Collaboration and sharing of ideas are inspiring for artists of all ages, for great learning and creation in part come from the work of others.
It is always a goal in art education to utilize and explore content that is relevant to who students are and how they see themselves. Art education is an opportunity for students to engage with and to communicate their identity, their role in the world, who they want to be, and how they can make their world better. Color, line, shape, etc. of course are elements of focus.
Teaching artist Barbara M. Bickart worked with fourth grade students in Gina Garofalo’s homeroom and Andrew Dean’s art classes at Maplewood’s Tuscan School for 25 days of hands-on workshops to create and produce a video-performance installation. Tuscan School received a grant from the Artists in Education Residency Grant Program (AIE) to engage with a professional teaching artist.
This residency motivated students to develop their identity and personal narrative individually as well as what role they play within the greater context of the community. Students produced a video-performance installation focused through the prompt: “I am from…” Subsequently, they worked collaboratively, developing “We are from…” further promoting tolerance, acceptance, diversity, and positive social and community change.
However, those formal elements of art are an opportune framework for students to explore socially relevant themes. This project aimed to promote positive identity development, tolerance, acceptance, diversity, and positive social and community change through a hands-on, project-based experience. Working from a community-centered approach, students gained a sense of belonging, commitment, and responsibility to the place in which they live and learn.
This project also provided an opportunity for students to continue developing personally relevant writing skills. Students explored various mediums to express their written words in addition to their classroom writing practice.
“I made art because I like to open up conservations,” Bickart said, “We explore the fire in our bellies, who we are, what we carry with us, what we care about, a process of exploration that means being courageour and honest and vulnerable, and a project grows, the collective expression of many voices. with “I am from, we are from,” the students of Tuscan Elemendary did all of these things. They leaned way in with all of their intelligence. wisdom, honesty, and humor.”
Barbara M. Bickart
The Artists in Education Residency Grant Program is a co-sponsored project of The New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Young Audiences New Jersey & Eastern Pennsylvania. The program is carried out in partnership with regional partners, including Appel Farm Arts & Music Center and Morris Arts.
This program provides New Jersey schools with long-term artist residencies; 11 schools state-wide received AIE grants this year, including Tuscan School.
This work culminated in a live performance installation showcased Dec. 13.