SAIIER 2013:Art and Integral Education

Nature's Theatre		Auroville Rainbow Child
Art and Integral Education

Aim of project

All students in Entity::Transition School participate in arts and crafts, music and other art programs. Additionally, art is integrated throughout the program through work in class projects. Students have the opportunity to express themselves through Power Point presentations, posters, drawings, poetry and other forms of creative activities. When they prepare a theater performance, they also work on the props. Additionally in all school community events (party, graduation dinner, open houses…) they work together to make the scenery and the decorations. Children explore a variety of thinking processes, art forms, materials and techniques, through a wide range of activities. Because children change emotionally, mentally, and physically throughout elementary and middle- school, the program is flexible and developmental to include the needs of all.

Studies indicate that an art education can have a broad range of benefits for children such as the opportunity to nurture creativity, a sense of beauty and imagination as well as the development of thinking and problem solving skills. The children are guided to discover and progress individually and at the same time learn to appreciate the work of others.

Activities

Volunteer sharing about Art (mainly paintings)

This year the grade 5 students did a special project: Every week, a different student volunteered to share his view on a piece of art. He/she could choose a representation of a piece of art from a book from the school library, or bring something from home.

The aims were:

To develop the children's general knowledge,
To make them aware of different types of art‖
To make them discuss on the question “What is art?”
To make them learn about famous artists
To make them justify their choices
To make them express themselves orally in front of a group...
To encourage them to find art in their daily life, to get them to be more aware of art around them.

The children enjoyed doing this activity. They liked to go through the books and observe many pictures. They started to compare artists. They had a lot of questions to ask the volunteer about his choice.

Poetry

On Monday mornings the whole school meets to start the week with a sharing and a concentration. At this time children often recite poems that they have learned. This is appreciated by all of the students and the teachers.

Report from Arts and Crafts team

Art education is a creative opportunity for children. By offering art education in our school system, all children get a chance to stimulate their imaginations, as well as their cognitive and problem-solving skills. These problem-solving skills enable them to think creatively in other situations, which can boost their academic results. The enjoyable nature of art projects engages most students. Because they enjoy the artwork, they are better able to concentrate on the task, sticking with it from beginning to end. Finishing the project gives the kids a sense of accomplishment and self confidence.

There are other benefits art education brings to the students. Art education:

Stimulates and develops the imagination and critical thinking, and refines cognitive and creative skills.
Has a tremendous impact on the developmental growth of every child and has proven to help level the "learning field" across socio-economic boundaries.
Strengthens problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, adding to overall academic achievement and school success.
Develops a sense of craftsmanship, quality task performance, and goal-setting—skills needed to succeed in the classroom and beyond.
Teaches children life skills such as developing an informed perception, articulating a vision, learning to solve problems and make decisions, building self-confidence and self-discipline, developing the ability to imagine what might be, and accepting responsibility to complete tasks from start to finish.
Nurtures important values including team-building skills, respecting alternative viewpoints, and appreciating and being aware of different cultures and traditions.

This year the school expanded the program to include 7th and 8th grade students who for the past years have been attending the Pyramids art program.

The goal for this program for the older children was to get the children to think outside their normal views of what they thought art was and to help develop different types of skills. The projects that were planned connected to a theme. We chose to start with Pop Art, and asked a very important question: “What is Pop Art?”

Pop art is aimed at images of popular culture in art, emphasizing the kitschy elements of any given culture. It is also associated with the artists' use of mechanical means of reproduction or rendering techniques. Pop Art covers mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects. It was developed as a reaction to the ideas of abstract expressionism.

One project we worked on was having the kids choose a photocopy or photograph of an image of their choice, then draw an outline to simplify and separate the main areas of dark and light. They then traced and transferred the outline drawing onto a fresh sheet of paper and shaded in the dark areas of the drawing to re-establish the basic tones of the original portrait. After that, they filled in the new image with different tones, colors, patterns and textures. This in the end was to reflect the great works of Andy Warhol or any other great Pop Artist of that time.

We also used Pop Art as a gateway into other types of Art. We found fun ways to bridge it into different forms of Installation art. This is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions. Installation art can be either temporary or permanent. You can use a wide range of everyday and/or natural materials. Many installations or earthworks are site-specific in that they are designed to exist only in the space for which they were created. We wanted the students to have a yearlong goal of creating a group project and to give them the chance to work together in new ways. Throughout the year we had them come up with concepts, collect materials, and design their installation as a group. A variety of installations—each reflecting the ideas of a group of students showed a great first attempt at this kind of work. At the end of the school year the 7th and 8th grade students, with the help of their art teachers, prepared an Art Exhibition at Kala Kendra. Parents and many others came and enjoyed seeing the work of the children.

Our goals for next year are to reflect that same ideas and concepts only on a larger scale. We will be introducing this program to the 6th grade class and adding changing things to fit the 8th grade class.

Some of our project ideas are:

Art history lessons with videos, books, images, slide shows and etc.
Pop Art
Installation art
Pointillism (to teach color theory)
Expressionism
Color theory
Perspective drawing
Air-brushing and painting
Computer graphics projects
Comic book layout and drawing
Student art show

These are just a few of the topics that we will be planning to teach the 6th, 7th and 8th grade classes at Transition School for 2013-14 school year.

Outputs

Here are some of the activities that we were able to provide:

Art projects and art exhibition
Theater: children-made props and backdrops
History: The Renaissance Art project
Science: models, posters and power point presentations
Choosing poems to study
Research report
Open house and other presentations
Art and crafts displays
Music Open House
Art exhibition at Kala Kendra
Backdrops and decorations for annual school party

Outcome

There was a growing awareness in many areas:

Beauty and harmony
How to use many different tools and techniques
Appreciating of colors and forms
Various uses for art—art for various audiences (theater, party, visual display…)
Teamwork
Individual expression
Communication without words
Appreciation of artists
Development of sensitivity to art and various cultures
Development of observational skills
Joy

This year the school was alive with displays of children‘s art in the dining room, classrooms and in many public spaces. This work will continue and grow. We would like to build a pottery workshop and also further develop our Arts and Crafts Center.