Images of Children's Art

BuildaBridge Images of Student Artwork Our ar&sts do excellent work with children-­‐ in-­‐transi&on. Unfortunately the ar&sts do not o9en have the luxury of a semester or a year to work with a child living in poverty.

Most of the artwork to follow was produced by brave children who at the maximum had 10 classes to complete a project. Because these children are “homeless”, they o9en carry a s&gma and are seldom iden&fied once they leave the emergency shelter.

Remarkably they show amazing crea&vity and hope.

Artology 2010: Water Originally installed in an abandoned community plot, the water garden was reinstalled at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Children’s Art Wing, September to October, 2010. It received its third installa&on as part of the BuildaBridge invited art exhibit at City Hall in March, 2011. The exhibit was hosted by the Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Crea&ve Economy.

“This is the first &me my son has ever succeeded in any academic class”, stated a mother a9er her son with au&sm aVended Artology. He aVended the camp for three years and has graduated to one of the camp’s student leaders.

Artology 2011: Earth Installa>on The two major projects of the Artology 2011 summer camp were public art installa&ons – one, depicted here, at the historic Cliveden House of Germantown in which the 6th-­‐8th graders showcased soil layer pain&ngs and “glass vines”. .. (con&nued on next slide). and a second at the nearby Awbury Arboretum in which the 4th -­‐5th graders built a “living wall”, installing their clay flower sculptures together with living flowers on ver&cal panels. These pieces brought together principals that Artologists had been synthesizing in their science and art classes, reinforced by field study trips. Both groups got a chance to showcase their work in a public forum, and to be celebrated as contributors to the community.

Before this session, I looked at soil as something you put pants in. But now I see it as nutrients for plants and animals. -­‐ Autumn.

Artology means a lot to me because when I go back to school, I’ll always be pu@ng up my hand in class. – Kendra.

Artology 2011: Earth Installa>on, cont. …and a second at the nearby Awbury Arboretum in which the 4th -­‐5th graders built a “living wall”, installing their clay flower sculptures together with living flowers on ver&cal panels. These pieces brought together principals that Artologists had been synthesizing in their science and art classes, reinforced by field study trips. Both groups got a chance to showcase their work in a public forum, and to be celebrated as contributors to the community.

Self-­‐Portrait in Silk Screen I visited Julie Rosen’s class on Wednesday to find an incredibly structured and peaceful class going on. The liVle gentleman with the big smile had done a silk screen of himself with a hat on and he was so proud of the results. He was also one of the more disrup&ve students when I visited her prior class. I remarked that he seemed to be having a really good day and his response was, "I always have good days." Enough said.

-­‐ Magi Ross, BuildaBridge Community Programs Coordinator

Julie Rosen’s silk screen class in a shelter May 13, 2011

Hope Through the life-­‐changing power of the arts, BuildaBridge brings hope and healing to the most vulnerable children living in tough places like this transi&onal housing facility. This 6-­‐year old forms a perfect silhoueVe of hope, as she rehearses the steps taught in her a9er-­‐school modern dance class for the approaching year-­‐end celebra&on.

BuildaBridge Discovery Program, 2010

The Owl: Principled Peacemaker ARTMAKING TO PEACEMAKING is a curriculum designed to teach peacemaking skills to middle school students using the arts: crea&ve wri&ng, dance, drama, music and visual arts. The curriculum uses art as metaphor and art as demonstra&on to teach basic peacemaking, conflict resolu&on and nego&a&on skills. The final exhibi&on was a drama&c & musical portrayal of an original tale, the Tale of the RaVlesnake in the Night”. Its animal characters embodied the five typical responses to conflict. These masks & panels, created by the visual arts class served as the “costumes” and scenery backdrops, respec&vely, for the performance.

Art4Peace, 2009-­‐2013. Leah Samuelson, ar&st teacher & visual arts curriculum developer (See Lesson Plan Sample).

The Good Path Northern Cheyenne children ages 8-­‐12 designed and pain&ng a mural on the wall of an outdoor shower during a BuildaBridge Arts for Hope Camp in Montana 2010.

The image was developed with the children by ar&st BuildaBridge Ar&st-­‐on-­‐Call Ben Pepka, a Guggenheim scholar who works with Na&ve Americans in Montana. The camp also included indigenous art classes in flute making and doll-­‐making, all of which incorporated tradi&onal cultural mo&fs and values.

