18 Awesome Art Projects for Your Classroom
Making art projects happen in the classroom. Here are 18 awesome art projects for kids that have stunning results. You’ll find ideas to create inspiring art with kindergarten all the way through fifth grade. Plus, you’ll find ways to connect art projects to literature and science standards to bring learning full circle.
Art Projects
1. Super Easy Dandelion Art Project – A quick two-step painting project that students could totally handle on their own as a center activity or with little support.
2. Printed Flowers Collage Art Project – Here is a printed flowers art project for first grade . Students will combine what they learn about famous artists like O’Keefe and Warhol to create a collage of flowers in a field.
3. Cloud Art for Kids – A Georgia O’Keefe inspired painting of clouds with blues, pinks and purples along with 21 other fantastic clouds for kids resources.
4. Black Glue Landscapes Art Project – Create a black glue -outlined landscape art project for third grade, fourth grade and fifth grade students. This project uses paint and black glue to create a very smart looking finished product.
5. Kandinsky Inspired Project – A Kandinsky-inspired art project that is perfect for first graders. Students will use paint, construction paper and string to create a masterpiece that will catch everyone’s eye.
6. Fun Cityscape Collages Art for Young Kiddos – Here is a layer by layer tutorial on making cityscape collages using paint, Sharpie markers and newspaper.
7. Recycled Paper Daisies & Dragonfly Art Project – Get creative and resourceful with this recycling art project. Here is a tutorial for a simple recycled paper art project to make with second or third grade.
8. Colorful Ceramic Clay Coral Reefs Art Project – Here is how to make clay coral reefs with your class that are very colorful.
9. Stunning Planets Space Art: Shading Techniques – Students pick a planet to illustrate and use chalk to create the colors and shading. With a stunning a bold piece of art like this, what’s not to love?
10. Japanese Cherry Blossom Art – Connect art and literature with this spring Japanese art project.
11. Easy and Stunning Wildflower Art in 30 Minutes – Finding the perfect watercolor art project can be just as simple as snagging 3 materials and 30 minutes.
12. Gorgeous Ceiling Chalk Art Butterflies – Capture art with gorgeous sidewalk art inspired drawings. Here is a chalk art tutorial on how to create beautiful masterpieces for your school.
13. How to Draw Graffiti Art Project – Here is a how to draw graffiti lesson plan that is perfect for open house night, connecting with literature or for learning concepts of art.
14. Beautifully Easy Spring Monet Art Project – Create a gorgeous water scene art project inspired by Monet in your classroom.
15. How to Make Stunning Symmetry Name Art – Here is the step by step tutorial on how to make symmetry name art with your class.
16. Sea Creatures Paint Project – A fantastic art project tutorial to create sea creatures with third graders.
17. Watercolor Flower Art Project – Here is a beautiful flower art project for kids using watercolors and oil pastels using simple shapes.
18. Phases of the Moon Oil Painting – An oil painting project using crayons, oil paint crayons and water that connects science with art.
What a creative set of projects for all grades! I hope you found these inspiring ideas helpful.
Thanks to all of the talented teachers featured in this collection – your art projects are fantastic an inspiring! Feel free to grab the “ I’m a Featured Teach Junkie ” blog button as your creations are definitely worth the shout out.
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Teach Junkie
Leslie {aka the original Teach Junkie} loves learning new things to make teaching easier and more effective. She enjoys featuring creative classroom fun when she's not designing teacher shirts, making kindergarten lesson plans or planning her family's next trip to Disney World.
High School Art Projects that Students LOVE!
Do you ever get “that” look from your high school students when you present a project to them? You know what I mean, the deer in the headlights look. Art projects need to challenge the students in design and technique while engaging their interests. This in itself can be challenging for an art teacher to tackle.
These four high school art projects have proven to be successful at challenging and engaging the students (you know the kids like a project when they ask if they can do it again!).
Beyond the Border
Medium: Watercolor & India Ink Project
Create a 2D mixed media art piece that explores the expansion of the main subject matter that is in the inner rectangle branching into the border around it-going beyond the border. The main subject should remain in color, but everything else turns black & white outside the main rectangle… FULL Lesson
Ceramics Roll-A-Beast Animal Sculptures
Medium: Ceramics
Body Features determined by Rolling the Dice!
FUN, FUN, FUN!! Create a fantasy creature that has unique body features determined by rolling dice, then create the creature in ceramics. After choosing 6 predetermined animal parts that you want to include in the project & assign each part to a number (ex:1=Wings/feathers, 2=fangs/tusks, 3=tentacles, 4=fins/scales, 5=fur, 6=horns/antlers/claws). Keep the list a surprise until everyone had a chance to roll the dice… FULL Lesson
Motorcycle Mixed-Media Art Lesson High School
Creating dynamic compositions in high school art.
Providing interesting subject matter for planning & creating compositions is important for art teachers to do. I had envisioned doing this mixed media motorcycle art project for several years & was so grateful to find someone who was willing to bring their motorcycle up to our school so my high school students could draw it! I wanted something to really challenge & provide a super interesting subject to teach composition to my high school art class… FULL Lesson
Watercolor Pouring and Masking Portrait Art Lesson
Medium: Watercolors
Are you or your students super tight when it comes to painting? I know I am!! Trying to loosen up a “tight” painter is HARD to do-it takes practice, trial & error. This HS art painting lesson is a great exercise in loosening up and letting go of control. Students will review positive and negative space. The will use a photo editing program to transform a portrait to show high contrast values (black or white only). They will experiment with different watercolor techniques such as pouring, masking and splattering.
All of the lessons are accompanied by ART TECHNIQUE lessons-see my Shop for Lesson Plans & Worksheets
If you choose to use or share any of this post, please link back to my blog Create Art with ME !
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My Favorite Middle School Art Projects
After a decade of teaching high school art, I’ve recently moved to teaching middle school art. It’s a blast and there is truly NEVER a dull moment. Through some trial and error, I’ve learned that some projects are more engaging than others. Below are some of my favorite middle school art projects that have yielded engagement and great visual end products! The ideas below use a variety of art media and include a range of 2d and 3d art projects. I hope you enjoy! Feel free to comment below if you’d like to share some of your personal idea for successful middle school art projects.
#1- 3D Shadowbox Collages
Student goal: Use found collage images to create layers of depth inside a 3D foam core shadowbox. Click here for the full lesson of this 3d shadowbox collage project.
#2- Colored Light Self Portraits
Student goal: Use colored pencils on toned paper to draw a self portrait of yourself photographed with a colored light source (we used 3 light sources- red, blue and green bulbs). Click here for more information about this lesson using colored light sources.
A variation with a cropped composition on expressive eyes.
#3- Vortex Drawings
Student goal: Use a media of your choice to draw a vortex that shows depth, rhythm and movement. Click here for a full lesson on how to draw a variety of vortexes.
#4- Alien Point of View Perspective Drawings
Student goal: Use paint stix, oil pastels, or colored pencils to render an exaggerated “alien’s point of view” space drawing. Click here for free lesson a guided worksheet of this fun, alien perspective drawing.
#5- 1/2 Cartoon Face Digital Portraits
Student goal: With a photographed portrait, creatively divide the face in half and use digital drawing methods to stylize one side as a cartoon. Click here for free guided steps on how to do the 1/2 cartoon face portrait.
*This project was inspired by a viral challenge called #cartoonme. Lots of cool inspiration photos online!
#6- Plaster Masks
Student goal: Using plaster strips upon a cardboard armature, create a wearable 3d mask. **In my class, we connected this to Hispanic heritage month and created Sugar Skull and Alebrije masks. We used this free template to create the armature for the mask.
#7- Elements of Art Project
Student goal: Divide one subject into seven sections. In each section, illustrate each of the elements of art using a variety of materials. For more information on this lesson including step by step directions, click here.
#8- Monochromatic Posterized Portrait Paintings
Student goal: Using a portrait of your choice, create a monochromatic, posterized portrait. **We used this method (with the free webpased program Pixlr) to digitally posterize our photo references prior to drawing and painting them on canvas.
#9 Limited Color Scheme Landscapes
Student goal: Using a random color scheme of only 5 colors, create a composition of a landscape that shows a sense of space with foreground, mid ground and background. ** Click here to check out how I randomly assign students their 5 colors and their landscape setting. There is also a free guided video to show students how to begin this project.
#10 Surreal Collage Perspective Rooms
Student goal: Draw a room with accurate 1 point perspective techniques and add color to all sides of the room. Then, creatively incorporate surreal collage images into the room. Click here to check out my FREE guided step by step instructions on how to draw a 1 point perspective room interior.
#11- Open ended art challenges
Student goal: Using a random art challenge prompt (such as the #blendartchallenge) , artists will use a style and medium of their choice to compose a solution.
#12-Monster Dolls (inspired by kid drawings)
Student goal: Using a drawing of a monster from a young child for inspiration, create a hand sewn stuffed animal. Use a variety of materials including felt, cloth, yarn, buttons, and more!
#13- Wire Stocking Sculptures
Student goal: Using a block of wood as your base and a nylon stocking stretched over a manipulated wire hanger, create an interesting 3d form. Use acrylic paint to create a gradient of at least 3 colors.
This is a really popular project, if you are looking for step by step directions a quick google search of ‘wire stocking sculptures’ should get ya there!
#14- Dictionary Page Drawings
Student goal: Given a random dictionary page, find at last one word on the page to illustrate visually. Use a variety of art media to contrast your drawn image with the busy background. ** For more info on this lesson, check out this link here.
#15- Geometric Creatures
Student goal : On a watercolor wash background, draw a silhouette of a creature. Break your creature into polygonal shapes and add color with marker.
#16- Collaborative School Logo “Quilt” Drawings
Student goal: Create a quilted tile section of the school logo. Use a material of your choice and a style of your choice to show your individual personality. **Note, the entire logo is visually connected by the black lines.
#17- Faux Lined Paper Illusion Drawings
Student goal: On a white piece of paper, create a “faux” lined piece of paper with bending blue lines over a shaded pencil drawing. **My students used this awesome website by Julianna Kunstler to aid in our drawings. It was very helpful.
#19 Linoleum block printing
Student goal: Create high contrast prints using a hand carved linoleum block.
#20-Oil Pastel Dragon Eyes
Student goal: Use oil pastels to create a colorful drawing of dragon eye. Imply the texture of the scales through use of blending gradients. **Note- I am definitely not the teacher who created this idea, it’s pretty popular and oh-so-fun! I would love to credit whoever originally got this going, so let me know! My students used t his resource by Art by Ro to help us draw the dragon eyes.
#21- Line Drawing Landscapes-in-a-shape
Student goal: Create a landscape in a shape that shows a sense of depth. Explore a variety of line drawing techniques such as hatching and stippling to add texture and value. **Note, this lesson comes from this post from Cassie Stephens who was inspired by an artist named Jen Aranyi.
#22- ANYTHING op art!
Student goal: Choose from a choice board (I gave them lots of choices!), create an original op art drawing! **If you are interested in a fun op art drawing from Make a Mark Studios, check it out here! 🙂
#23 Art History Reproductions
Student goal: Analyzing the brushstrokes, colors, and composition, recreate a famous artwork. **We created ours on our ceiling tiles as our 8th grade legacy works. C lick here for tips we learned along the way for painting on ceiling tiles.
#24 Non Objective Abstract Art
Student goal: Use sharpie to draw a non objective abstract artwork with a variety of lines and shapes. Using oil pastels, color in the composition fully.
#25 3D Creature Heads
Student goal: Use recyclables to build an armature of a 3d fictional creature head of your own imagination. Use paper mache or plaster strips to finalize your head . For full lesson on how to do this, check out my blog post here—
#26 Glowing Light Bulb Drawing
Student goal: Use colored pencils on black paper to create the illusion of a glowing light bulb. For step by step guided tutorial and video, check out my full post here.
