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?

NYC: Art on the Streets of Bushwick

Last weekend I was in Brooklyn visiting my daughter who recently moved to Bushwick. She is starting a graduate program at CUNY. My primary objective was to visit her and see her new digs, but hoped that I could talk her into a visit to The Century of the Child at MOMA. (next post)

Raised subway track over Myrtle Ave, Brooklyn.

A wonderful surprise was the discovery of the mural at the corner of Knickerbocker and Woodbine right by her apartment. A little research informed that it was painted by professional artists and students in 2007.  It still shines.

Mural runs right to left along two streets around Bushwick High School

Cities are composed of neighborhoods that transition and Bushwick has a history of changing populations. This mural was conceived to help the present kid-population see a bright future for themselves and get a feel for the history of their neighborhood.  

"Let's take a Walk through time."

Joe Matunis, from Los Muralistas de El Puente spear-headed the project with twenty students from the Academy for Urban Planning in Bushwick. Enjoy the images that add such color and energy to the neighborhood.  I was very pleased to see how pristine the mural is so many years after it was made (2007).

 We were lucky to have bright, warm sunny weather for our visit.  Bushwick is a bustling urban environment not at all devoid of color and visual appeal.  However, that said it all paled in comparison to the vibrant color and imagery of this wonderful mural that stretched along a wall two blocks long.

Bushwick was heavily damaged in the riots and fires that followed the blackout in 1977, as this part of the mural documents. What followed was even greater hardship and poverty in the area.  The last 10 years have seen investments by the City and State of New York in the area through the Bushwick Initiative.

The objectives of the creators was more than just decorate the neighborhood.  There was a real interest in not only referencing the strong Latin tradition of murals but to also inspire the viewers of their work.

This view of the corner give you a good idea of the impressive sweep of this mural in two directions.

Corner of Knickerbocker and Woodbine

This last snippet invites us all to express ourselves, something done quite eloquently in this mural.

App Review: MOMA Art Lab

MOMA has announced the release of a new app Art Lab, this one for kids. I love their Abstract Expressionist AB EX NY offering. They have done a good job online for years making their exhibitions and collection available to everyone, not just those who can visit the museum.

How does Art Lab compare in terms of value, the AB EX NY app is free? Art Lab costs $4.99.

MOMA's new app for kids

On the opening screen Art Lab offers access to three categories of activities on the left side.  The light bulb opens a window with suggested ideas for things to create with geometric shapes or drawing tools. The Go button takes you to the above screen with shapes to place by tapping. Drawing tools are also available.  This is fairly standard fair but it is a little surprising there is no undo function.

Second menu item provides six choices seen above.

Where this app shines is in the integration of image and audio, something I am finding is a big plus for young kids.  Create A Sound Composition pairs a selection of 11 audio files with an Elizabeth Murray painting.  Kids can click on a number to hear the sound and then are invited to drag that sound over a section of the painting. The images stay connected to the art and are played back on touching. Fortunately playing only one at a time.

Elizabeth Murray, Do The Dance

What I especially appreciate about this activity is how it engages the viewer with the painting.  It's easy to appreciate this lively work of art, but not spend the amount of time carefully investigating it that is required to add 11 sound effects to the work.

Create a collage used the iPads shaking functionality. Something I'm pretty sure I would not encourage a young child to do with my iPad...that's just me. There is an optional button that does the shaking for you.


Jean Arp, Henri Matisse, Jim Lambie, Brice Marden and a composite image from seven French artists are the works of art featured in this app. I would certainly expect/like to see many more images available for these activities. I do wonder if as they update they will either swap out images or add more.


In terms of value it pales in comparison to the AB EX NY.  Obviously a very different audience. It will be interesting to see how it will be updated.

Picture Book as Funny for Adults as Kids: The Art Teacher from the Black Lagoon

The producers of The Simpsons are masters at it...creating media that is as entertaining for adults as it is for children.  The Art Teacher from the Black Lagoon is not the equivalent of the long running animated series The Simpsons, but it is very clever.

It was the first day of art class. The kids had heard all about the art teacher, Krayolla Swamp.  She had quite a reputation.  Some of her dresses were made out of egg cartons and she made her hats out of paper plates.  She had a long pony tail she used as a paint brush and the art room was a recycling dump. The last student who had opened a closet in there was still missing.  Swamp even made students paint with their hands and feet.  Gross. 

Jared Lee's illustrations provide additional humor to Mike Thaler's story.

What follows are a series of puns on art materials and artists’ names that will be over the heads of the youngest readers but will be appreciated by adults. One class activity was oreo-gami or folding cookies. Artists named Dolly and P.Catso have work featured.  All of this fear and trepidation was for naught. Miss Swamp wasn’t a monster after all.  Very clever illustrations and humorous text make this a delightful read for both children and adults.

2012, Spotlight, (2003, Scholastic)

ISBN: 978-1-59961-952-1

Kids, Art, Inspiration in a Book: Family Day at the American Art Museum

Lloyd Schermer, An American Puzzle
On exhibit at the Luce Foundation Center

Exhibition Concept Inspires Family Event

Inspiration was the word of the day Saturday, May 19, 2012.  Inspired by the exhibit Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage, the  Strike a Pose Family Day event brought kids, cameras, artwork and a book artist together.   Leibovitz, famous for her portraits, documented objects and environments that were formative in her development as a photographer in the Pilgrimage exhibit.  The kids attending were asked to find there own inspiration among  the artwork and architectural features at Luce Foundation Center at the American Art Museum (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington, DC.

The kids were provided with Polaroid cameras with film for 4 images and access to all of the artwork at the Luce Foundation Center. After they shot their four photographs, artist Sushmita Mazumdar  helped them craft a four page book with pockets to hold their images.

Workshop leaders demonstrating how to fold paper to make the book.

The kids deftly followed her example. The construction of the book created panels at the bottom to hold the photographs.

In addition to the photographs, commentary was added to explain their choices. I spoke with a number of the kids and they enjoyed telling me about the artwork they had seen and showing me their books.

What inspired me?  

I loved seeing the kids so engaged in their work and seeing the products of their labors.  I was also especially inspired by this artwork by Robert Hudson, After Wood.

Robert Hudson, After Wood. On exhibit at the Luce Center for American Art

The Luce Foundation Center for American Art is an impressive enclave in the historic building that houses both the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum. The Center is made possible through a generous gift of the Henry Luce Foundation and is a study center and visible art storage facility. The Center contains thirty-five hundred paintings, sculptures, miniatures, craft objects, and folk art pieces from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.