RootsToTrees is the theme of the 2012-­‐13 visual arts & dance classes for 7-­‐9 year-­‐old Bhutanese children, lead by dance master teacher Julia Crawford and art therapist Celeste Wade (orange shirt). The classes are part of a two-­‐ year Philadelphia Refugee Mental Health Collabora&ve project funded by the Department of Behavioral Health to serve the Philadelphia's growing Southeast Asian Refugee popula&on. BuildaBridge is a member of the collabora&ve to provide culturally relevant art experiences aimed at fostering crea&vity, hope, & adjustment to a new country while honoring & remembering their former homes & families. Here the students are midway through the class, working with symbolic representa&on art ideas and paper media (Content Standards 1 & 3, grades 5-­‐8) to create tree roots that represent both new and old "lives" that nourish the growth of the tree.

Crea>ng Safe Art Spaces with & for Children in Bogota The streets of this barrio are the only places for children to play. A BuildaBridge arts camp discovered much ar&s&c talent among the 77 children (ages 3 to 15) that aVended the August 2012 camp taught by 12 BuildaBridge Ar&sts-­‐on-­‐Call and 12 BuildaBridge-­‐trained Colombian ar&sts. It also helped them transform a corner dumpsite in order to declare a permanent "crea&ve space" for their community. Here, the drama class for 8 year-­‐olds performs a short piece in front of the just-­‐created Welcome mural created by the teen visual arts class under the teaching of BuildaBridge ar&sts Stevie Neale (drama) and Kelly Finlaw (visual arts).

Before

Haiku and Tree "Dancing the disco naturally taking its way the trees feel the breeze"

Children in the 6th-­‐8th grade class of Artology 2012 explore environmental responsibility and reflect on our natural resources through Haiku poetry & visual art (Art Content Standards 1,3 & 6). Painted “en plein air” on the banks of Philadelphia’s Wissahickon Creek, this finished watercolor art piece by middle-­‐school student Ryan, followed a study of Cezanne and was displayed at the final celebra&on & art exhibi&on of the 5-­‐ week summer art, biology & environmental science program.

Artologist art work has been exhibited at the pres&gious Philadelphia Museum of Art for the last four years. u.

Adapta>on Fish

Coralizita and Swager Fish are the crea&ons of the 6th-­‐8th grade Artologists who aVend the 2012 summer Artology Program. The curriculum theme of Fire & Ice included a study of some of earth’s coldest places: the deep sea, and also a study of the concept of adapta&ons.

Students created their own sea creatures with their own special adapta&on to deep sea living.

Students’ imagina&ons conjured up coral with adapted appendages to aide its preserva&on (keep people off), and a fish with bio-­‐illuminescence for aVrac&ng females, speed, and powers of mind control & ability to change iden&&es to aide its survival.

Weaving “Memories” BuildaBridge Discovery Program, May 2012 – Two 6-­‐8 year old girls put the finishing touches on a colorful weaving that they & their classmates completed as a “community”. They were part of the a9er-­‐school program at one of BuildaBridge’s partner West Philadelphia homeless shelters. The art work pictured was a special project that BuildaBridge teaching ar&st Julie Rosen created in light of the 16 yr old boy who was killed in the area. (He lived at this shelter.) The piece was a weaving of good thoughts and memories, things that the children wanted to share and express about the tragedy. The weaving was intended for the mother of the boy.

BuildaBridge teachers are trained to be flexible & child-­‐centered, adap&ng, when necessary, the art lesson to meet the needs of the children vs. the teacher’s need to “finish the lesson at hand”.

Home is Where the Heart Is Houseless but not homeless.

This was the theme of the 2011 Discovery program, BuildaBridge’s a9er-­‐school arts program in Philadelphia’s homeless shelters. A part of the City’s larger focus on homelessness, elementary & middle school children created art that expressed what “home” meant to them. This finished paper collage piece is one student’s vision of “home”, complete with garden. It was one of many works of art by “BuildaBridge Kids” exhibited on this theme as part of the BuildaBridge invited art exhibit at City Hall in March, 2011. The exhibit was hosted by the Philadelphia Office of Arts, Culture and the Crea&ve Economy, and was on public display for two months.