Art for Kids on the Streets of Brooklyn

I was really lucky. I grew up on an old farm outside of a major city, Washington, D.C. I live in a small town now but get to big cities as often as I can. One reason is I love to be inspired by the art I see as I wander around.

Art in the City 

 

I just spent 6 days in Brooklyn. I discovered this mural at Union and Fifth Ave, just a short walk from my hotel. This is the work of Kate Wilkes. On her website, brooklynbelltower.com you can see her collection of artwork about Brooklyn.

#MetKids: Robust Resource for Families and Schools

It is hard, I will reveal my prejudice, not to consider the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC the ultimate art museum. It is the largest museum in the United States and one of the most visited in the world. There are more than 2 million pieces in their collection. In September, 2015 they launched a new digital web-based product, #MetKids. Come with me as I explore this new resource designed for kids between 7 and 12 years old.

Photo Credit: Arad, Wikipedia, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Here is the relatively simple interface for what promises to be a broad and deep offering of treats for families.

New App in Development: New Workflow

Kristin Reiber Harris
KristinHarrisDesign.com

I am fixating on bird these days; little birds, big birds, silly birds and even realistic birds. My new app project is all about birds. Birds that will make three year olds giggle and hopefully a lot more.  I am combining some of my favorite old and new tools on this project as well as getting back to my roots as an animator.

 

Step One: Textures in Procreate

I start this process of creating a menagerie of birds by developing textures in Procreate on my iPad. I became familiar with Procreate teaching students how to use it working with Demibooks Composer Pro, a development tool for iOS apps. The beauty of Procreate is the artwork is created on the iPad which facilitates import to Composer Pro.

The Jazzy Letter J

A whole new way of looking at the alphabet....letters, animation, music and great art. Coming soon to the App Store, ABC.DC: An Art Alphabet. Check out Jazz J...who knew?

Henri Rousseau,The Equatorial Jungel,  image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art

Kristin Reiber Harris is a media producer specializing in educational media for kids, with a focus on introducing young children to wonderful art from museum collections.  Learn more at KristinHarrisDesign.com.

Beautiful Animation about Caring for Children

Through one of those circuitous routes one takes on the web, I landed on a video presentation by Sir Ken Robinson on the Dalai Lama Center YouTube channel. Robinson is very humorous and entertaining and I considered embedding that video.  I recommend it but it's 45 minutes long and in some ways preaches to the choir.  His entertaining presentation style is an inspiration, I'm sure my students would appreciate it if I were that funny.However, there are two things I do want to share now, information about the Center and the embedded animation link below.

Homepage from the Center website

I was thrilled to discover the Dalai Lama Center.  Located in Vancouver, BC it was established in June of 2012 to facilitate dialogue about supporting communities that nurture compassionate, socially-responsible children. The programs are crafted to educate, convene, advise and apply research. I think the Dalai Lama is one of the greatest living spiritual leaders today. I feel very fortunate to have heard him speak on two occasions.  It is very exciting to find another venue he has established to share information about not only his spiritual tradition but wisdom from like minded individuals.

On second search of the numerous video presentations available from the Dalai Lama Center, I found this beautifully animated 2 minute piece. As an animator and designer I especially appreciate the creativity that has crafted this poignant and relevant piece.  I hope you will take a few minutes to enjoy it.

Kids, Art and Old Technology

When I was a kid, my father set up a temporary darkroom for us in an extra bathroom.
As I watched my first photographic images become visible in the developer I was mesmerized.  I thought it was magic. Children these days have much easier access to taking and manipulating images with digital cameras and cell phones. However, nothing quite compares to the excitement and magic of the dark room and working with film.

My cyanotype #2.  It's a branch from the  ginko maple tree...

Old photographic technologies have a place today. The Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College offered a family workshop recently, "Sun Prints" for making cards for Valentine's Day.  The workshop was organized by Mac Cosgrove-Davies as part of the Maier's Love at the Maier holiday celebration.  It was also in conjunction with their current exhibition, Modern Movement: Arthur B. Davies Figurative Works on Paper from the Randolph College and Mac Cosgrove-Davies Collections.  

Mac explaining the process of making cyanotypes while my prints are being exposed.
photo Lisa Cosgrove-Davies

Mac is Arthur B. Davies' great-grandson and an artist, photographer and woodworker himself.  So it was a natural fit for him to offer a program about sun prints, or cyanotypes for the Maier community.  One of his cyanotypes is included in the exhibition. This is a wonderful way to introduce children to the chemistry of photography and the concept of photo sensitivity in a very accessible activity. I am particularly attracted to the color blue or Prussian blue that is associated with cyanotypes. They are frequently associated with botanical imagery which is another reason I am attracted to the genre. 

When I met Mac I told him I was considering doing a similar workshop at the Daura Gallery at Lynchburg College. Mac was very helpful in explaining this process.  I was excited to jump in and make my own prints. The process is relatively straight forward and very similar to the photo silk screens I had made years ago. Equal amounts of potassium ferricyanide and ferric ammonium citrate are mixed together. This photosensitive solution is brushed on paper and left to dry in a dark place.  Mac did this before the workshop. 

The prints are assembled in the Maier storage room.
photo Lisa Cosgrove-Davies

He arrived with a lovely selection of dried leaves and flowers that were arranged on a table for easy selection.  Another table was set up with wooden frames, glass inserts and clamps to hold the specimen down during exposure. A piece of the paper that had the photosensitive emulsion was placed on the back of the frame, a plant or other objects were placed on the paper and carefully clamped into the frame. The frames were then taken outside to be exposed to sun light.  Those areas of the paper that are covered by the plants keep that paper from being exposed to the UV light. After exposure, in my case about 20 minutes, the print is put in a solution to be developed and then washed is a running water bath. The uncovered or exposed areas of the paper experience a chemical reaction which results in a vivid blue reversed image. You don't get the fully saturated color until the print has dried.

