March School Programs : with Beverly Ress

Our March school programs not only look at Moseni's work but also at the works on paper by artist Beverly Ress.
In the front part of the gallery, students have been looking at Ress' large drawings on canvas-backed paper. They have noticed that she is drawing from nature (trees, birds, grasses) and makes cuts in the paper in very linear, almost mechanical ways. One portion in particular of these 2-d to 3-d reconstructions is especially compelling and reminded students of a nest, a t-rex head, and a skull; another work's cut outs reminded students of a visual map of dance steps. Ress's process of cutting into her drawings and then constructing new forms with the paper is key to our central theme, "how does a drawing grow?"

Ruth's still lives

To help the students understand and appreciate Ress's attention to detail, teaching artist Ruth Wetzel constructed a variety of carefully arranged still-lifes using objects from nature she collected. With the still life of their choice students were first encouraged to look closely before drawing anything.  Then they were encouraged to draw either parts of the still life or the whole thing, to start with large shapes and then work to the smaller ones, to notice the ways the shapes related to other shapes and even to notice shadows.  Drawing with colored pencil, students noticed that there are shapes in flowers that are "roundish," that an ostrich egg has a "bumpy" texture and that one of the branches looks like a "perfect rainbow arch." 

Fifth graders from Brooklyn New School

Kindergartners from PS 676

Back in the classroom students continued to explore the question, "how can a drawing grow?"  Kentler's teaching artists provided new the students with new materials that inspired students to build.  Going from 2-d to 3-d, just like Ress's drawing, the students' work grew and grew...

Installation at PS 15

Rubbings and Giant Pencils-Wall Drawings and Sounds: K.I.D.S. Fall Program Highlights!

This fall, Kentler educators worked with local k-5th grade students from P.S. 15 and Brooklyn New School (P.S. 146) to explore the collaborative sound/wall drawing installation by artists Lezli Rubin Kunda and Ellen Moffat.

 In the "big room," teaching artist Meghan Keane led students in experiments with how sound can inspire different types of lines: jagged, scribbly, curvy, broken, straight...the list was endless! Students created "line libraries" to record their experiments.

They also experimented with new ways to create lines (with tape, giant drawing implements, and by erasing)...

 

...and by drawing directly on the gallery wall (!). 

Each of our 14 classes added to the wall drawing. After the first couple of classes it looked like this:

After the last couple of classes it looked like this:

How cool is that??

In the "small room" teaching artist Lance Paladino and Mollie McQuarrie explored Lezli's installation where she rubbed graphite into the wall exposing and responding to imperfections in the wall's surface.

Similarly, students worked to "discover" shapes and textures hidden under fabric by rubbing with crayon and oil pastel.

Finally switching to graphite and compressed charcoal the empty areas ("negative spaces") were filled in or outlined.  These black materials made the colors in the positive spaces "pop out."

These awesome murals each represent the collective creativity of half of each class that came to Kentler.  Its been suggested that we use these to raise some money for K.I.D.S. Art Education.  We are currently working on that.  If you're interested, please contact me: we have 26 and they all need homes!! Place a bid!

Wow team Kentler!  Thanks to Meghan and Lance for all their input and effort!  And thanks to teachers and students for all their cooperation and creativity.

Stay tuned for news about the follow up post visit.

School Programs: Fall 2012

Fall 2012 school programs are underway and we are excited to be working with BNS and P.S. 15 again! This season, students are looking at work by 8 artists in a group show titled, To Be Young, Gifted and Black in the Age of Obama. The exhibition has inspired some very strong artwork as well as interesting dialogue on the connections between race, creativity and expression. You can find out more about this show at Kentler's website: http://www.kentlergallery.org/pages/current.html

During their gallery visit, students participate in two types of drawing: from observation and from imagination.  Meghan Keane's workshop looks at the work of Duron Jackson. Here are some of their observational drawings based on his graphite pieces:

In the back room, Ruth Wetzel introduces students to themes of pride, protest, and achievement in the exhibition. She asks them to remember a time in their lives that they stood up for something or helped someone. The materials and techniques they use to tell their stories are based on the ball-point pen drawings of Jamea Richmond-Edwards. Here they are hard at work:

So far we are thrilled with the response we have gotten from our perceptive students. We're looking forward to seeing how their work evolves during the post visits. Look out for more updates on the Fall 2012 gallery visits and full coverage of the upcoming post visits as well!

March School Programs : with Arezoo Moseni

K.I.D.S. Art Ed has welcomed local Red Hook students from P.S. 15, P.S. 676, and BNS to the gallery this month.
We have been looking at work by artists Beverly Ress and Arezoo Moseni. The question that we're focusing on this session is: How can a drawing grow? Using each artist's work as a starting point, students have begun exploring different ways drawings can grow (or expand) and different ways to make a drawing.

This blog post will highlight the activity we do with Arezoo Moseni's work. Our next blog post will feature the activity we are doing with Beverly Ress' work.

Led by teaching artist Meghan Keane, students first spend time looking at one of Moseni's works on paper in which indigo, the dye used to color jeans, is her medium. 

Changes #24. Moseni

Students noticed she uses lots of different colored blues and purples, that there are many triangles and diamond-like shapes that come in a variety of sizes, and many students notice that it looks like a portal or a worm hole or something caving in toward the center. It has alternately reminded students of a star, a crystal, water, and...a mountain (because of the layered curves)!

After spending some time discussing the work students worked individually with laminated triangles, of many different colors and sizes, to create a drawing on the floor.  Students were asked to imagine that the large brown floor was their "piece of paper" and the colorful triangles were their "crayons," their drawing material.

