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!

Drawing Together: Fall 2012

This past Saturday, K.I.D.S. Art Education collaborated with Open House New York and the P.S. 15 Fall Flea to offer TWO very special "Drawing Together" programs!

In the morning, Meghan Keane led kids and adults on a journey down Van Brunt Street to discover architectural elements, landscapes, and other neighborhood sights. With Meghan's help, everyone made their own sketchbooks and filled the pages with their observations. Some had themes in mind, some just drew whatever caught their eye! This video showcases their drawings as well as their amazing book-making skills:

Later in the afternoon, we moved over to the P.S. 15 Fall Flea and set up a "design your own city" workshop complete with markers, tape, stickers, paper clips and other 3D materials. Several families dropped in to create imaginary streets, skylines and parks. Have a look at what they came up with:

This fall we are holding "Drawing Together" workshops on the first and third Saturdays of each month. Our workshops are geared towards children ages 4 and up and their caregivers. If you'd like to join us or want any more information, feel free to leave a post or contact me at sallie@kentlergallery.org. Thanks for reading and be sure to look out for more posts as fall K.I.D.S. Art Ed. 2012 continues!

Drawing Together at Red Hook Flea!!

K.I.D.S. Art Education kicked off our 2011-12 season with a Drawing Together program at Red Hook Flea- a fundraiser for P.S. 15, our neighbor and partnering school.  Teaching artist Meghan Keane invited participants to "Draw big. Draw Colorful." 

Using handmade stencils designed by Meghan and using all recycled materials, children and their care givers worked together to explore colors, shapes, and textures.  Surrounding the students there was music, dancing, food, crafts and dreamy ephemera as folks from the neighborhood sold their wares in a wonderful collaborative fundraising effort.

Thank you P.S. 15. Thank you participants.  Thank you Red Hook for your vitality, creativity and community spirit.

Next up?  Thoughts and images from our fall program built on our exhibition "MARKING SPACE.A collaborative drawing, performance and sound project." by visual artist Lezli Rubin-Kunda and sound artist Ellen Moffat.

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!

K.I.D.S. Art Ed After School brings Dean Haspiel to The Red Hook Community Justice Center

This week students participating in K.I.D.S. Art Ed after school programs with Good Shepherds Services and Red Hook Community Justice Center (RHCJC) gathered for Career Day at RHCJC to hear graphic novelist Dean Haspiel talk about his career as a cartoonist.  The students have been exploring Dean's work on view at K.I.D.S. in "Cuba: My Revolution-The Making of the Graphic Novel and Related Drawings." Their explorations have included a visit to the exhibition and art making sessions with our teaching artists.

Teaching artist Katherine Gressel and RHCJC students exploring "Cuba: My Revolution" at Kentler.

During the gallery visit students explored the content of the artwork through discussion and hands-on art activities.  In their follow up art making sessions, students are learning about symbols, figure drawing, layout, drafting, and composition to created their own original comic-inspired artworks.  Our goals in these workshops are for young people to have a positive experience making art, to feel more confident expressing themselves, and to have a better sense of what goes into being an artist both personally but also professionally.  Since the workshops are mostly focused on art making, we decided to invite Dean Haspiel to talk to the students about the more professional side of being a cartoonist.

Dean's talk took the students through his development from when he got his first drawing gig to the present.

Dean's slideshow.

One on one with the kids.  Great questions.  Great answers.

Forthcoming about the good and the bad, Dean described his passion for drawing and stories and his desire to develop his own ideas along with his need to make money and take on jobs that weren't always feeding his soul.  When a student asked about how one could "get started," Dean's advice was this (I paraphrase): Find other people who like to do what you do. Hang out with them, talk, share ideas and challenge each other.  If you like someone else's work, talk about THEIR work (not just your own) to others.  In other words, help each other out, support each other! Don't get upset if a buddy gets a gig you were hoping for.  Remember that they got hired because their work looks the way the employer wants.  When you get hired, it will be because of YOUR "look" and your look alone.  Dean reminded the students, "Don't be shy to be who you are."  Thank you, Dean!

The Guinea Kids Go On A Field Trip!

Earlier this year GKEF sponsored an educational field trip for the children in our program. Board member and Enco-Cinq community member, Karim Koumbassa, took the Guinea Kids' students on a field trip to the village of Habita. The children in our program are inner city kids, many of whom have never been in a car let alone out to the village or the fields where their food grows.

Karim was inspired with this idea to supplement the children's school education with some experiential learning about their food culture, where their food comes from, how it is grown and used. So one day they all piled into a magbana (bus or van) and set off for the fields of Habita.

Some of the children had never even been in a moving vehicle, so there were a couple sick tummies on the way out to the farmland.


Once they were arrived in Habita, the children toured the fields to see where such foods as eggplant, pineapple, peppers, and rice grow. Many of the children had never seen how a pineapple grows...

A Habita woman working in the fields spoke to the students about the food growing on the land...

Next the GKEF students walked through the palm forest and learned about the many uses of the palm tree. There are at least 5 different things the palm tree is used for in Guinea: 2 different oils, medicine, roofing, and palm wine.

The children say goodbye to the farmland and Karim shares some of his thoughts on this exceptional experience for the children...

"This is not a small thing" for these children to be generously given these experiences in their lives. This was such a special event to them. You can see how most of them wore their best clothes...to go out in a farming field! But it was the act of kindness, the act of being treated to a field trip that made it a special occasion; something that most of the children we know here in the States take for granted as a part of their education. This trip for them was very out of the ordinary. They know they are part of something special; that people around the world care about their educations, their lives. I often wonder at the difference that knowing is making in these children's lives and the lives of those around them. 

If you have been a contributor to GKEF in the past, thank you so very much for supporting the dreams of these children. GKEF is able to assist them because of you. 

If you would like to get onboard with supporting these kids or continue to support them, visit http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/gkef.

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