ArtCorps

I have been doing some research on teaching art abroad, and while this is not traditional classrom teaching it is a terrific experience. Artists go to Central American countries and use arts as a means of social change. This program sends artists for 1 year abroad to empower communities to improve their social, health, and environmental conditions through art. You do need to be fluent in Spanish.
http://www.artcorp.org

Community Based Art Education

This fall I did a unit plan on arts in Las Vegas. With second grade we examined the petroglyphs in Red Rock Canyon. To create their work students wrote a story using 4-5 petroglyphs on white 11"x14" paper using black crayon. Afterwards we sponged watered-down brown paint all over our paper and crumpled it up before it dried. That created a rocky effect.

Arts Are Important!

If it had not been for Ms. Simonds I don't know that I would be a successful, happily employed person. She was my high school art teacher. Until high school I could not justify to my family how important art was to me. They wanted me to be an athlete and have great report cards. I wanted to stay in my room and draw all the time. In high school Ms. Simonds connected me to Locust St. Neighborhood Art Classes, Inc. I had my own studio space and professional artists critiquing my work when I was 16. My senior year it was the artists that explained to my dad why a job at the pizzeria would not be as beneficial to me in the long run as taking classes and working in my studio 4 days a week. That is how I got my portfolio together and got into art school. I am living proof that art gives a child a voice, a sense of self, an identity, and can be a tool for teaching cultures, math, science, and history. If those connections that I made as a teenager had not taken place I doubt I would be working in the arts today. That idea truly scares me because there is nothing else I would rather do. Here are some great websites about the importance of arts education:
http://www.statenislandarts.org/artsineducation/whytitle.html
http://www.kinderart.com/artspeak/important.shtml

Mccarran Airport Contest

My students are lucky enough to be participants in the McCarran Airport Art Contest. McCarran Airport is building Terminal 3 and asking world renowned artist Robert Silvers to create 10 photomosaics using 30,000 student works of art from Clark County School District. They asked that each artwork be 9"x12" or 11"x8.5;" brightly colored; and depicting a plane, train, or automobile. The 10 best drawings will be chosen as the large images of the photomosaics. This was a great assignment for copming back to school after the winter break. It's not messy, simple in terms of supplies, and I'm using the same supplies for each class.