#27 Watercolor Mosaic
Student goal: Create a mosaic using cut tiles from a painted watercolor background. Explore either random polygonal tile shapes or a geometric repeated shape. For full lesson, check out my blog post here.
#28 2 point perspective graffiti wall
Student goal: Create a personalized graffiti tag on an illustrated 2 point perspective brick wall. For a FREE full guided drawing lesson of how to do this, check out my blog post here.
#27 Bauhaus Geometric Shape Paper Collages
Student goal: Create an asymmetrically balanced, geometric Bauhaus-inspired paper collage. For more info on this creative shape challenge, check out my blog post here.
#28 Mixed Media Abstract Art with EMPHASIS
Student goal: Create a mixed media abstract artwork that employs the principle of design EMPHASIS to create a defined focal point. For more info on this lesson, c heck out my blog post here.
#29 Hand Sewn Pop Tart Plushies!!
Student goal: Hand sew a pop art plushie inspired by contemporary felt artist, Lucy Sparrow! Step by step tutorial for how to sew a pop tart can be found here!
#30- Primary color, Pop Art Inspired Onomatopoeia Compositions!
Student goal: Create a composition of an onomatopoeia inspired by the pop artists using techniques such as ben day dots, primary color schemes, bold outlines, and more! Click here for the lesson on how to complete this Pop art project..
#31- Color wheel in an Eye
Student goal: Using only 3 primary colors of paint, create a color of 12 analogous colors in an iris of an eye. Click here for a step by step tutorial of how to create a color wheel in an eye.
Thanks for checking out this blog post! Please follow Make a Mark Studios on Facebook to keep up with the latest posts! Thanks in advance!
-Stephanie Villiotis , creator of Make a Mark Studios
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Art project ideas for students: tips and inspiration
Looking for art project ideas for students? How do you find an original and innovative approach? Have you been given an exam topic or a class-wide starting point? The Student Art Guide provides advice from experienced art teachers and offers step-by-step guidelines for selecting an excellent subject, topic or theme. The collection of articles below includes lists of art topics for students, art assignment ideas, as well as advice for selecting themes for coursework projects. Although this material is designed for senior high school students, it may also be useful for generating art project ideas for university and college students.
50+ Still life drawing ideas for Art students
This article lists still life ideas for teachers or students who are stuck or in need of inspiration. The collection includes tried and true favourites that have been used by Art teachers for generations, as well as more unusual and contemporary still life topics.
How to avoid the cliché in a high school Art project
Starting a new unit of work can be a daunting prospect for even the most confident of high school Art students. This article helps you ensure that your work is original, innovative and individual.
How to Make a Mind Map: Creative Examples for High School Art Students
This article features 23 creative mind map examples and other visual brainstorming illustrations to inspire high school Art students.
GCSE / IGCSE / A Level Art Exam Ideas 2013
A collection of GCSE, IGCSE and A Level Art exam topic interpretations and ideas to help students prepare for their 2013 Art exams.
2012 GCSE / IGCSE / A Level Art Exam Paper: Help, Ideas & Interpretation
Looking for ideas? The GCSE, IGCSE and A Level Art exam paper contain topics which must be used to stimulate ideas for a portfolio of artwork.
Cool Art Project Ideas
This is a concise article, aimed at helping students generate fun, original and ‘cool’ art project ideas.
How to develop your ideas in an Art project
A level art students must present a Coursework portfolio that shows development. What does development mean? This article explains.
Art Project Ideas: A Guide to Subject Matter Selection
How to come up with an inspiring, original topic for your high school Art project (GCSE, IGCSE and A Level Art ideas from an experienced teacher and coursework assessor).
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The only options most teachers have for how to find art lessons is by spending hours weeding through the millions of ideas that come up on Google and Pinterest. Or to scour Teachers Pay Teachers for expensive supplements to your local curriculum. Or to try to force-fit the overwhelming school art program that requires all kinds of fancy materials (all in your “free” time, right?).
But even after giving up most of Sunday afternoon searching for ideas, all you turn up is one or two puny lesson plans with instructions that are about as easy to follow as IRS Form 13909. You need a faster way to find fun art projects with user-friendly directions that will engage your kids. But… how? Enter: Art Projects for Kids.
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The Art Projects for Kids step-by-step method of elementary art instruction breaks the often anxiety-inducing subject of art down into a simple, fun process (for students AND teachers) that boosts your students’ confidence and allows them to create with joy.
Each of your kids can set their own pace to create artwork they can be proud of. And you can feel empowered to instill your kids with the delight of creativity (even if you tend to be a left-brained, “in the box” thinker yourself).
But after 20 years in the classroom as an art teacher, I also know what it’s like to give up every Sunday afternoon (and most evenings) to plan the week’s lessons. You shouldn’t have to give up all your free time to bring your students meaningful art instruction. That’s why at Art Projects for Kids , you’ll find a variety of easy, step-by-step lessons your kids will love all in one place . The result is an instant extra 90 minutes minutes back in your weekend — just by signing up for our emails (and it’s free!).
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Easy How to Draw a Balloon Dog Tutorial and Balloon Dog Tutorial
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Alma Woodsey Thomas Art Lesson Plan for Kids: Painting Project
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Easy How to Draw Jackie Robinson Tutorial Video and Jackie Robinson Coloring Page
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Instead, enjoy a classroom brimming with perseverance and playfulness . Wake up looking forward to walking into your classroom armed with your easy lesson plans and even videos you can play for your class. Smile as you watch your creative kids discover that, yes, they CAN have fun doing art. Feel truly prepared (maybe for the first time ever) . Treat yourself to a relaxing Sunday with your feet up. Maybe even reading a book that didn’t come out of the kids section of the library. And know that your (free) email membership to Art Projects for Kids is powering all of this, like your magical teaching fairy godmother. And even when you rest? It won’t.
Really boosts their drawing confidence!
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All you have to do is say “yes” to the Art Projects for Kids daily email and watch as the 3,152 minutes you’re losing each year to searching for art activities slowly come dripping back into your life. Because what busy teacher doesn’t want another 3,152 minutes per year without doing anything differently at all? Get the Art Projects for Kids daily email, and let us do the heavy lifting for you.
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5 Successful One-Day Art Lessons for the Middle School Classroom
We’ve all been there. You start your day with grand intentions for a stellar lesson. Still, your plans are interrupted for whatever reason, and you can’t quite pull it together. Maybe too many students are absent, you have less of an essential supply than you remembered, or a pep rally is cutting your class twenty minutes short. Don’t feel guilty! It happens to the most organized of us. Whether you need a lesson in a pinch or want to plan ahead to teach a quick technique, one-day lessons make great tools to fill your toolbox.
The right one-day lesson does more than just fill time. These quick activities can also be highly engaging! Creating a project from start to finish in one sitting provides immediate satisfaction for students while giving them an opportunity for valuable skill-building. One-day lessons can also introduce larger concepts in a simple way before jumping into a bigger unit. By selecting smaller paper sizes, simplifying materials, and using basic art tools, you will be well on your way to implementing one-day lessons in no time!
The best one-day lessons have built-in potential for success.
Highly successful lessons are enjoyable and engaging. A few other things they have in common include:
- Clear and limited steps.
- Completion in one class period.
- Student autonomy (in material choice, design, color, etc.).
- Scaffolding for future skills and techniques.
- Easy clean-up.
Here are five simple, one-day art lessons that will keep your middle schoolers engaged.
1. crumpled paper “stained glass”.
It doesn’t get much easier than this! Show students a completed version and connect it to patterns found in stained glass windows. Use this History of Stained Glass download below. You can find this resource in the Nature’s Stained Glass Lesson to help you introduce historical connections. Find this lesson and many others in FLEX Curriculum.
Students will have so much fun fracturing and coloring in their paper by following these steps:
- Crumple a half sheet of paper. After re-opening the paper, examine the tons of tiny, fractured shapes and folds.
- Create a “stained glass” look using a pencil or ultra-fine permanent marker to outline every shape. It’s fun to see the look on students’ faces when you casually mention this!
- Color in each shape, using colored pencils for a soft look or markers for a bold one. Alternate colors so that no two shapes with the same color are touching.
This wonderfully simple lesson subtly requires persistence to complete and encourages thoughtful decision-making in the color arrangement. If papers are well-crumpled and students take their time applying color, this project can quickly fill an average class period and is sure to leave students feeling satisfied.
Do you want to extend your lesson?
Try the Lesson, Radial Stained Glass , to continue building the skills from this exercise. This lesson can be found in FLEX Curriculum .
2. Abstract Papercutting
It pays to maintain color-separated boxes of scrap paper throughout the school year for projects like this! Whether you need to reduce the amount you have accumulated or want a fast project to practice color theory, cutting skills, and composition, this one’s for you. Your artists can practice warm and cool or complementary colors depending on your curriculum goals. They can also demonstrate more advanced cutting techniques such as overlapping, layering, and emphasis.
Students begin abstract papercutting by following these steps:
- Select a large piece of colorful construction paper as a base.
- Cut organic shapes from contrasting colored pieces of scrap paper using scissors.
- Apply glue to the back of each organic shape.
- Arrange the organic shapes on the base construction paper to create an exciting composition.
You can seamlessly connect this activity to a unit about Henri Matisse’s cut-outs or an intermediate-level lesson to create a Recycled Paper Abstract Collage . Find this collage lesson and many others in our FLEX Curriculum .
3. Suminagashi Paper Marbling
Suminagashi paper marbling is a little-known, magical activity that wins students over every time . The process utterly mesmerizes students and teaches them how to experiment with patterns and color. As a bonus, students will generate multiple sheets of decorative paper for use in future projects. Suminagashi is so fun that students will even enjoy watching others do it!
Pre-packaged kits make a suminagashi lesson easy, or you can purchase a few bulk materials to have on hand.
Here’s how to get started:
- Fill shallow trays with water.
- Drop the paper dot that comes with the kits into the water.
- Squeeze a drop of the suminagashi ink onto the dot and watch as it magically pushes the dot through the water!
- Add several subsequent drops in varying colors to create patterns.
- Manipulate the dot and influence the ink’s pattern on the water’s surface using a paintbrush or chopstick. Students will enjoy experimenting with different techniques, such as blowing the water or gently tilting the tray to see how their patterns change. Be careful not to “overmix” the ink, or colors and patterns may become muddy.
- Gently lay a piece of paper on the water’s surface for a few seconds.
- Starting from one corner, lift the paper in one smooth motion to reveal the ink design adhered to the paper.
- Allow the paper to dry.
After an experiment or two, students will learn which colors and techniques produce their desired results. Make sure you have enough kits for each station or table group in your classroom so students can try creating several papers.
Once the papers have dried, you can incorporate them in future lessons about bookbinding, visual journaling, or collage. Try using the paper as a background in the lesson, Watercolor Coral Collage, or integrate it into a Painted Paper Weaving artwork. Find both of these lessons in FLEX Curriculum . No matter how you choose to connect this activity to your lessons, students are sure to love this intriguing process.
4. Watercolor and Salt Paintings
A fun way to scaffold watercolor projects and talk about science is by experimenting with watercolor and salt. Salt absorbs water through the process of osmosis. Students investigate color mixing by allowing painted areas to bleed into one another. Encourage them to observe how varying amounts of water and salt types in different areas correlate to the final, dried result.
This low-stakes exercise allows students to test out hypotheses about salt’s effect on watercolor paint by following these steps:
- Apply watercolor paint to watercolor paper using the wet-on-dry method.
- Sprinkle salt over the watercolor paint.
- Wet dry areas of the paper with water and then apply watercolor paint using the wet-on-wet method. Allow the paint to pool, and sprinkle salt into the pools.
- Allow areas of watercolor paints to mix, and apply salt.
- After the paper has thoroughly dried, brush the salt off the paper over a trash can and observe the effect it has created.