Prints drying outside the Maier Museum.
photo Lisa Cosgrove-Davies

This process was discovered by English scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1842. It was his friend Anna Atkins who incorporated this procedure with photography and is considered to be the first female photographer. She make a series of cyanotype books and documented ferns and her seaweed collection. I find her work very inspiring.  

Anna Atkins from her 1843 book, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions
Courtesy of the New York City Public Library

As I mentioned Mac Cosgrove-Davies is a photographer and he was kind enough to share some of his own work with the participants of the workshop.  Here are a few samples.

Mac Cosgrove-Davies, Three Knives and a Pear

Mac Cosgrove-Davies, Rwandan Children

In researching this old photographic process, I discovered that there is another similar process called anthotype, using fruit and vegetable juices that are made into dyes and coated on paper.  What kind of old photographic techniques have you used?

Help Kids See A Story in Art

I am a docent at the Maier Museum of Art at Randolph College in Lynchburg, VA.  The Maier is nationally recognized for its collection of 19th and 20th century American art. The Maier began collecting in 1920 and has several thousand paintings, drawings, prints and photographs. Each year the museum hosts every 2nd and 5th grade student in the Lynchburg City School system. These visits alternate grades by semester, but this year we are doing all of them in October and November.
  

Portrait of Mary Elizabeth Morgan
George W. Fitzwilson

Over the three years I have been a docent at the Maier, I have enjoyed crafting and refining my approach to sharing the experience of the Maier with the students.  Some things never change.  However, new inspiration and being alert to what the kids respond to keeps the experience fresh and interesting for me.

As an educator I am really coming around to the idea that my job is to ask questions and facilitate a conversation more than it is to lecture information.

1.  Sharing My Enthusiasm

I love art museums.  I grew up in the DC area and have been a frequent visitor of the Smithsonian and all of the area art museums, with a special fondness for the Freer Sackler complex of Asian art.  

Lynchburg is very lucky to have the Maier Museum.  It is a beautiful building in the great tradition of art museums that reference Classical architecture.  I think this is important because as you enter you move into a space that is conducive to reflection and contemplation.

As I greet the students when they first arrive, I welcome them and invite them to savor an experience that is uniquely different from their every day lives. 

Marsh Wren (from The Birds of America)
John James Audubon

2.  Art at the Museum vs. Art on the Internet

A new thread of engagement with the 5th graders this year is to ask if they have looked at paintings, photography, etc. online. Of course they say yes.  My next question is what will be different about seeing art at the Maier today as opposed to seeing art on a computer. I have only done this twice but have been pleased that it generates thoughtful responses that indicate an high level of perception.  They are aware of color shifts, that things look different in real life and even that issues of texture and scale are frequently obscured or non-existent in online viewing. 
  
Don't get the me wrong.  No one is happier that huge volumes of art are available online. The more art museums that put their archives online the happier I am. The more artists put their work online the happier I am. Developing media literacy does dictate that we address these issues to understand the strengths and weaknesses of online access.   
 
3. Getting the Kids Engaged with the Artwork

Sure, it's an afternoon away from school, and that in itself is exciting.  So part of our job is to get them to relax and really look at the work on the walls.  Here are some of the ways I try to do that: 

4.   Every Picture Tells a Story

This is one of my core concepts in talking to kids about art.  As human beings we are hard wired to storytelling as listeners and crafters of stories.  To see the story in a work of art requires a level of engagement. You have to look carefully at what's there in order to discover the story.  This approach has been successful in generating some lively discussions about various artworks.

The Shrine of the American Dream
Edgar Endress with Brooke Marcy, Marco Moreno Navarro and Chris Rackley

On view now is The 101st Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Art. The Shrine of the American Dream, by Edgar Endress in collaboration with Brooke Marcy, Marco Moreno Navarro and Chris Rackley has been a gold mine of opportunity to talk to the students about stories in art.  This work, which consists of 300 panels on recycled wood, features illustrations of failed patent applications from the early 19th century.  What in the world do these inventions do? I ask students to pick out their favorites and discuss what they think the devices were designed to do.
 

Mrs. Scott's House
Edward Hopper

Hopper's landscape generates lots of questions about who lives in this house.  Some children find this inviting and others find it ominous. Launching the Boat encourages speculation about what these men are doing and where they are headed. 

Launching the Boat
Gifford Beal

5.  If You Were the Artist

Another new approach this year is to ask the students to imagine that they are an artist and have them pick out the image they would be most proud to have created.  The first sets of responses to this question were answered with selections of work that reflected a favorite location.  In this case it was the beach or a pastoral scene of the Italian countryside with a small village off in the distance.

Portrait of Anna Vaughn Hyatt
Marion Boyd Allen

My last 5th grade tour was especially interested in this painting, Portrait of Anna Vaughn Hyatt by Marion Boyd Allen.  The students had worked with clay and seemed to feel a connection to this artist and her work.

 6.  What Tools Do You Use as an Artist

This line of questioning provides the opportunity to talk about the tools that artists use to make their art.  The Maier has two canvases that the students can touch and of course it's a big hit.  Both are acrylic paintings on rather small stretched canvases. One has a very rough texture and the other very smooth. I like having them feel the sample paintings and identify work on the wall that would feel the same, if they could touch it. It's also a great time to have them feel the similarity between the canvas of the painting (felt from the back) and their jeans.

7. What am I learning?

As an educator I am really coming around to the idea that my job is to ask questions and facilitate a conversation more than it is to lecture information.

8. Docents/Teachers, Help Me Out

What kinds of experiences have you had with kids this age as a docent?   Teachers, what do you expect/want your kids to get from their visits to art museums?