Students explored what happens when you place ONLY the sides together 

and then ONLY the points:

create a HOLE in the middle of your drawing, 

or what happens when you work with a partner to create a drawing of something they can find in the city.

These are some of the images of what we've come up with!

Our next post will feature student work from their explorations with the work of Beverly Ress. 

Stay tuned!

Spring 2012 School Programs: Finished Work!

Our spring 2012 school programs are now wrapping up and student artwork is filling the hallways of P.S. 15 and Brooklyn New School!

Throughout March, April and May, teaching artists Meghan Keane and Lance Paladino revisited students in their classrooms, where they expanded upon and completed the drawings they started in the gallery. Using their original observation drawings, photographs of their temporary "imagination" drawings, and new materials such as wooden sticks and cray pas, the students created colorful, multimedia scenes of things they would like to try in the future. Have a look at their creativity in action:

We are pleased to see such rich and varied work, with each child taking an individual approach to his or her artwork. Throughout spring, the students explored two types of drawing and reflected upon their own personal histories to prompt creativity from their memories and imaginations.

We are so very proud of our talented students and can't wait for more exciting programs in the fall!

School Programs Spring 2012

We are four weeks into our 2012 school programming here at K.I.D.S. Art Ed.! We’re so excited to be working with Kindergarten - 5^th grade at P.S. 15 and Brooklyn New School again this year, and have been getting excellent feedback from our teachers and students so far.

Our workshop this spring is based on Kentler’s current exhibition, The Influential Female: Drawings Inspired by Women in History. The group show, which focuses on issues of female identity and strength, has been a rich source of inspiration for the students. More information about this beautiful show can be found at Kentler’s website, www.kentlergallery.org.

Each gallery visit begins with a general class intro, after which the group is broken up into two sections. One half of the class is sent to the front gallery, where students practice observational drawing with teaching artist Lance Paladino. The figural drawings of Clarity Haynes and Viviane Silvera serve as models for the students to explore shape, tone, and detail using ebony pencils and kneaded erasers. Each student chooses a drawing to work from and is given the opportunity to share his or her drawings with the group:

In the back gallery space, teaching artist Meghan Keane provides students with a pile of writing utensils, office supplies, ribbon and other materials for a more free-form drawing exercise. Students are prompted to think of an event or accomplishment that they are proud of and are then asked to recreate that event using the various supplies in front of them. Taking cues from the colorful drawings and hanging installations on view, some students decide to make flat pictures on the floor while others use a more sculptural, three-dimensional approach. The wide range of creativity among different grade levels and within single classes is amazing! Here are some examples of what students have come up with:

After each half of the workshop, the students switch rooms. This gives them a complete 90-minute experience with exposure to both formal and exploratory drawing methods. At the end of the visit, an enthusiastic wrap-up session catalogs what students saw, learned, and created and generates ideas for future drawings.

We still have two weeks of gallery visits left before we start with post visits, where the teaching artists will follow up with their lessons in the classroom. The unfinished drawings from Lance’s segment and photos of the students’ “temporary” constructions are given back to them as starting points for a final project. At the end of the post visit, students’ finished work is hung in the hallways of their school.

Stay tuned for updates on future programs. Thanks for stopping in on the K.I.D.S. Art Ed. blog!

K.I.D.S. Art Education NEWSLETTER - Fall 2011

Dear K.I.D.S. Art Education Friends and Supporters,

Kentler International Drawing Space sees Art Education as part of its mission to make art a vital and integral part of our local community life. Our K.I.D.S. Art Ed program is designed around the gallery's contemporary art exhibitions. We bring art and art-making experiences to students, youth, adults and families; cultivating the vibrant creative potential of our neighborhood.  

  

Kentler's 2010-2011 season has been an especially exciting one! Many of you know that we were the recipient of a grant made possible by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez.  These funds allowed us to deepen and extend our work in Red Hook, Brooklyn.  We not only garnered new partnerships with three Red Hook community organizations to provide after school art programs (Red Hook Community Justice Center, Red Hook Initiative, and Good Shepherds Services), we also continued to provide our school programs to 40 teachers from three local schools (PS 15, PS 676 and PS 146 Brooklyn New School) and we continued to offer our popular weekend Drawing Together workshops for families.  We were able to reach over 1000 children, youth and families. All of these programs were free of charge for participants. With budget cuts deeply effecting underserved communities like Red Hook we were extremely proud to be able to provide these rich creative opportunities to our neighbors. 

UPCOMING EVENT:

To celebrate the successes of the past year you are invited to attend a celebration: 

Sunday, December 11, 2-4 pm.

We will be highlighting the amazing work of our K.I.D.S. Art Ed team and their students whose art will be installed in the gallery for you to enjoy firsthand. We want to thank our many supporters and celebrate the spirit of creativity, collaboration,and community in Red Hook.   SAVE THE DATE!

SPREAD THE WORD

Finally, please help us share our successes and dedication to art in education with others. With our K.I.D.S. Art Ed federal grant ending we need to spread the word to garner new sources of support. The kids need us.  Budget cuts have compromised the presence of the arts in schools. We strive to fill that void but we can't do it without your help. Help us turn our efforts to bring rich art experiences into the lives of any and all children a reality.  Spread the word about these events and bring friends.

And for those who haven't been following our blog regularly please check it out!
Make comments. Give feedback. Spread the word!

  

Mollie McQuarrie

K.I.D.S. Art Ed Director