Once students understand how salt applications affect watercolor paint, they can try Hide/Seek: The Art of Camouflage. In this lesson, students approach science from a different angle and practice more control of their salt application to create their desired outcome. Look for this lesson in FLEX Curriculum .
5. Value Scale Water Droplet
This small but mighty pencil and paper assignment is a tried and true plan for working with the most limited materials to generate the most significant impact. Students will be delighted as they work to create the illusion of a water droplet on paper. Plus, it’s easier than it looks!
With a piece of paper, pencil, and eraser at the ready, start creating droplets by following these steps:
- Draw one to three circles on your paper.
- Select which angle you will have a light source coming from. The example above shows the light source shining from the upper left corner of the paper.
- Sketch a crescent moon shape on the light source’s side of the circle and shade it with a medium to light gradation.
- At the outer edge of the crescent, the circle’s outline will have the deepest shaded value. It should lighten and fade toward the center of the circle. The lightest value should be at the circle’s center and out toward the opposite side. Students may want to use their erasers during the blending process.
- Add “shine” highlights on the crescent by creating rounded rectangular shapes.
- Complete the effect with the shadow cast on the side farthest from the light source by shading it with the deepest value.
Students will be thrilled to try their hand at these four additional value scale activities .
Let your one-day lessons do double duty.
There are many different times when a one-class lesson makes the most sense to implement. First, consider which skills you want your students to practice and how to maximize their learning. Is your goal to introduce a larger unit later or to briefly reinforce existing skills? Then, use one of these quick-to-organize lessons to create fun and satisfying masterpieces. You will be amazed at how engaging one-class projects can be and how prepared your students will feel to level up to the next assignment. Give yourself some breathing room, and then get back to your regularly-scheduled plans without guilt.
What are your most effective one-day art lesson ideas for middle school?
How do you use one-day lessons to scaffold larger units?
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.
Andrea Wlodarczyk
Andrea Wlodarczyk, a former middle school art educator, is a former AOEU Writer. She is a deep believer that the art room can be a brave space for students to collaborate across cultures, languages, academics, and socioeconomics and celebrate self-expression and diversity through community.
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7 Common Misconceptions When Approaching Your Art Curriculum This Year
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It is Back to School Art Lesson Planning season and I am so excited to share my ULTIMATE Back to School Art Project Ideas & Guide for Engaging Art Lessons for kids from Kindergarten to Middle School with you! These are some HOT new Art Lessons that explore Artists & Art History and a variety of Themes that you can use to help plan your YEAR! There are over 650 Art Resources in the Ms Artastic TpT store now and they will help you facilitate art instruction in your classroom.
Let’s take a look at some of the amazing resources in this guide!
Amazing Back to School Art Lessons for Teachers
Here are some FABULOUS New Art Lessons that you can use this year in your classroom! Get ready to excite and engage your students with a variety of art mediums while exploring Art History and fun themes!
By the Way… The Artastic Collective: Membership for Art Teachers Opens for Enrollment August 3rd!
The Artastic Collective Membership is the most complete & diverse Curriculum for Art Teachers and instructors to access and use in their classrooms! With a library that explores a range of mediums, cultures, themes, and moments in art history, this curriculum is designed to meet all your classroom needs. From ready-to-use art lessons, video tutorials, a complete year-long art teacher course, drawing video series, and community forum, this is the ONLY membership you need to find the art lessons you want.
HAPPY BACK TO SCHOOL!
I know this is always a love/hate thing. I hope you had a great break and rested up and I hope this guide generates some ideas of what you might be teaching this year in your classroom to engage your students and get them WANTING to make some art!
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Finally, if you need some ideas or need to take a break in your classroom or from recording lessons for online instruction, I have lots of Art Video tutorials that are classroom friendly on my YouTube Channel!
Thank you for reading my blog post ! I am grateful that you did and I appreciate you having took the time to read to the end. Thank you so much. Please write any questions you have in the comments section of this post. Please help me out by subscribing to my YouTube Channel to help me reach my goal of 100,000 subscribers. I teach full art lessons and drawing tutorials for kids on my channel and I am confident you will enjoy your subscription. Click here to subscribe! Yours Truly, Kathleen McGiveron (Ms Artastic)
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Hands on kids activities for hands on moms. Focusing on kids activities perfect for toddlers and preschoolers.
20 Simple Back to School Art Projects for Kids
Art Projects All Ages Back to School BlogHer Name Resources 336 Comments
Back to school art projects don’t have to be done in the classroom! They can be done at home to get the kids excited about school too!
What do you think of when it comes to “back to school”?
I absolutely love art. I was an art major, studying graphic design.
However, I’m not an artist.
I know, that seems contradictory.
But I don’t live and breathe art, and I don’t actually know much about the history of art. I just truly enjoy creating things , especially with my kids.
I know art is a big deal when it comes to education.
Could I tell you the whys?
Not really. I just know it’s important.
To read more about why art in education is important, I shared a few points below that I think are important and explain it fairly well.
- Art increases test scores across every subject area
- Art lowers dropout rates
- Art increases attendance
- Art drives motivation
- Art creates a deeper understanding of diversity, culture, and history
So, I’m spreading the word and sharing some fun back to school art projects that kids can do, whether they’re at home or in the classroom!
Get a FREE Giant Go-To List of Arts & Crafts!
20 Back to School Art Projects to Get the Kids Excited for School and the Arts!
When back to school comes to mind, I think introductions and getting to know each other.
What’s more important than their name?
And of course, self-portraits to show everyone what you are all about.
And then I think apples.
An apple for the teacher.
Or is it that fall is just around the corner and the apples are ripening?
Either way, apples come to mind when I think of back to school.
Name Art Projects for Back to School:
When a child starts each school year, there are probably some new kids’ names to learn. And they’re probably telling their names to the other kids too.
Even in a small school like ours, Henry is still meeting new kids in his class each year.
I don’t think anyone really likes to make introductions, so what better way than to say it with art?
Show off their personality a little bit and share their name!
And at home, it’s more about them becoming confident in themselves.
- Make your name in salt and glue. Gorgeous watercolor art from Happy Hooligans. The reaction that watercolors have on salt is amazing to watch!
- Their name magically appears! Toddler Approved writes their name as a secret message for the kids. We’ve done this with letters to learn the ABCs as well as sight words .
- A mosaic name. Rainbows Within Reach adds fine motor practice to a name art project!
- Matisse inspired names! This name art project from A Glimmer of Light is incredibly fun, abstract and shows off their personality all while learning about a famous artist!
- Write it in tape. Do a tape resist art project with their initials or names.
- Name bugs! Or monsters, aliens or whatever! What will your child’s name make? See what I mean at No Time for Flash Cards!
- Use letters to paint their name. This is a great way for younger kids, preschoolers and even toddlers to learn the letters and order of their name, but also just plain fun for ones that already know it. No Time for Flashcards used letter cookie cutters, letter magnets would also work!
Self Portraits Art Projects for Back to School:
Along with learning their names, the first week back to school always seems about getting to know each other and having the children share about themselves to the class.
It’s fun to bring this home to get to know each other too!
I always love the little homework assignments to tell the class about my kids. It always helps me really get to know them again, and better.
So I thought it would be fun to take it a step further and do these back to school art projects at home and do some self-portraits (I think I’ll even do them myself)!
- Portrait silhouettes ! This is a classic that I remember from my childhood. This one is from “whatever…”
- Half photo, half self-portrait. I love this twist on a self-portrait from Art Is A Way to have the child finish a photo of himself.
- Full body tracing from The Artful Parent.
- Take the body tracing a step further and make it just for the first day of school to get them excited!
- Colorful tissue paper art on self-portraits! This is such a gorgeous way for kids to express themselves! From Simply Art Lessons.
- Draw yourself from scratch. Another one from picklebums.
- A paper collage self-portrait found at Mrs. Lee’s Kindergarten in her All About Me lesson plan. This would also be great for learning shapes !
Apple Art Projects for Back to School Season:
School and teachers make me think apples. It just does.
To gear up and get excited about back to school, do some of these fun apple art projects!
- We just recently decorated lunch sacks with apple prints !
- Or make an apple tree collage !
- I love these apple suncatchers from Mom to 2 Posh Li’l Divas.
- Or roll apples to make art from Preschool Daze! You know I love big art!
- These newspaper apples are so fun and pretty from Frog Spot!
- Paint an apple tree with wine corks! Love this from Juggling with Kids. Of course, I already have a stash of wine corks, but it may give me a reason to enjoy a bottle over the weekend!
As part of the weekly activities planner, I also recently shared a fun week of back to school activities to do ! For the whole week!
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About Jamie Reimer
Jamie learned to be a hands on mom by creating activities, crafts and art projects for her three boys to do. Jamie needed the creative outlet that activities provided to get through the early years of parenting with a smile! Follow Jamie on Pinterest and Instagram !
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Reader Interactions
336 comments.
final year projects says
May 10, 2019 at 7:14 pm
Thanks for finally talking about >20 Back to School Art Projects for Kids – hands on : as we grow <Liked it!
Esther says
March 21, 2017 at 10:46 am
Hello Jamie, thank you so much for all what you are have being sharing with us als parents. God bless you and keep giving you wisdom and understanding. God bless yr little ones and yr husband for all their supports. I did some of yr activities, and my child loves it. Will like to send you some of the pics. Later. Am from the Nederland. Thanks for all yr letters. Love, Esther
August 25, 2016 at 1:04 am
Clothes and a new backpack! Maybe some things for organization.
Kimberley Meier says
December 28, 2014 at 1:25 am
New clothes and shoes are always on the back to school shopping list!
Shannon S says
November 26, 2014 at 1:11 pm
https://twitter.com/Shannon91981/status/537685016361193472
November 26, 2014 at 1:10 pm
Clothes my boys can wear to school on art day!
Brittney says
October 20, 2014 at 3:44 pm
Art is a great way for children to develop and learn. Thanks for sharing these great art projects that any child can enjoy.
Angel Jacklyn says
September 24, 2014 at 10:29 pm
https://twitter.com/kytah00/status/514979956497981440
September 24, 2014 at 10:28 pm
BABY CLOTHES FOR THE NEW ADDITION! [email protected]
Nicole says
September 19, 2014 at 5:26 pm
New shoes for gym class
September 18, 2014 at 5:07 pm
My kids all need new pants for their ever growing bodies!
September 16, 2014 at 11:12 am
I really do love JCpenny as a store, they have tons of items and such that are great for activities!
September 16, 2014 at 11:05 am
tweeted https://twitter.com/jumpinupanddown/status/511908530836631552
September 16, 2014 at 11:03 am
I need to get paper and pencils and clothes and shoes for my friend’s daughter.
kristy says
September 15, 2014 at 10:54 pm
Supplies like pencils, crayons, folders, paper, and clothes
September 15, 2014 at 10:27 pm
We need to buy backpack supplies: paper, colored pencils, folders, pencil bags, etc. School is cool.
September 15, 2014 at 10:26 pm
My tweet entry: https://twitter.com/rickyroberts123/status/511717607011913728
September 15, 2014 at 10:25 pm
I tweeted here — https://twitter.com/JoanSmirth007/status/511717112339910656
September 15, 2014 at 10:24 pm
I want to buy some new clothes and binders for school.
deanna says
September 15, 2014 at 10:22 pm
I want to buy some new shoes and frames for school photos. Thanks for the giveaway.
Tweet – https://twitter.com/dlw447/status/511716462264733696
Kelly Faber says
September 15, 2014 at 10:21 pm
Here is my tweet :) https://twitter.com/lovealways5/status/511716409336791042
September 15, 2014 at 10:18 pm
Definitely shoes and lots of clothes for the kids!!
Leigh Borders says
September 15, 2014 at 9:31 pm
https://twitter.com/laborders2000/status/511703932901818368
September 15, 2014 at 9:30 pm
On my back to school shopping list… clothes and supplies. My children are growing so fast and it seems I just can’t keep them in their clothing.
