Seeing The Center Through Art

For Center students, art is never only about art. It’s about pushing outside of their comfort zone, finding their voices, and learning how to face whatever life brings, inside or outside of a studio.

Mekenzie Schneider, Lower Elementary Art Teacher, describes how at CEE, “the students should never feel like they need to create art in a set way, modeling the teacher. My goal is for them to view creativity as a problem solving tool to answer the questions ‘what do you want to make?’ and ‘how do we get there?’ More than anything, I aim to help them find their own creative voices by conceptualizing their own pieces and overcoming obstacles to create them.”

At times, she reminds students that the fun part of creating does not always emerge at the beginning of a project. When starting a sculpture, for example, making the base may not be the most exciting part of the project, but it is necessary for its structure. The process can be viewed as a problem to be solved instead of a roadblock - and failure is not merely acceptable, but celebrated. In one exercise, Mekenzie prompts students to draw on each others’ work in order to release ownership of their ideas, encouraging them to feel equally excited about their classmates’ work as their own.

Fostering students’ own responsibility for their space, materials, tools, and each other is a key component of the art curriculum. The students learn to use their materials efficiently, appreciate what they have, and reduce waste. “This is their studio,” explains veteran Upper Elementary Art Teacher Penny Landreth. “At the beginning of the year, the students complete a scavenger hunt to become familiar with the materials and options available to them. Then, I turn the studio over to them. It’s theirs to take advantage of and take responsibility for.”

Alumni may recall their original masks from sixth grade; Penny describes this assignment as an opportunity for the students to take risks (there were taco truck and game board masks created this year!) and express their independent voices. As the sixth grade students prepare to leave CEE, Penny encourages them to leap fearlessly into the unknown. She explains, “negative and positive space share a line - and you have to be willing to go there.”

Penny’s curriculum is never static. She reveals how “every year I look at current events, local art shows, and what interests the students to drive my program”. This year, after months of classroom discussion about the

latest sneaker craze, fourth grade students designed their own sneaker advertisements. They grappled with how to represent something they encounter regularly in popular culture. Every art class also takes at least one field trip to a museum, gallery, or art walk like the “The Great Wall of Los Angeles” to interact with art outside of the classroom in the larger context of Los Angeles.

Art abounds on campus beyond the classroom, too. In 2016, artist Friedrich Kunath was chosen to create a street-level art installation for the new La Cienega Building. Center students across all grades worked with Kunath to develop and vote on a series of custom “emojis” to be incorporated into the project. As Kunath described, “to have them actively be part of the decision-making for this piece was inspiring… seeing a moment spark, like imagining a cloud with a beard [one of the emojis], led into a never ending stream of surrealism and creativity pouring out of them. For the students, they now feel an important connection to the dream depicted in the piece.” “Wake Up and Dream” is now open as a permanent, public art installation along La Cienega Boulevard as part of the West Hollywood Urban Arts Program.

At the Art Fair each May, everyone is an artist - each elementary student has a featured piece included the show. Students assess their work and choose which of their pieces they would like to display. After the Fair, much of the art is installed around campus for the coming school year, bringing life and color to CEE year-round.

This spread:

The annual Art Fair features work from each K-6 student, shown throughout this report. Seen here is a smallsampling of the creativity on display at this year's fair, includingthe fourth grade sneaker project and fifth grade Chagall dolls.

Far right:

Art teachers Mekenzie Schnieder and Penny Landreth welcome visitors to the Art Fair.

Bottom right:

Guests take in Friedrich Kunath's “Wake Up and Dream” after it was unveiled in March.

“Wake Up and Dream,” a permanent art installation created by artist Friedrich Kunath in collaboration with Center students, was unveiled to the public in March.

"THE VARIETY OF SELF-EXPRESSION AT THE ART FAIR IS INSPIRING."

This spread:

Selections from the student Art Fair, including sixth grade masks, a paper maché pie eating contest, and abstractpaintings from students across grade levels.

Center:

“Wake Up and Dream” is now open for public viewing on La Cienega Boulevard. The piece was created as part of the WestHollywood Urban Art Program.