Arts educator and recording artist Jahi recently shared an inspiring new video with us that gives an overview of his artist residency at Glenview Elementary School in Oakland, and his philosophy about arts education. He mentions PBS's Art:21 as a resource that inspires his teaching practice. Jahi teaches both visual art and music, and inspires young people to imagine how their art will change the world. Enjoy this moment of inspiration with a dynamic teaching artist.
Looking for ways to invite from teaching artists into your classroom for a virtual visit? Check out our new video series about Bay Area artists who demonstrate concepts and techniques that students can follow along with.
The yearly Young At Art Festival is a living portfolio for the ongoing work of the San Francisco Unified School District's Arts Education Master Plan, showcasing work in the visual and performing arts by students K-12. During the week of Young At Art, numerous arts based professional development workshops designed specially for teachers, principals, and Arts Coordinators are presented on site and in direct connection with student work being showcased.
Do you think creative, funny internet memes could be considered artwork? If not, how you would categorize them? Describe one of your favorites and/or send us a link to it.
Introduction
All over the internet, "People are creating images and sharing them with strangers for the purpose of communicating their personal experiences." Art takes many forms, and PBS's new web video series, Idea Channel, poses an intriguing question in this recent episode about memes and art. The internet offers an opportunity to share individually-crafted punch lines and images on a global scale, but what do we call this act of creation? Art? Jokes? Procrastination fodder? Or all of the above? In contemporary art, successful works are not necessarily made by hand or even tangible—making a visual representation of an idea, whether it goes viral or not, is a creative act.
Mary Cassatt, Little Girl in a Blue Armchair, 1878. National Gallery of Art.
Please welcome arts educator Anna Efanova to EdSpace. She recently participated in a KQED Education workshop where we spent a day at MoAD learning about historical representation through art and film, and later created short films at KQED about missing voices or stories in history. Anna created a film about some important female artists that she wanted to introduce to her students.
From Anna Efanova: We often hear and talk about bringing technology into the classroom. KQED does exactly that by offering workshops for educators that inspire and teach them how to enhance their lessons with technology. I have been looking for other possibilities to present visuals about the artists, and here was an opportunity to learn how to use iMovie.
The workshop began with an inspirational and thought provoking tour of the MOAD museum and their exhibition, COLLECTED: Stories of Acquisition and Reclamation. We explored highlights from personal collections of books, posters and other memorabilia about the culture and history of African Americans.
On the second day of the workshop, we were introduced to the iMovie software and started to create our presentations. It was a first experience for me, but I found the software quite intuitive and easy to operate with the help of Matthew Williams. The whole experience of putting the images, voice and music together made me think of the relative elements of the presentation that make it interesting. I have also added text to make sure that the attention is kept in focus. With the abundance of the media around us and our students, it is to start daydreaming if there is not enough stimulation.
By the end of the third day we got to see the other teachers' projects. I was delighted to see that everyone has taken their own route to present what is closer to their teaching and student's needs. My presentation was about Women artists. I often use images and then talk while showing the work to the students. Making a movie made me think more deeply about the structure and the overall cohesiveness of the presentation. Now, when I introduce a lesson I can use my own video as a starting point and then use the questions and conversations to explore the subject deeper.
Here is how I will follow up with a lesson plan for upper middle school students, or younger high school students:
Introduce women artists through their work.
Explore how the social status of women has changed over the years and influenced the work they created.
Compare mediums used to create artwork and discuss the effect of the presentation of each medium.
Activity:
Students will choose an artist as an inspiration to create their own work.
Post discussion:
Why has the artists chosen their particular medium?
What social/political/biographical facts have influenced the artist's work?
Thanks to Anna Efanova for her wonderful video about notable female artists throughout history and today. It is a perfect film for March, which is Women's History month.
Name a game you played as a kid that you could reference in an artwork. Do you remember distinct characters or colors? Which games were most significant for you?
Introduction
Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders (and Uncle Wiggly too) are classic board games that many of us remember playing as kids. Candy Land was designed by a woman from San Diego in 1945, and Chutes (or Snakes) and Ladders is an ancient Indian game. Today's definition of games more often brings to mind computer and video games, which are a popular subject among students, both inside and outside of school. Gaming and game design serve an entertainment purpose but can also be an engaging, educational tool. Check out a new episode of PBS Off Book that introduces video games as a personal, storytelling art form.
KQED SPARK segment on artist Thai Bui in Looking East - June 27, 2005
On the more physical, fine art side of the game world, KQED Spark-featured artist, Thai Bui, creates sculptures that are partly inspired by games he played as a child growing up in Vietnam. His extraordinary objects combine references to his experiences in both the United States and Vietnam, simultaneously communicating a witty humor and a sense of loss. Learn more about his work and hear him discuss how he made a sculpture using wet clay bowls he's throw on the ground to to create a sound -- the activity references a simple childhood game in which the participant that makes the loudest sound wins.
To respond to the Do Now, you can comment below or tweet your response. Be sure to begin your tweet with @KQEDedspace and end it with #KQEDDoNow
Murals by Sirron Norris can be found throughout San Francisco. Whether inside of restaurants, on roll-up doors of local businesses, or on the walls of The City's famed Balmy Alley, his cartoon-style artwork is instantly recognizable and loved by children of all ages. Check out his interview:
Sirron is a teaching artist working in several local schools, and he also teaches digital arts at the Bay Area Video Coalition, and drawing classes in his Mission District studio and gallery. We stopped by his space to uncover his inspirations and learn how to draw our own cartoons! Here are two drawing demos where he shows how to draw happy, sad, and mad faces (first video) and various face perspectives (second video).
In your classroom, cartooning can be used to illustrate concepts and historical events. The possibilities are endless, and students should feel empowered to develop their own visual aesthetic and dynamic characters, as well as narrative stories and dialogue. Introduce your young artists to Sirron Norris and his work to inspire future projects. Follow-up with cartooning activities from our Educator Guide, as well as discussion and writing prompts about the role of political cartoons.
Share your feedback about how you've used cartooning as a creative tool in your classroom--leave a comment or links to photos of student artwork below. To learn more about Sirron Norris and find information about visiting his studio, check out his web site: www.sirronnorris.com
Do Now is a weekly activity for students to respond to current issues through the use KQED's award-winning online media resources and social media tools like Twitter.