Alison Matalanis says
September 15, 2014 at 9:12 pm
I tweeted https://twitter.com/AMatalanis/status/511698979718176768
Katie Bellamy says
September 15, 2014 at 9:09 pm
Clothes! Lots of clothes for back to school!
Backpacks and long sleeve shirts are on our list for back to school.
Megan K says
September 15, 2014 at 8:27 pm
Tweet: https://twitter.com/TwoMegan/status/511687740702732288
Angela R Higdon says
We need jeans and hoodies!!
September 15, 2014 at 8:26 pm
https://twitter.com/angela2562/status/511687541360062465
September 15, 2014 at 8:25 pm
Our list includes new shoes!
Robyn R says
September 15, 2014 at 7:39 pm
Tweet: https://twitter.com/Coolestmommy/status/511675345414914048
My kids went back to school in mid-August. (ICK!) But, on our list was not only school supplies, but art supplies for home. We like to create and make crafts or do art projects to relax. This week, we’ve been enjoying homemade play doh.
Katy M says
September 15, 2014 at 6:52 pm
We are definitely looking for some school and art supplies to restock our house after a busy and creative summer! We’ll also need to pick up some fall clothing – boots and sweaters
September 15, 2014 at 6:51 pm
I tweeted https://twitter.com/kaheys/status/511663445725294592
AndreaH says
September 15, 2014 at 6:14 pm
I tweeted: https://twitter.com/andreacouponz/status/511654150203904001
September 15, 2014 at 6:13 pm
My back to school list has a couple more outfits on it and some art supplies.
Elena Vo says
September 15, 2014 at 5:58 pm
I tweeted about the giveaway here:
https://twitter.com/LifesDeepColors/status/511650073105559552
September 15, 2014 at 5:56 pm
New clothes, each time the school season is around! They grow so fast and last season’s clothes rarely fit.
Amy Honious says
September 15, 2014 at 5:22 pm
My kids are all grown, so I have new bathroom curtains on my back to school list :)
Thomas Murphy says
September 15, 2014 at 5:16 pm
https://twitter.com/thomasmurphy40/status/511639611903180800
September 15, 2014 at 5:15 pm
A new back pack is on my back to school shopping list.
Jill Myrick says
September 15, 2014 at 4:35 pm
I tweeted the giveaway as @jlsc123 (Jill Myrick) located here:
https://twitter.com/jlsc123/status/511629036057948160
jweezie43[at]gmail[dot]com
September 15, 2014 at 4:32 pm
Our back to school list contains jackets, gloves and shoes for each of our children.
September 15, 2014 at 3:24 pm
https://twitter.com/SoniaNewlife/status/511611324824973312
September 15, 2014 at 3:19 pm
We need back to school fall clothes, sweaters and light jackets.
Pam H. says
September 15, 2014 at 2:13 pm
Shared on Twitter: https://twitter.com/H3artonF1r3/status/511591959756935168
September 15, 2014 at 2:03 pm
A bulletin board is on my back to school list.
tina reynolds says
September 15, 2014 at 1:58 pm
https://twitter.com/eaglesforjack/status/511589826970533889
September 15, 2014 at 1:57 pm
We had to get clothes and supplies and with the weather changing quicly I think we will be getting new snow boots soon
Jay Dee says
September 15, 2014 at 10:48 am
We need to get crayons and construction paper.
Amanda Sakovitz says
September 15, 2014 at 10:31 am
https://twitter.com/aes529/status/511537477208002560
September 15, 2014 at 10:30 am
I really need a new rug for the bathroom
brittani adams says
September 15, 2014 at 10:13 am
I tweeted!! https://twitter.com/mommykarma88/status/511533237454524416
MARY V says
September 15, 2014 at 8:41 am
my tweet: https://twitter.com/Racegirl1022/status/511509899554357248
September 15, 2014 at 8:39 am
Our back to school list is very long this year, lots of writing items, and new backpack all around and the normal stuff too, paper, crayons, scissors & glue Thanks for the great giveaway!
Tabathia B says
September 15, 2014 at 8:15 am
tweet https://twitter.com/ChelleB36/status/511502967170551808
tbarrettno1 at gmail dot com
September 15, 2014 at 8:14 am
I am looking for something to laminate my daughter’s schoolwork and a school sweater
Melissa says
September 15, 2014 at 7:35 am
New clothes, shoes and backpacks! :)
Natalie says
September 15, 2014 at 7:11 am
Lots of school supplies and some fun clothes
alessandro p says
September 15, 2014 at 1:29 am
pens, new shoes, new bags, etc..and yes i think i might buy some frames..
September 15, 2014 at 1:27 am
https://twitter.com/apampolino08/status/511400747377127424
kathy dalton says
September 14, 2014 at 10:12 pm
tweeted https://twitter.com/lilmonkey1959/status/511351610132291584
Angela P. says
September 14, 2014 at 10:11 pm
I tweeted about the promotion here. https://twitter.com/angelatrenna/status/511351398324113408
September 14, 2014 at 9:53 pm
Our back to school list to help the grandkids is short sets and shoes and back packs
September 14, 2014 at 9:52 pm
Aside from clothes and school supplies. Art, construction paper, crayons, glue, scissors, glue, markers.. etc for doing school projects and family craft time at home.
MARTHAIa says
September 14, 2014 at 9:43 pm
Would like to get extra towels & curtains…TY
Cori Westphal says
September 14, 2014 at 8:43 pm
Tweet: https://twitter.com/coriwestphal/status/511329285135532032
coriwestphal at msn dot com
September 14, 2014 at 8:41 pm
New bedroom textiles are on my list! Maybe something in my room to display the kids art too!
Lisa Breece says
September 14, 2014 at 4:19 pm
I tweeted the following for my entry https://twitter.com/surveylisa/status/511262692498481153
Danielle Jones says
September 14, 2014 at 12:34 am
My son needs new jeans and tennis shoes.
Sandra davis says
September 13, 2014 at 5:14 pm
I need some new clothes
September 13, 2014 at 2:33 pm
My entire family could use new clothes. We would be so grateful to win!
Mike Dalton says
September 13, 2014 at 2:28 pm
Kids clothes for the winter :) Thanks!!
Rachel says
September 13, 2014 at 9:18 am
My husbands could use some cold weather clothes.
Katrina says
September 13, 2014 at 8:00 am
My back to school list mostly involves clothes. Which I think JCPenny has, if I’m not mistaken… :)
Teresa Thompson says
September 13, 2014 at 7:27 am
Tweeted-https://twitter.com/SuperNeena1/status/510766549183893504
September 13, 2014 at 7:25 am
We would stock up on fall and winter clothes.
Becky Y. says
September 12, 2014 at 10:59 pm
Pants! My kids just grew overnight and nothing fits.
Holly L says
September 12, 2014 at 10:08 pm
https://twitter.com/hollydlteacher/status/510625950363443200
September 12, 2014 at 10:07 pm
Crayons, Markers, Paint and lots of glue sticks and a cute corkboard for Mommy!
natasha brodsky says
September 12, 2014 at 8:59 pm
I tweeted at https://twitter.com/NatashaBrodsky/status/510608733232062465
September 12, 2014 at 8:58 pm
We just need lots of winter clothes! It is already snowing in Colorado!
Arena Thompson says
September 12, 2014 at 8:10 pm
I tweeted :) https://twitter.com/coastalmama01/status/510596025946755072
Frames to display the kids artwork yes, as well as winter boots and coats!
T Michelle Trump says
September 12, 2014 at 7:41 pm
Tweeted as @tmt121172 on 9/12/14
September 12, 2014 at 7:40 pm
I would love to stock up on jeans and another pair of sneakers!
Kari W says
September 12, 2014 at 4:30 pm
New fall clothes are on our back-to-school list.
Sadie Terry says
September 12, 2014 at 12:01 pm
Colored pencils and paints
tom king says
September 12, 2014 at 12:01 am
would love this
anna pry says
September 11, 2014 at 8:25 pm
i tweeted https://twitter.com/thepryfamily5/status/510232284197171200
[email protected]
art supplies are on our back to school list [email protected]
jennifer says
September 11, 2014 at 5:54 pm
fall clothes and accessories… my daughter is begging for boots!
September 11, 2014 at 1:51 pm
a new backpack and sneakers
Annmarie W. says
September 10, 2014 at 8:07 pm
I tweeted! https://twitter.com/amweeks/status/509870650551304192
September 10, 2014 at 8:06 pm
We got all our school supplies…and this year didn’t seem to be as bad as in past years. Lots of binders, paper, folders, pencils. But too much in the way of clothes (a lot from last year still fits!)
rachel jenkins says
September 10, 2014 at 3:23 pm
https://twitter.com/3024_jenkins Tweeted!
September 10, 2014 at 3:22 pm
a new laptop my little spilt milk all over it and broke it :/
Jamie Reimer says
September 10, 2014 at 3:52 pm
oh I feel ya. My toddler spilled my soda all over mine… had to get a new one too.
September 10, 2014 at 3:07 pm
On my “back to school” shopping list is pens and notepads.
Heather B says
September 10, 2014 at 3:04 pm
My kids love to draw and paint so I know lots of markers, colored pencils and paint is definitely on the list.
Sarah Yurga says
September 10, 2014 at 11:16 am
My daughter could use some warmer clothes. She is too tall for her old pants.
Jillie M. says
September 10, 2014 at 10:07 am
Tweet https://twitter.com/mowpow08/status/509719414715846656
September 10, 2014 at 10:03 am
New clothes, shoes, backpack. I am thinking about a scrapbook type display for projects.
Lindsay fitchett says
September 10, 2014 at 12:28 am
Tees for our fabulous five kiddos! And maybe a new pair of shoes for Mom!
angieboss says
September 9, 2014 at 10:19 pm
colored pencils, dry erase markers crayons and pencils!
Maribel Figueroa says
September 9, 2014 at 9:06 pm
New shoes and a backpack my son is using the same as last year a new one would be wonderful fingerscrossed
Diana C. says
September 9, 2014 at 2:18 pm
I would buy my kids glue, tablets, colored pencils and new back packs.
linda w. says
September 9, 2014 at 1:15 pm
We need plenty of glue sticks and colored pencils.
September 9, 2014 at 12:25 am
Would love to get some new clothes and some shoes for the kiddos.
frances says
September 8, 2014 at 10:17 pm
Backpack, clothes, shoes, office supplies
Rebecca says
September 8, 2014 at 9:13 pm
My kids need new clothes and school supplies.
velder dixon says
September 8, 2014 at 8:41 pm
school clothes and supplies
Lindsey brevitt says
September 8, 2014 at 8:25 pm
Clothes of course, along with the laundry list of supplies
Rachelle says
September 8, 2014 at 8:24 pm
My always growing son d I love JCPenney he for the cool clothes in his size and I the price tags are always wallet friendly!
Julie Cutshaw says
September 8, 2014 at 8:18 pm
Our back to school list was a 5 subject binder, markers, calculator & new hi tops, thanks
Candie L says
September 8, 2014 at 8:14 pm
My kids always need one or two binders and a few spiral notebooks. Thank you
September 8, 2014 at 1:43 pm
richelle bowers says
September 8, 2014 at 10:25 am
I do need new frames for any awards my daughter may get through out the year. I frame them all and put them on her wall
Britnee says
September 7, 2014 at 6:29 pm
We need clothing, paintbrushes, and a lunch box.
September 7, 2014 at 5:38 pm
I need shoes and socks
Ryan Origon says
September 7, 2014 at 12:35 pm
I tweeted – https://twitter.com/mommy_to_rylie/status/508669434731720704
September 7, 2014 at 12:34 pm
Sharp crayons :)
connie tillman says
September 7, 2014 at 12:01 pm
My girls are always wanting to go school clothes shopping. Socks shirts etc. Thanks for the chance
September 7, 2014 at 10:36 am
New backpacks, shoes and a calculator was on my back to school list.
