, or talking to a colleague. Allowing ourselves the opportunity to engage in new experiences leads to new understandings, appreciation, and empowerment that can have a long-lasting impact.
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For years, a familiar Eric Carle-esque caterpillar mosaic by retired art educator Connie Bier adorned Harmony Elementaryʼs lobby. Iʼd often heard whispers of Connieʼs wish for a larger piece, and those whispers sparked an ambitious vision: a school-wide mosaic inspired by the very hungry caterpillarʼs iconic transformation into a butterfly.
There’s something mysterious about a school locker. At first glance, it appears to be just a tall metal box—functional, impersonal, and easily overlooked. But what if it could become a gallery space, a personal archive, or a museum of the self? For the past few years, Iʼve asked the graduating fifth graders to explore that idea through The Locker Project, an artistic rite of passage in which students turn their lockers into miniature museums to celebrate their creative identities and growth throughout elementary school.
I have always had a fascination with using recycled materials; one, because they are free or inexpensive, and two, because they can be reinvented into so many different things. We often receive donations of cardboard to the classroom, and I enjoy the various things that can be made from it, so I decided I would use it for this 3D landscape lesson.
I offer students a choice-based, thematic-driven curriculum. For this lesson, I ask students to focus their energy on creating something to be worn, using materials and methods that are reused, recycled, or presented in an alternative way from how they might normally be used. Students are challenged to use these materials to create their own wearable work that demonstrates their understanding of contrast and balance as principles of design.
Whether itʼs at the elementary, middle, or high-school level, making stop-motion animation movies with students always feels like storytelling magic. When I accepted a position teaching summer school in 2021, stop-motion felt like a natural fit for a Career & Technical Education (CTE) course titled Arts & A/V. I hadn’t taught an audio-visual film production class before but had made stop-motion movies with fifth graders when I worked at an elementary school, and I figured this media would allow my eighth-grade summer school students the freedom to be as artsy or as techy as they wanted.
The idea was to take an everyday object, in this case a pencil, and see it in a new way. Ken Vieth prompted his students to transform the pencil into something unexpected. I was immediately reminded of Giuseppe Arcimboldo, the Italian painter from the Renaissance best known for his imaginative portraits comprising everyday items such as fruits, flowers, and books. I saw an opportunity to use Vieth’s project idea and couple it with a history lesson on an artist related to the concept.
When my high school got new laptops and Chromebooks for the students, a lot of the old technology was no longer needed. Rather than throw it all away, the school gave it to me for students to use in this sculpture exploration. I also invited students to bring in old items from home to use in their sculptures or to be donated to their classmates to use in theirs. Radios, vacuums, adding machines, gloves, shoes, and umbrellas are just a few of the items that showed up in the classroom.
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Artists need to have thick skin. The week I wrote this article, I had received three rejections from galleries. Ouch. My colleague, a talented photographer and art teacher, received four during the same week. We try to support one another, but the sting is still present. Imagine what our young students go through when their work doesnʼt get accepted. Many high-school students will experience their first art rejection under our watch. How can we prepare them to keep their heads high and walk steadily toward the next art opportunity knowing they may get rejected again?
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Just as artists of the Harlem Renaissance invigorated African American art by documenting their community and African heritage, contemporary Native American artists—in all manner of contemporary styles—explore many paths to express their vision and represent their cultures. Christopher Sweet is one such artist. A contemporary Native American painter, he is an enrolled member of the Ho-Chunk Nation (a Siouan-speaking culture) and son of a White Earth Ojibwe father. His artistic process is greatly informed by his Native heritage.
