ART AROUND THE WORLD

On a brisk autumn Saturday in East Harlem, East 160th Street was closed to traffic and turned into a neighborhood block party as part of the School District 4 Back-to-School Homecoming at PS/MS 7. As families mingled and a DJ played hip-hop classics, nearly 40 students, some with parents in tow, joined Creative Art Works Teaching Artists for a fun and free community artmaking project. Students were invited to build a mini diorama of “the classroom of their dreams.”

Ivory Nunez-Medrano, CAW Program Manager - Teaching & Learning, said this project was a lot of fun, but it also utilized real academic skills.

“The goal of the project was to imagine and build a model of a unique space for learning, using accessible materials. Participants employed creative, problem-solving, and spatial and motor skills by selecting paper in different colors and patterns, cutting shapes with scissors, and gluing and placing them to develop an original idea. The creative challenge was to turn a cardboard box into a unique three-dimensional space.”

It all depends on the dreamer… For some students, the classroom of their dreams included night skies, wild patterns, or a dense forest

Student art ranged from winter themed with footprints in the snow to the great outdoors with soaring, lush trees

CAW Program Associate Maddie De Leon reported that many young people connected over the project. “There was a moment where we had two participants who didn’t know each other, but one boy was intrigued by the other’s drawing of Sonic the Hedgehog. The first boy then showed the other boy how to draw the character, and it was so heartwarming.”

These projects are designed to engage youth with their community and to allow them to experience and celebrate the power of art with others .