Trisha B. says
September 7, 2014 at 9:32 am
https://twitter.com/champ_ion76/status/508623566263185410
Shoes, backpack, clothing and school supplies.
Maureen says
September 7, 2014 at 8:56 am
I would purchase a few necessary clothing items and shoes for my three children! Thank you.
September 7, 2014 at 8:55 am
This post is SO neat because my daughter, Hannah actually had an expressive moment last week thanks to JC Penney! Her first crush is Blake Shelton and we surprised her with her very first concert tickets. Before the show, she went to the JC Penney tour bus promotion and had a blast. She won tickets but gave hers to the mom and her daughter behind us in line because she wanted to share. It was amazing and my little girl has a heart of gold! https://twitter.com/maureen73/status/508614005355970560
costana hornbaker says
September 7, 2014 at 12:02 am
https://twitter.com/Costana78/status/508480434456387584
preschool art supplies, finger [paints and such
September 6, 2014 at 6:57 pm
new backpack, shoes, clothes, and lunchbox!
Holly Matthews says
September 6, 2014 at 6:11 pm
This is my link to my Tweet. Thanks! https://twitter.com/SweepsTeach/status/508391777506963456
September 6, 2014 at 6:08 pm
New clothes for this teacher are on my back to school shopping list!
Lisa Kubin says
September 6, 2014 at 2:38 pm
My BTS list always includes stocking up on cheap supplies like markers, paper, binders and pens and pencils.
Missy Marie says
September 6, 2014 at 12:23 pm
I would get shoes for my daughter and dress shirts for my son.
September 6, 2014 at 12:22 pm
Tweet https://twitter.com/schutzme/status/508304114691088384 [email protected]
Nichole Smith says
September 6, 2014 at 8:32 am
https://twitter.com/Nikismithwin/status/508246028769042433
September 6, 2014 at 8:29 am
Backpacks, clothes and water bottles are on my back to school list.
Gina M says
September 6, 2014 at 8:21 am
tweet–https://twitter.com/WildOrchid985/status/508243494218248192
September 6, 2014 at 8:19 am
My son needs a new backpack and tennis shoes!
Thanks for the chance to win! wildorchid985 at gmail dot com
Heather W says
September 5, 2014 at 6:25 pm
We got all our back to school supplies before school started – but all the teachers have wish lists posted, so I would like to help out with those!
Kathy Davis says
September 5, 2014 at 5:24 pm
Back to school list includes new shoes.
Charlotte Bowling says
September 5, 2014 at 4:58 pm
love to win this
Susan Smith says
September 5, 2014 at 4:20 pm
https://twitter.com/susan1215/status/508001567169974272
September 5, 2014 at 4:18 pm
Hannah Pitts says
September 5, 2014 at 2:20 pm
Yes, I need picture frames for my children’s artwork and their diplomas etc! I also have notebooks, brads, erasers, pencils, painting supplies, and Lots of paper is on my back to school shopping list!
-Graceful Homemaker
Melissa C. says
September 5, 2014 at 1:20 pm
I tweeted -https://twitter.com/marysueingalls/status/507956267990540288
September 5, 2014 at 1:18 pm
Fortunately I was able to find a lot of back to school stuff already in my house, but we did need to get my daughter some new clothes, dry erase markers, red pens, composition books, etc.
Danielle Porter says
September 5, 2014 at 12:41 pm
https://twitter.com/rqballporter/status/507946600346705920
September 5, 2014 at 12:40 pm
New backpacks, and new lunch boxes! Sometimes backpacks can be reused but our lunch boxes end up really grungy every year!
sandra says
September 5, 2014 at 12:04 pm
new clothes and school supplies
Cheryl W says
September 5, 2014 at 10:56 am
Tweet: https://twitter.com/HeartnSoulmom/status/507919893727936512
Rain gear and coats are still on our back to school shopping list. Thank you for the opportunity to enter.
debbie says
September 4, 2014 at 6:27 pm
Tweet: https://twitter.com/suburbsanity/status/507671322076254208
September 4, 2014 at 6:25 pm
A lot of apartment gear for my son who has his first college apartment is what is on my list.
Mary P says
September 4, 2014 at 1:59 pm
I tweeted: https://twitter.com/myownkatiebug/status/507603694070665217
A good backpack.
Jo Anne says
September 4, 2014 at 11:45 am
My grandchildren and I are having a grand time doing your craft ideas – thanks for sharing
susan smoaks says
September 4, 2014 at 7:51 am
Right now we are two weeks in. We need to pick up some more paper and pencils to get us through the school year.
Dani H says
September 3, 2014 at 11:13 pm
We provide lots of art supplies at home all year round, but we definitely could use some more frames.
Thanks for a chance at the giveaway!
amanda gray says
September 3, 2014 at 11:10 pm
I tweeted! https://twitter.com/amandanicole069/status/507380130378174464
molli vandehey says
September 3, 2014 at 10:54 pm
we are homeschoolers, but my kids are getting writing obsessed, so we can always use more!
Christy says
September 3, 2014 at 9:23 pm
We have all of the supplies but my daughter will need a good winter hat and gloves.
Ariana says
Brand new pens… And good ones!
Jen Haile says
September 3, 2014 at 9:14 pm
I Tweeted: https://twitter.com/XArea51/status/507350978912190465
September 3, 2014 at 9:13 pm
Shoes, shorts, and t-shirts were on our back to school list!
September 3, 2014 at 9:02 pm
Tweet message. https://twitter.com/mahnrafjtb/status/507347862435266560
September 3, 2014 at 9:01 pm
Every year on our back to school list is jeans. My daughter grows so fast. She always needs new jeans. She loves sweaters too.
September 3, 2014 at 8:30 pm
Tweeted! https://twitter.com/kdrabellamy/status/507339886051856384
September 3, 2014 at 8:28 pm
Clothes, clothes and more clothes, oh and shoes, are all on my back to school shoppig list!!
Marsha says
September 3, 2014 at 7:42 pm
New clothes and shoes are always important, and the list of school supplies gets longer and more expensive with each passing year.
Jo-Ann Brightman says
September 3, 2014 at 7:38 pm
I tweeted about this promotion: https://twitter.com/AnnJopb/status/507326716474568704
September 3, 2014 at 7:35 pm
I agree that it is very important for a child’s development in school to have the arts as part of the curriculum
Pamela Gurganus says
September 3, 2014 at 7:34 pm
I tweeted about this promotion. https://twitter.com/PJGurganus/status/507325574042226688
September 3, 2014 at 7:31 pm
I have clothes, shoes, backpacks, lunch boxes, notepads and mechanical pencils on my back to school shopping list.
September 3, 2014 at 7:01 pm
Here’s the link to my tweet: https://twitter.com/RiEmHug/status/507317233266475010
September 3, 2014 at 6:56 pm
My list includes new pants for my husband, who’s a teacher.
September 3, 2014 at 6:39 pm
Our list consists of shoes clothes books. Maybe a frame Yes :)
M.Clark says
September 3, 2014 at 6:26 pm
When back to school comes around I think about the shopping and the books and meeting new people.
caitlyn o says
September 3, 2014 at 5:05 pm
Im a very artistic person and loved your ideas
ashley w says
September 3, 2014 at 3:01 pm
My back to school list includes new glasses for my son and some new tennis shoes for both boys.
robyn donnelly says
September 3, 2014 at 2:11 pm
Our shopping list would need more shoes and belts. Everything else is caught up temporarily.
Jenn S says
September 3, 2014 at 2:09 pm
clothes (esp pants since my son wore holes in all the old ones), shoes, art supplies!
Seyma Shabbir says
September 3, 2014 at 2:06 pm
https://twitter.com/SeymaShabbir/status/507243222716792833
September 3, 2014 at 2:05 pm
Clothes and shoes were the more difficult to find items but we also had to shop for paper, pencils, crayons, scissors, folders, etc.
julie matek says
September 3, 2014 at 1:01 pm
Our back to school list consists of: winter coat, winter boots, rain boots, rain jacket, general school supplies, like markers, etc. Also, a backpack:)
jmatek AT wi DOT rr DOT com
Jessica M says
September 3, 2014 at 12:42 pm
https://twitter.com/blondiefrommd/status/507222038985965568
September 3, 2014 at 12:41 pm
I have twin girls plus two little ones – they need clothes for back to school ive yet to buy them
Kristin says
September 3, 2014 at 12:38 pm
Tweet https://twitter.com/kristinnw/status/507220936488005632
Austin Denman says
September 3, 2014 at 12:12 pm
Thank you for this sweepstakes.
Elizabeth says
September 3, 2014 at 11:22 am
I tweeted… https://twitter.com/beesis26/status/507201761891733504
September 3, 2014 at 11:20 am
Today, my 2 Grandchildren started back to school…a rainy start to the day for them, so some new rain boots would be one of my first buys! Thank you!
Danette DW says
September 3, 2014 at 10:16 am
We still need the undergarment essentials and socks. Also will need new winter jacket, snowpants, and boots. So this would be great.
Caitlyn S. says
September 3, 2014 at 10:12 am
September 3, 2014 at 10:10 am
I really need a black blazer for my meetings with teachers! And some good kids shoes!
Jessica w says
September 3, 2014 at 9:17 am
I tweeted too https://twitter.com/jessrwarfield/status/507170036885102592
September 3, 2014 at 9:15 am
some new clothes and shoes
Kim Kenny says
September 3, 2014 at 9:04 am
https://twitter.com/proudyaya04/status/507166986825371648
Mary Mougeot says
September 3, 2014 at 9:02 am
Awesome giveaway!
September 3, 2014 at 9:00 am
Our kids have already gone back to school but they can always use more clothes!
September 3, 2014 at 8:16 am
Love JCP for back to school!
September 3, 2014 at 8:09 am
My kids have been back to school for awhile, they started in early August. Having teenagers, I would say the main thing on my list is jeans and tennis shoes.
Anita Carol Gambrell says
September 3, 2014 at 7:51 am
I think we got everything together for school. Boys can be rough on clothing though! JCP is the perfect place to get extra nice clothing!
Emily Morelli says
September 3, 2014 at 7:48 am
The first thing on our back-to-school shopping list is a new raincoat and rain boots. Its been a wet year and we wore out all our old gear.
Amy C. says
September 3, 2014 at 7:02 am
I tweeted! https://twitter.com/acools/status/507136495061172224
September 3, 2014 at 7:00 am
Clothes are the main item on my list. My boys have a dress code of polo shirts and blue or tan shorts/pants. My older son is at that age where he cares about what he’s wearing, so it’s all about the Under Armor Shirts.
Evelyn Goettner says
September 3, 2014 at 6:55 am
Tweeted. Here’s my link. https://twitter.com/evie197580/status/507134498551894016
September 3, 2014 at 6:53 am
Frames are a great idea! My kids need new bedding. They’ve outgrown the characters.
Paula V says
September 3, 2014 at 6:32 am
https://twitter.com/pvarble1/status/507128731429646336
September 3, 2014 at 6:30 am
Clothes, shoes are always a must for back to school for the kiddos growing like weeds.
Sherry Compton says
September 3, 2014 at 5:27 am
Pens, tissues, band aids, and tape are main staples.
Michelle H. says
September 3, 2014 at 5:15 am
It would be new clothes for the kids.
Sara Garcia says
September 3, 2014 at 1:09 am
The last things left on our back to school shopping list would be jackets and winter-ready shoes. Thank you for this opportunity!
Candice says
September 2, 2014 at 10:59 pm
Sent a tweet.
https://twitter.com/Denigan17/status/507014950301077504
September 2, 2014 at 10:58 pm
We still need a backpack and some new shirts.
