Advocates for the Arts: Keeping the Creativity Alive in Our Communitites

I think that the best way to be an advocate for the arts in your school district is to not limit the creation of art to only your art classroom. When I was in high school, my art teacher had us involved in creating art for all sorts of events. Students would partake in the designing of Homecoming buttons, signs, shirts, etc. We would help to create floats for the parades, and everyone of the students became involved in this. We had a competition between the grades for the most creative float, though all in good fun. The entire community was invited to come and watch our parade and other community members were also involved in this event. Another way to be an advocate for the arts is to cue into community events or important historical events that may have some sort of dedication services to it. For example, in my hometown we had a special event that had to do with businesses from years and years ago that helped get the town on its feet. Years from then we were holding dedication services for important moments like such in honor of our town. Fellow peers of mine and I worked on projects for the dedication. This also got the entire community involved and our artwork was seen as a very important key component to the dedication.
If you approach other advocates in your school district (of sports, theatre, etc.) with an open mind and a willingness to work with them, then you will have a better chance of your efforts as an art advocate to be recognized and appreciated in a respectful and meaningful manner. If you balance your efforts in this way then you will be able to maintain the "flow" within your district. Your love and advocacy for the arts is more likely to be taken seriously if you are willing to work in this manner, just as with anything else. If you chose to do the opposite, then you could be doing more harm to your advocacy than good.

Collaborative Art Making

I think that it is important to fit at least one collaborative art project into your curriculum. While I do think that it is important for students to work on their own pieces most of the time (as an outlet for personal self expression), I do think that it is valuable for students to learn how to work alongside their peers artistically. Collaborative artwork allows students to share personal views and artistic input, and in turn to see how their peers perceive an artistic task. When students work together they may learn from one another in terms of how to solve a creative problem encountered while working, and also to possibly pick up different styles other than their own. Service-learning projects can be worked into curriculum by working with the community to learn about what sorts of events are going on. From there you can discuss with your students what they feel as a class they should do to contribute.

An experience I've had with collaborative art making comes from the work we are currently doing with the local high school students. What I have learned from this experience is that when I incorporate a collaborative project into my own classroom, I will need to find a way to hold the students accountable for the work they are doing....or are deciding not to do. At this time, I am not in charge of grading of any sorts, so I really do not have a way to motivate them in those terms. But what I have learned from this collaborative experience is this: when you let students decide on a subject matter that motivates them, you really get to see and hear their personal views of the world as they know it. And students who are truly motivated by the subject matter that they chose to create a work of art about feel strongly about these views and opinions they hold. I am working closely with a young woman who came in on the middle of a collaborative piece and now is my main artist working on the project with me, and when we speak about the content of the piece, she opens up and allows me to be apart of her world. And when students invite you into their world, you better listen, because they have some very intriguing and meaningful things to share. I think that art may be one of the only subjects that really allow teachers to connect with their students on a different level in this way. We should value the opportunities we are going to be given as teachers to connect with our students, even if only a handful of them are willing to open up.

Experience/Views on Teaching Students with Disabilities

During my practicum experience, I worked among students ranging in age from 6-12 years of age. One student in particular that I enjoyed working with was a boy in the 5th grade. He took a bit more encouragement to get working than the rest, and his attention was hard to keep at times. I needed to offer him constant reassurement that he was completing his tasks correctly and on top of this, needed to make sure that his peers were not making fun of his disability. He often made remarks that led me to believe that he thought of himself as a nuisance to work with. This was completely the opposite of the truth. I greatly enjoyed working with him. He did require more attention, but when he made remarks to me about being a nuisance, it made me realize that teachers need to have all the patience in the world with their students. The reality is that students are not all going to be "cookie cutter", nor would we want them to be. Each child requires some sort of different style of teaching, some extra attention in different content areas, some extra reassuring. This is our job. Students with disabilities should not be thought of as any different. Just as the rest of their peers, they may require a different style of teaching. In no way should a student with a disability be made to think of as a nuisance, nor should their disability be pin pointed as an outcast from how their fellow peers learn or work to complete tasks.

The artist that I am featuring in my blog is Thomas Nelson. He is featured on the National Arts and Disabilities Center website. He has ALS, but has adapted a way to create art by using digital art. My blog isn't letting me add the image that I'd hoped to display, but the piece is called The True Cost of War.

IITM: Creation of My Artistic Self

"I have created myself entirely:
A childhood, a personality, longings, dreams and memories,
All in order to enable me to tell them."

When I was in high school I read this quote as I was looking for inspiration for an art project. This quote has stuck with me over the years and I think that this applies to everyone, but artists especially. As I've talked about before in my blog, I feel very strongly that art is a great outlet to express yourself. I feel that when I create art, really personal and meaningful art, it has my heart put into it. Most of the art that I create has to do with things I have been through so far in my life. I have created an artistic self by practicing techniques, modifying and changing how these techniques work for me, and have, slowly over time, allowed myself to create pieces that tell it all for me. In other words, relatively speaking, I wear my thoughts and emotions on my sleeve when I am making art.

Balance of Cultural Icons and Meaningful Artwork

As an artist, it is important to know the works of cultural icons, to understand the history of art before us and to learn about art that is being created in the now. I know that the type of environment I wish to have in my classroom is one of appreciation for all kinds of art. I want to display works of cultural icons during certain lessons and have my students learn about the techniques that were used to create the pieces, and I want to discuss with my students what makes a great work of art. At all times I want to have work that my students have created and works of my own displayed in the classroom. I think that if we foster an environment that is geared towards appreciation of all art then it will be easier for us to get our students to create their own meaningful artwork.
In one of my art history lectures, my professor told us that Michelangelo and artists of his time believed that in order to become great, you had to work from the great works of art of those who preceded you. In other words, they literally would copy and recreate works of art. From there, in order to be a great artist, you needed to then create your own style, your own artistic self... and they did. I'm not saying that I am going to encourage students to copy cultural icons' works of art, but I am going to incorporate their pieces into my lessons and have discussions with my students about what they feel makes a "great" work. What I hope to teach my students is that the art created by these cultural icons are great because they are meaningful. I hope to get them in the state of mind to express themselves through their artwork, to deliver a message....whether it be only for themselves or for an audience.
Artwork can be a great outlet for anyone. It allows you to express things that you may not be able to put into words, and I think that for high school students especially, this can be extremely stress relieving. The work created by our students will tell us a lot about them. Artwork can be full of symbolism and personal meaning, and they may include much of their personal life and views into their artwork. The work that our students create may allow us to see how they perceive the world.
If a student wanted to incorporate images that are culturally significant but deemed inapropriate, I would sit down with them privately and explain that in when they are outside of school, they are free to create works of art that incorporate these images, but within the walls of my artroom they must follow school guidelines and my guidelines (no discriminating against race, sexualy orientation, etc).