Youth Work
Album Covers (high school)
Shifting role of youth from student- to designer, artist, and content creator.
In this learning segment students delved into our nature as creators and consumers by looking at the intersectionality of music and art.
Students got inspiration from some of their favorite music artists, and their album cover art.
In our physical act of creating, we explored the relationship of consumption and creation as well, by using collage. In this process, students flipped through content meant for consumerism, (magazines, old books etc.) and inverted the role from passive consumer to active creator- by selecting and combining a variety of imagery to make their own unique content.
We analyzed design elements such as scale, placement, orientation, etc and how these elements portrayed the concept in the album cover. We also examined how the titles of the tracks informed the overall context of the cover art as a complete album with themes and messages.
The young artists created their album covers, titles, track titles, and some wrote and recorded their own original lyrics for extra credit!
T-shirt designs (4th grade)
Shifting role of youth from student- to designer, artist and digital creator.
With COVID changing the way the traditional art classroom functioned, 4th graders embraced the challenge of a new creating medium by embracing digital art when learning from home.
We first looked at aesthetic and functionality of clothes as both art and serving a regular purpose, breaking preconditioned ideas of art as something solely hanging on a wall in a gallery setting.
We identified how designers might make different choices depending on the context of the clothing. What things would you need to consider when designing athletic wear? Costumes? Formal wear?
We dove into design elements such as pattern, use of text, texture, shape, and layers. With activities including pattern scavenger hunts at home, and a class competition to see who could put on the most layers in a minute! (Winner got to be co-host in Zoom art class!)
After learning about various elements, we started to look at designers in the industry to see how they utilized these elements in their work. We studied Stromae, Loza Maleombho and Ruth Carter. We also analyzed how their art isn't done with the finished design, because their work comes to life! When humans wear their designs, they can tell a larger story and express unique cultures.
Then, students came up with different occasions clothes could be worn for and we put these all in a “spin the wheel”. From here, students used the wheel for a design prompt for their own unique work.
"Holiday Themed Fit"
Artist- Arianna
With funding support from our school, we got the greenlight to order and print art on physical t-shirts- yay! Students created both abstract and representational designs and chose their favorite to be printed on their final t-shirt.
ABSTRACT
Artist- Trent
Artist- Noah
REPRESENTATIONAL
We created art on Canva, by transforming simple shapes into original imagery. The young designers utilized color, scale, orientation, repetition, and layering in order to combine shapes to make their unique artwork.
Artist- Ally
WOW!
More Digital Designs by 4th grade artists!
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Finally, once the students received their printed shirts, we had a virtual fashion show complete with runway music! What a sight to see the young artists rocking their designs!
Beautiful work everyone!!!
Collaborative Roads (kindergarten)
Shifting role of youth from student-to problem solver, artist and architect.
In this learning segment students were presented with a problem to solve- to help tiny travelers reach their destination, by collaborating to create a road.
When the students entered the classroom, there were two 3D destinations set up, the “tiny traveler’s home” and a “super-cool animal bounce house party”. I presented to the students a blue matchbox car and told them that inside were super tiny travelers that needed their help to get to the party.
Laid out connecting the two 3D destinations were several pieces of paper (enough for each student). Each child then took a paper and drew their own road by using a crazy line that connected each edge of the paper.
Then the young artists found shapes within their overlapping lines and colored those sections in.
At the end, students took their paper and laid out their drawings like a puzzle- fitting them together with their peers’ work in order to make one continuous road.
Finally, we “tested it out” by pretending to drive the little blue car over their road. If the roads didn't line up correctly, we adjusted them as we went along. In the end, the tiny travelers successfully made it to their destination!