Jessica H. says
September 2, 2014 at 10:35 pm
Tweeted! https://twitter.com/JessH339/status/507008927137923072
September 2, 2014 at 10:34 pm
I have lots and lots of paper on my back to school list! Whether it’s filler paper for the binder or colored paper for a bit of fun, it’s needed!
Sarah O. says
September 2, 2014 at 9:51 pm
We need printer ink and paper.
September 2, 2014 at 9:41 pm
Clothes and shoes.
Emily Sumner says
September 2, 2014 at 2:52 pm
Tissues & Hand Sanitizer
Rebecca Orr says
September 2, 2014 at 12:25 pm
My son starts school on Thursday. He is headed to second grade! He is all set with sneakers, clothes, and supplies. But, we would love to get him some towels and washcloths for his bathroom. It would be fun to get him his own set and his sister her own set. Maybe even a new robe for each of them too!
Rachael says
September 2, 2014 at 10:20 am
A JC Penney gift card would be great! My girl is growing fast and loves the styles at JCP!
rachel says
September 2, 2014 at 10:08 am
My little one isn’t in school yet.
September 2, 2014 at 1:20 am
Would love to have this for a little extra for Christmas gifts!!
Vincent says
September 1, 2014 at 11:16 pm
tweeted https://twitter.com/rubylorikeet/status/506656713051631616
September 1, 2014 at 11:11 pm
Backpack, notebooks and pens.
YVONNE WOODSTOCK says
September 1, 2014 at 10:33 pm
I tweeted about the entry as @EARTHANGEL2B and I made sure to use the hashtag #sweepstakesentry , as you instructed, at https://twitter.com/EarthAngel2b/status/506645832855089153
September 1, 2014 at 10:31 pm
I don’t have a back to school shopping list anymore for our 5 kids (2 sons & 3 daughters) because they are now all young adults on their own- ages 19-27. I remember back to school shopping was a big financial strain and stress when they were all home and in school though!
However, I hope to win the JcPenney Giftcard, because I need new clothes for Fall. I’ve lost 45 lbs so far and still have a ways to go, but the clothes that fit me last fall don’t fit now and I want to have pretty clothes even on the way to my goal, not just when I get there finally.
Thank you to you and JcPenney for this generous giveaway opportunity.
Veronica R says
September 1, 2014 at 9:59 pm
https://twitter.com/Veronica_ClareR/status/506637326697500672
September 1, 2014 at 9:57 pm
2 pairs of new shoes and of course some new clothes are on our shopping list!
August 31, 2014 at 1:32 pm
tweeted https://twitter.com/DeeGee13/status/506147038015127552
August 31, 2014 at 1:31 pm
A new jacket and boots are on my back to school shopping list! :)
heather sullivan says
August 30, 2014 at 1:42 am
tweeted! https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?source=tweetbutton&url=http%3A%2F%2Fhandsonaswegrow.com%2Fback-school-art-projects-kids%2F&text=20%20Back%20to%20School%20Art%20Projects%20for%20Kids&original_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fhandsonaswegrow.com%2F&via=handsonaswegrow
i would buy school cloths for my son i havnt been able to shop yet for him! thanks for the chance
Emily E says
August 30, 2014 at 12:26 am
Shoes for 2 girls
Kate F. says
August 29, 2014 at 5:51 pm
Sweaters, boots, and notebooks are on my back to school shopping list.
Adrianne B says
August 29, 2014 at 8:56 am
https://twitter.com/adriannebraun/status/505353165043023872 Tweeted
August 29, 2014 at 8:54 am
I have Crayola crayons, colored pencils, and markers on my back to school shopping list!
August 28, 2014 at 3:52 pm
My youngest loves art – favorite class in school. We would buy some new bedding to deck out her bedroom with the gift card.
August 28, 2014 at 8:49 am
I need new coats, boots, and snow pants for my two boys!
August 27, 2014 at 9:19 pm
I need to buy shoes
Jasmine R says
August 27, 2014 at 4:50 pm
Shoes and clothes are definitely on our back to school shopping list! My kid grows out of them way to quickly lol :)
August 27, 2014 at 4:49 pm
I tweeted… https://twitter.com/jazzyr19/status/504747182054838272
Dawn Monroe says
August 27, 2014 at 12:54 pm
My granddaughter is an artist! She is really good, I think and she asked for an easel to practice at home for her art class.
TallulahJane says
August 27, 2014 at 12:27 pm
I tweeted this giveaway: https://twitter.com/tallulahjane65/status/504681454274875392
August 27, 2014 at 12:25 pm
On our list was paper and sketch pads….My daughter is a junior in high school and is in her 2nd art class there…she began showing signs of loving art since she started drawing in pre-K. I am not an artist but I love art and I love that JC Pennys is very involved with art education.
amy pugmire says
August 27, 2014 at 1:38 am
https://twitter.com/1amypugmire/status/504518095101104128
August 27, 2014 at 1:37 am
backpacks. socks, shoes, and notebooks.
MaryAnn says
August 26, 2014 at 7:40 pm
Giveaway tweet
https://twitter.com/cochran_maryann/status/504428123627077632
August 26, 2014 at 7:39 pm
Crayons, backpack, new shoes and clothes
Cherice says
August 26, 2014 at 12:21 pm
Orechestra music book and the standard pencils, paper & etc…
courtney b says
August 26, 2014 at 9:47 am
https://twitter.com/MeandBells/status/504278603043835905
August 26, 2014 at 9:46 am
we got all our shopping done but we just last week had to buy more pencils and folders.
thank you for the chance! xoxo
Marissa Lynette says
August 25, 2014 at 10:53 pm
Shoes! always shoes!
Crystal says
August 25, 2014 at 5:22 pm
Lots of clothes are on my shopping list! And some socks.
latoya says
August 25, 2014 at 1:51 am
August 25, 2014 at 1:47 am
The main thing left on our back to school list is clothes and shoes
Jessie C. says
August 24, 2014 at 9:55 pm
-https://twitter.com/tcarolinep/status/503736868702150656
Crayons, subject notebooks, backpacks and new shoes are our shopping list. tcarolinep at gmail dot com
Danielle says
August 24, 2014 at 9:30 pm
On my back to school list? New bowls and plates to make school morning breakfasts cheery!
Amanda says
August 24, 2014 at 8:02 pm
I think I would by my son some nice dress shirts for school this year. He like to look sharp! I also tweeted about your giveaway. https://twitter.com/DolceDellaVita/status/503708576872140803
Sarah Jestings says
August 24, 2014 at 5:33 pm
https://twitter.com/SarahJestings/status/503671213932048384 @SarahJestings
August 24, 2014 at 4:21 pm
https://twitter.com/susan1215/status/503653246343585792
August 24, 2014 at 4:19 pm
Our back to school shopping list includes jeans and shirts for my daughter as well as back packs, notebooks, paper and pencils.
Madeline says
August 24, 2014 at 11:30 am
Tweet link: https://twitter.com/shala_darkstone/status/503580149023928320
August 24, 2014 at 11:29 am
Our daughter needs new jeans and possibly new sneakers.
Arik Issan says
August 23, 2014 at 9:06 pm
back to school shopping list … books and more socks!
August 23, 2014 at 9:05 pm
https://twitter.com/rickaei/status/503362216033517568
mysweetiepiepie says
August 23, 2014 at 9:21 am
Glamorous things like socks and underwear are on my back to school shopping list.
Cheryl says
August 23, 2014 at 6:12 am
Tweeted here: https://twitter.com/SavingForLater/status/503137656411136000
August 23, 2014 at 6:11 am
I love the idea of new frames for the kids’ art work. Your budding artist did a great job. I still have clothes on my list.
Michelle Canavan says
August 22, 2014 at 9:23 pm
The girls need clothes and shoes.
Liza Vladyka says
August 22, 2014 at 9:02 pm
love the self portrait and name with glitter paint
Richelle says
August 22, 2014 at 5:27 pm
I tweeted: https://twitter.com/NewMommiezBlend/status/502945132694368256
August 22, 2014 at 5:26 pm
I need to buy some more outfits. All the supplies are taken care of thank goodness.
August 22, 2014 at 12:02 am
https://twitter.com/1amypugmire/status/502682059832176640
August 22, 2014 at 12:01 am
i need notebooks, colored pencils, markers and folders.
Dandi D says
August 21, 2014 at 10:09 pm
I shared on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dandidaffyhill/status/502653466196443136
August 21, 2014 at 10:08 pm
New jeans and tennis shoes are on my list for my son.
Terri Moore says
August 21, 2014 at 9:32 pm
Art Supplies are on my back to school list! Especially watercolor paints and Prisma color markers.
Diane L. says
August 21, 2014 at 9:10 pm
We need to find a good quality backpack that will last all year!
August 21, 2014 at 7:28 pm
tweeted: https://twitter.com/KerryBishop/status/502613062818349056
Denise L says
August 21, 2014 at 3:21 pm
tweeted -https://twitter.com/dmarie824/status/502551073198850048
I need to get my kindergartner some khaki pants (with double reinforced knees!) for his school uniform.
August 21, 2014 at 2:37 pm
https://twitter.com/MeandBells/status/502539539408093184
August 21, 2014 at 2:36 pm
we finally completed our school shopping so no more stress! woo hoo !:) school started a month ago so we’ve been done.
Ashley H says
August 21, 2014 at 1:42 pm
New jeans and boots.
August 21, 2014 at 1:05 pm
We are going school shopping this weekend. On the list are jeans and cute new shoes for both my daughters.
jennifer horn says
August 21, 2014 at 9:35 am
https://twitter.com/jen_r_horn/status/502463780853276672
August 21, 2014 at 9:34 am
Shoes and jeans are on my back to school list.
August 21, 2014 at 8:59 am
On my list are pencils, notebooks, and erasers.
Gina H. says
August 21, 2014 at 3:43 am
Shoes are on my list.
DeAnna Keller says
August 20, 2014 at 11:01 pm
We still need to buy some new clothes and shoes.
mariem says
August 20, 2014 at 9:00 pm
shoes and jeans.
August 20, 2014 at 9:03 am
We still need to buy some new shoes.
Cynthia C says
August 20, 2014 at 7:04 am
Tweet https://twitter.com/clc408/status/502063440861474816
August 20, 2014 at 7:03 am
New clothes, shoes and a handbag are on my shopping list.
August 20, 2014 at 5:41 am
https://twitter.com/1amypugmire/status/502042602363822080
August 20, 2014 at 5:40 am
I need backpacks, shoes and notebooks.
wen budro says
August 19, 2014 at 7:55 pm
I tweeted https://twitter.com/wendybudrow/status/501894799192911872
August 19, 2014 at 7:54 pm
I still need to get some last minute supplies like extra batteries, pencils, glue, etc.
August 19, 2014 at 6:37 pm
I love to stock up on notebooks, folders, and pens at this time of year.
Melissa L. says
August 19, 2014 at 1:38 pm
We finished our back to school shopping, so there isn’t anything left on our list!
D Schmidt says
August 19, 2014 at 1:32 pm
Tweeted for a second entry https://twitter.com/mummytotwoboys1/status/501798347762438144
My back to school list includes lunch boxes, backpacks and new coats.
August 19, 2014 at 12:40 pm
https://twitter.com/MeandBells/status/501785482078875648
August 19, 2014 at 12:39 pm
we finished all our school shopping finally !:) i’m so happy i can rest easy now that it’s all done
jenn giannetto says
August 19, 2014 at 12:25 pm
both my sons could use new jackets/hoodies so that tops my list this year!
Lisa Brown says
August 19, 2014 at 11:00 am
https://twitter.com/LuLu_Brown24/status/501760517388509184
August 19, 2014 at 10:59 am
i have bought what i need, nothing left for me to purchase.
Natalie Yarbrough says
August 19, 2014 at 8:44 am
I need notebooks, pencils, a new backpack and tennis shoes for back to school.
August 19, 2014 at 8:37 am
I tweeted on twitter and my twitter id is @yarbr012 : https://twitter.com/yarbr012/status/487281653635497984 .
Tracy c says
August 19, 2014 at 6:24 am
We need new jeans & yes some wall frames to hang our first day of school pictures!
steve weber says
August 18, 2014 at 10:35 pm
we need some new clothes and shoes and a trapper keeper.
heather says
August 18, 2014 at 9:23 pm
Let’s see we need to get new jeans, dresses, shoes, tights, backpacks, socks, tops oh and new coasts too.
Kelly D says
August 18, 2014 at 6:44 pm
tweet https://twitter.com/kellysaver/status/501514890608001024
August 18, 2014 at 6:42 pm
Our back to school shopping list includes dresses and leggings for my daughter as well as t-shirts and jeans for my son.
August 18, 2014 at 6:14 pm
https://twitter.com/ElenaIstomina/status/501507221172150272
Nicole D says
August 18, 2014 at 6:11 pm
Tweet found here: https://twitter.com/lil_lady_dz/status/501506565380116480
August 18, 2014 at 6:10 pm
On my back to school shopping list is some gym shoes for the kids & some fall jackets.
I need to get a backpack and shoes.
Jessica To says
August 18, 2014 at 3:57 pm
We still need to get a backpack and new shoes!
Mami2jcn says
August 18, 2014 at 3:22 pm
tweet–https://twitter.com/mami2jcn/status/501464032138649600
August 18, 2014 at 3:17 pm
We need jeans, sneakers, notebooks, crayons, pens, and pencils.
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A Canvas of Culture: Murals at Boston Public Schools
Update: The Call to Artists is now open! Apply by Wednesday, February 28, 2024, 11:59 p.m. ET.
We’re commissioning public art at Boston Public Schools through the Percent for Art fund. Are you interested in creating artwork for a school? Here's how to apply:
Who can apply?
This Call is open to all professional artists and artist teams—local, national, and international—with a strong preference for those who have a connection to Boston and/or the overall themes of individual sites.
What are the sites?
In this Call to Artists, we present two distinct opportunities. We encourage you to thoroughly explore the details and consider the project that aligns most closely with your interests, experience, and creative vision.
- For Opportunity 1, we issued a Call for Walls - in Boston Public Schools, and carefully selected 8 project sites across 7 eligible schools. Each school is ready and excited to work with artists and our team! While we've currently identified these sites, we may expand or modify the number of sites. Artwork will be installed this Summer/Fall of 2024, with some projects extending into Spring/Summer of 2025.
- For Opportunity 2, we are excited to collaborate closely with the Public Facilities Department, BPS, and the Carter School — a new and updated facility that will include a therapeutic pool, sensory garden, rooftop classroom, and better spaces designed specifically for students with disabilities and complex learning needs.
- We are seeking professional artists or artist teams with a keen interest and experience in crafting 2D public art projects that are both research-informed and tailored to the unique needs of the Carter School’s student population and communities. Priority and preference will be given to artists who can demonstrate their ability to create art with a deep understanding of the community's diverse communication abilities and sensory needs. We're also looking for artists who can skillfully weave vibrant, engaging, and inspiring narratives related to civil and disability rights into their artwork.
Read the FAQs
We hosted two Q&A sessions for this program and accepted written questions through an online form. If you have a question, see if it has already been answered below!
Gather your application materials
To respond to the Call to Artists, prepare the materials listed below and submit through our online application page, found HERE .
Artist Description
- Bio, resume, CV, or other documents that describe the artist’s background and experience. If submitting as a team, please identify the team leader and include information for ALL team members. Five files maximum; PDF, DOC, or DOCX.
Community Engagement Plan
- A few sentences that describe your approach on school and community engagement for the site(s) you’re interested in.
Statement of Interest and Initial Project Concep t (500 words or less)
- Narrative describing an initial artistic concept for this site, why you’re interested in this opportunity, what connection you have to the site and/ or neighborhood, and any specific or unique processes you might use for the project.
Relevant Work Samples
- Up to ten images of completed past work that you feel is relevant to this site. Completed works are defined as projects that have been installed and/or actualized, not renderings or proposals. One image per file; jpg, tiff, or MP4 file types; limit videos to two minutes or less. NOTE: including drawings or designs made specifically for this application or site will lead to disqualification.
Annotated Image List
- An annotated image list with title, media, dimensions, location, date, brief description, your role in the project (lead, assistant, etc.) and any other information that might be relevant. For collaborative artwork, clearly identify the work that belongs to each artist. PDF, Doc, or DOCX.
Itemized Budget
- A preliminary budget of project expenses. You can use the template provided in the appendices, which start on page [no.]. PDF, DOC, DOCX, XLX, or XLXS.
Diversity & Inclusion Plan
- Please describe the efforts that you have taken, or will take, to ensure that your selection of subcontractors and suppliers for this contract will be meaningfully open to such companies. If you will not utilize subcontractors and suppliers on this particular contract, please describe any efforts or practices of your company over the past two years that demonstrate a practice of making subcontracting and supplier opportunities available to such companies.
All response and information submitted in response to this Call to Artists are subject to the Massachusetts public record law, Mass. Gen. Laws c. 66, s. 10, and Mass. Gen. Laws c. 4. s. 7(26), and will become property of the City.
Submit your application
- Call released: Wednesday, February 7, 2024, 1 p.m. ET.
- Call closes: Wednesday, February 28, 2024, 11:59 p.m. ET.
About the Program
The Mayor’s Office of Arts & Culture (MOAC) is thrilled to introduce a mural initiative that integrates large-scale murals and other public art projects at capital improvement sites throughout the city and in schools all across Boston’s neighborhoods. In its inaugural year, the initiative will concentrate on sites at Boston Public Schools – connecting artists whose artworks aim to amplify the aesthetic, cultural, social, and educational richness of schools while adding vibrancy to our city’s landscape.
2023-2024 Program Vision and Goals
- Integrate public art in schools
- Bring Percent for Art funded projects to Boston neighborhoods
- Support and empower diverse artists
Types of public art projects we are funding:
- Medium to large scale exterior and interior hand-painted 2D murals
- Vinyl mural applications
- Mural mosaics
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, all artists and artist teams are expected to carry their own insurance. The budgets have been set to support this requirement.
Insurance Requirements
The City of Boston and Street Theory, Inc. require insurance coverage in place for contractors to protect the City, Consultant, and the Contractor. The Contractor shall maintain during the term of the Contract, at his expense, all insurance required by the applicable laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and insurance required in this section. Insurance will be issued by licensed insurance companies with a current Best’s rating of A- VII or above. Evidence of insurance requirements will be provided on Acord Form 25 Insurance Certificates after being awarded the contract, with renewal certificates delivered 30 days prior to the expiration of the preceding policy. These requirements shall not be construed to limit the liability of the Contractor or its insurers.
The amounts and types of insurance required may be modified by the City if it is determined they do not provide adequate coverage. The minimum insurance requirements are:
- Commercial General Liability for Bodily Injury and Property Damage, on an Occurrence Form, naming the City of Boston and Street Theory, Inc. as Additional Insured, including Premises/Operations, Products/Completed Operations Liability, Contractual, Broad Form Property Damage, and Personal/Advertising Injury for one million ($1,000,000) per occurrence and two million ($2,000,000) annual aggregate limit per project per location.
- Workmen’s Compensation insurance as required under General Laws c.152 (the Workmen’s Compensation Law) and including employer’s liability limits of one million ($1,000,000) per accident and per employee for the disease. This type of insurance is not required if the contractor will only use volunteers or casual employees in the contract and will hold the City harmless for any personal injuries.
- Automotive liability insurance to cover the artist while traveling and transporting materials be traveling to and from the site, if required the City will mandates a automotive liability coverage for $250,000/accident for property damage, $250,000/per person, $500,000/ accident for bodily injury for any vehicle used in performance of Contract including but not limited to personal transportation.
The City’s general conditions for Insurance are:
- The City of Boston and Street Theory, Inc. will be named as Additional Insured on all policies except Workers’ Compensation and Employer’s Liability.
- Above insurance shall be primary and noncontributory over any such insurance available to the City of Boston, its officials, employees, and volunteers.
- Waiver of Subrogation will be included as respects all coverages listed above in favor of the City of Boston.
- All policies will be endorsed to provide thirty days written notice to the certificate holder, the City of Boston, in the event of cancellation, non-renewal or material changes in coverage.
We’re requesting any relevant information about the artist and their team members that showcases their professional experience. This includes but is not limited to a biography, CV, resumes, etc.
The project aims to have all installations completed before schools resume this Fall 2024.
Yes, artists can apply as a lead applicant even if they are part of another artist's team or involved with other lead applicants.
Artists may consider the need for pressure washing as part of their site preparation, depending on the conditions of the site. Additionally, each site will require prepping and priming with a base coat/primer to ensure the artwork adheres well and lasts longer. This preparation step is crucial for achieving the best possible outcome for your artwork, so please include these considerations in your budget planning if necessary.
Independent artists are required to assemble their own teams capable of executing the work in its entirety. The City will not provide teams to artists.
Artists interested in multiple sites should fill out a separate budget template for each site. Submittable allows for up to three budget uploads, accommodating artists applying for multiple locations.
Artists are encouraged to conduct their own research to find suitable fabricators and installers for their projects. However, Artaic, a mosaic tile fabricator located in Charlestown, MA is a fabricator we’ve worked with in the past.
The Carter School is currently in construction. The projects at the Carter School are expected to be completed by Spring 2025.
We are asking artists to share their approach to involving the schools and surrounding communities in the development of their artwork, not for the installation. Our call requires a minimum 2 engagement sessions and we’re interested in learning unique ways that artists will facilitate the engagements.
Yes, artists can specify in their application narrative which sites they have concepts for or feel a special connection to. However, it's important to note that expressing interest in specific sites does not guarantee placement there. The MOAC team, in collaboration with school teams, will determine placements based on the best fit between the artist's vision and the site's needs.
No, applicants should not submit multiple applications. We request only one submission per artist. In the concept/narrative portion of your submission, you may indicate your interest in specific schools. This streamlined approach ensures a focused and efficient review process, allowing artists to clearly communicate their preferences and ideas within a single application.
Your portfolio helps us understand prior public art experiences as well as your artistic abilities across various themes, aesthetics, and composition. Artists are welcome to submit relevant works, including studio work and any public artwork you have completed.
Yes, artists can express interest in more than three sites. However, we encourage artists to focus on the sites they feel most connected to. This helps to inform us about your creative and community approach. Again, artists may or may not be placed at the sites they select.
Yes, budgets have been carefully set to cover all project and installation costs such as scaffolding and/or lift machinery.
Yes, artists can apply to both Opportunity 1 and Opportunity 2 within the same submission.
Yes, we understand that the budgets are preliminary and allow for changes based on the needs of the artists and project.
We will consider other school sites and city buildings for future installations of this initiative. Only sites that are undergoing capital improvement or new construction can be considered for eligibility.
We are currently exploring installation logistics at this site.
The call is for "professional artists and artist teams" so any youth group would have to be part of an artist team with a professional artist as the lead applicant, to qualify.
The dimensions provided in the RFP are approximate. In the event of any discrepancies, the budget allocated for the site will remain as originally specified and will not be adjusted based on the actual dimensions.
Please adhere to the 500-word limit on the Submittable form. Unfortunately, additional materials sent outside of the Submittable platform, including via email, will not be considered as part of the application.
Artist commissions for these projects are structured in three payments. These payments are not reimbursements but are scheduled as part of the contract agreement to support the project's progress.
Selected artists will be expected to manage their own budgets, aiming to adhere as closely as possible to the preliminary budget submitted with their application.
Artists should plan for and describe any and all site prep needs, accordingly. We understand that there may be changes as the project develops.
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Fairview High School art students spruce up crossing guard booths
- Updated: Feb. 21, 2024, 10:47 a.m. |
- Published: Feb. 21, 2024, 8:00 a.m.
Crossing guard booths are located on Lorain Road and West 220th Street in Fairview Park. John Benson/cleveland.com
- John Benson, special to cleveland.com
FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio -- Teenage artists recently completed designs for the exteriors of a handful of crossing guard booths located throughout the city.
“The community has always been supportive of promoting the arts, so we wanted to look for ways that we could incorporate this upbuilding message and theme,” said Fairview High School art teacher Ryan Graff, who oversaw the project.
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2 Issue 2 : Local-Eyes!
Partizaning's first year - an exhibition in December at Vostochnaya Gallery showing a year's worth of projects. (Photo (c) Partizaning)
Partizaning: participatory art, research and creative urban activism
Partizaning leverages artistic interventions in Moscow’s public spaces as tools for social research and transformation, blurring the boundaries between everyday life, urbanism, activism and art.
P artizaning (v): public art practices which strategically challenge, shape, and reinvent urban and social realities.
The last several years have witnessed increased visibility and importance given to DIY cultures and tactical urbanism in cities across the USA, Canada and Europe. This is partially as a response to the financial crisis and limited resources for city maintenance and development, and resistance to the forms of neoliberal urban development. Active, creative citizens have begun to address the inadequacies of government functions, using temporary, creative interventions to suggest alternative realities.
DIY cultures are not new: most recently, they have long existed in Latin America, parts of Asia and in the former USSR (as well as other parts of the world, at different points in time), where capital-led urbanism was not the norm and people lived in circumstances of scarcity. These DIY traditions have demonstrated people’s ingenuity as the best solution in times of necessity; people can invent and deftly make do, especially in the city.
The tactical urbanism movement – led mostly by planners and architects – has built on DIY action in a strategic struggle for bottom up or grassroots urban planning. The same phenomenon is referred to as ‘urban hacking’ in parts of Europe. But what all of these actions share are active resistance and citizen participation in the processes and developments in our cities.
Partizaning’s first documentation exhibition in Amsterdam. (Image (c) Partizaning)
In Russia, we are witnessing a form of strategic, bottom-up urbanism being led by artists who work in the streets and writers, rather than by architects and planners. Creative people are working in public spaces to express themselves and to create dialogues with authorities and with other citizens. In this article I discuss the work I am doing as a member of the project Partizaning, leveraging artistic interventions in public space as a tool for social research and transformation; blurring the boundaries between everyday life, urbanism, activism and art.
Our idea is not to propose a new form of DIY urbanism, but to transform the idea of a top-down, expert planned city into one where residents are active stakeholders in the place they live; a space where they have a right to lead the lives they choose. I explain how we connect the ideas of DIY-ism and participation, as well as how Partizaning is a strategy which is aligned, but different from, tactical urbanism and conventional social art practices by its connection of research and process of creation.
In Context: Urban Planning in Russia
Partizaning’s map of the Moscow Metro which promotes our ideas of affordability, pedestrianism and walkability. (Image (c) Partizaning)
Russian cities are unique, complex entities. Following the revolution in 1917, all Russian land was nationalized and socialized, transferred to State or local authorities. The houses once belonging to the bourgeoisie were divided into accommodation for the proletariat. The collapse of a traditional spatial order required new planning approaches. At the time, ideas of a ‘socialist city’ were debated in terms of the concepts of two groups: the urbanists and dis-urbanists. Dis-urbanists wanted to dissolve the difference between town and country, while Urbanists proposed a contained expansion and planning of existing cities. The Garden City, an idea that flourished in the West, also became a starting point for the Soviet suburb. All this was resolved by the top-down functional and central planning in the form of high-rise apartments with wide-ranging amenities like schools and clinics located nearby. These ‘microrayon’ structures continue to exist today and present just one aspect or challenge of contemporary urban living in Russian cities.
A game about urban tactics which we created and disseminated online and in print. (Photo (c) Partizaning)
After the collapse of the USSR, the country saw the growth of economy and a construction boom as a result of privatization. The Western model of a city and urban development began to take root; but after 20 years of post-Soviet development, most people still live in a reality which created by and for a centrally planned economy. How is this shift to a capital system possible without removing all ideals of social equity?
Reversing urban gentrification with a DIY platform and discussion in Dusseldorf. (Photo (c) Christian Ahlborn)
Russian cities as they now exist are struggling with remnants of Soviet-era urban planning and the development of a neoliberal form of the city. Although highly organized, these plans were not created for people to experience life in the city. Architects and bureaucratic planners promoted ideals like creating social equality through infrastructure and access. But ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union and subsequent privatization of space in the city, there have been many recurring urban issues worldwide, such as traffic, over-consumption and trash generation and resource overuse, each with an environmental impact.
So the idea of a ‘partizan’ re-emerges in this contemporary context of resistance and urban revolution. In Russian, the word means ‘guerrilla’ and the idea we promote is resistance to this form of urban development and engage people in the processes shaping their cities – advocating a sense of creative responsibility. With it, we are seeking to promote a new ideal and a new vision for cities – constructed by and for people, based on their explicit involvement and dialogues. Our work straddles the worlds of art and urbanism: we work in the city and with the public but use artistic venues as just one forum for sharing our ideas.
Partizaning: Participatory Urban Re-planning
The DIY mobile discussion platform to activate abandoned railway tracks in the city. (Photo (c) Partizaning)
The website Partizaning emerged at the end of 2011 as an online project documenting examples of urban interaction and participation, whether social, political, environmental or anything else. Meant to inspire people, we show examples of projects in the public realm as creative achievements of social transformation through DIY and participatory actions. The site is managed by an interdisciplinary group of artists and researchers in two languages, because we realized that the project resonates, not only in Russia but as an idea taking root in cities around the world. So we document projects and people who work with the language of art to transform urban contexts worldwide.
A Public mailbox which we installed in Troparevo Nikulino. (Photo (c) Partizaning)
Part of our goal is to reorient the city around people and their goals and ways of life, rather than around expertise and bureaucracy. We recognize the important role of creativity as commentary and suggestion, while advocating people’s involvement, because residents know the city best and sometimes just need the tools to participate, or to express or converse ideas about it. The problem with how cities have developed is that they are perceived as places of work instead of sites of play and living. If you think of the city as an extension of your home, it is different. You are more willing to plant trees, to clean up trash, to decorate it, to repair it. But this is not an idea that is widely held – people are generally confined to their homes, their cars, and are restricted in public space. Partizaning proposes the idea that unsanctioned repairs and improvements can collectively help to re-create a better city. We have done things like made DIY benches, painted crosswalks and created maps and signs that promote an alternate trajectory for the city.
Scans of the mail received during the Cooperative Urbanism project. (Image (c) Partizaning)
We are motivated by a conflation of art and urbanism and are inspired by the role of the Situationists and of street art and urban interventions which fall into the realm of revolutionary urban and social activism. In Russia and internationally, we engage in participatory processes based on research and culminating in interventions in public space. We think of these interventions more as a process and dialogue. Apart from projects, we try to promote creative grassroots urbanism and participation by giving lectures, presentations and conducting workshops in various cities. We also try to produce a bulletin which is occasionally printed as another format for people to interact with some of our ideas.
Cooperative Urbanism
Public surveys in Amsterdam during the Kunstvlaai Festival. (Photo (c) Partizaning)
In 2012, we did a project based on installing Public Mailboxes in outlying districts of Moscow. An experiment in the idea of collaboration and in the concept of cooperation in the city, we tried to get people to communicate their urban challenges and desires by leaving us anonymous mail. Our goal was to work with the idea of how people could reorganize their city from the bottom up and engage in processes that are generally impenetrable. What we found was that creating unsanctioned and unwatched forums in public space involved children and the elderly, who had varied and different suggestions and ways of using the mailboxes. As part of this project, the mail was scanned and shared with participating municipal authorities who could respond to people’s concerns – but the other part of the project was to encourage people to be the agents of urban change in their own neighbourhoods, particularly if they already knew the problem.
What Should Happen to Sint Nicolaas Lyceum?
In Amsterdam, as part of the Kunstvlaai Festival, we put up large format posters surveying residents in the district under transformation for insights about a building that was going to be demolished. We found people to be apathetic about future changes in their city and wanted to facilitate a public dialogue. This is another way in which we have sought to promote the idea of urban participation in varied contexts.
We are interested in how to facilitate and moderate user-oriented cities, promoting the belief that residents know best what they need and how they should behave in a moderated dialogue with other activists and experts. But one of the concerns and challenges we faces is truly involving overlooked and minorities in the city – voices that remain unheard and invisible, but are part of the urban fabric. In cities like St. Petersburg, Moscow, Amsterdam and Dusseldorf we find that our projects are invariably used by voices that don’t have forums for expression – or become taken over by those who seek to control the socially unaccepted.
Ultimately, as researchers, artists and urbanists, we find ourselves trying to use the language of art as a tool for inquiry to understand urban processes and facilitate a form of participation based on art and ideas of inclusion. To what extent we are successful can be debated, but as an experiment we believe that art in the city has a right to public space and interaction in the same way all urban residents do.
Shriya Malhotra is an urban researcher and intervention artist based in Moscow with Partizaning . She has an MA in Cities and Urbanization from the New School and collaborates on participatory art and process based projects that highlight the unseen or unusual aspects about cities and urban life.
Watch CBS News
Students at Newark Arts High School find inspiration among the halls
By Chris Wragge
Updated on: February 16, 2024 / 6:52 AM EST / CBS New York
NEWARK, N.J. -- Arts High School of Newark has been around for nearly a century, and it's a school where dreams come true -- not for a few, but for many.
As CBS New York's Chris Wragge found, they believe in themselves and they're great at what they do. The school helps set them on the right course.
"I actually started here as a drama major my ninth grade year. And then in my 10th grade year, I switched over to cinematography, because I had a vision. I wanted to be able to broaden my talents and not just be subject to just acting," senior cinematography major Malachai Gwen told Wragge. "Being a journalist and being a fashion influencer on Instagram and TikTok, I actually want to do these things. So taking the tools from the classroom and being able to put that forth into the content that I'm creating has been unbelievable. I've seen results, not only from my teacher, but in real time with my audience."
The students walking the halls at Newark Arts High School are highly motivated. Everywhere you look, you see high school students living out their dreams.
Wragge ran into one student who directed, shot and edited his own movie.
"It's an original concept, I put my heart and soul into this. And it's actually a two-time festival winner," he said.
- Live Updates: Class Act with Chris Wragge finds talent on full display at Newark Arts High School
"It's such a space of positivity, and I love my major, I love what I do, and it's something that I want to go into when I get older," said junior drama major Kayla Davila. "My dad is a musician and so was his father and his father and his father. So it's just so lovely to continue on doing art."
"There's a lot of things to get inspiration from. I find a lot of inspiration from a lot of things that surround me. That's why I came here, because there's art everywhere. The music playing or the dancing and singing, and even the act, you find inspiration from that, just your surroundings, you can pick inspiration from that," freshman visual arts major Latifa Abubakar said.
"You come in by the dance studio and you see dancers, you come in by the instrumental room and you see different types of instruments and different types of music every time -- jazz, Latin, soul, classical. It's just a beautiful place to be," another student added.
Arts High School of Newark is the place to be, and it offers everything. Its leader, Principal Devonne Denose, knows what she's doing.
"They are my why, they are why I do it. They are amazing. They're so talented. And so it is an honor to serve in this role --it's a servant, leadership role," said Denose. "Walking the halls, hearing, seeing, it is an amazing experience day in and day out. So while it is tough, it is something that brings so much joy to know that I'll have a piece of what is their long journey in this lifetime."
One of the great things about walking the halls of the school is you never know when you're going to be confronted by a full choir. So it's safe to say, the halls are alive with the sound of music.
If you're wondering if they have sports, they actually have one of the top basketball programs in the state, led by drama, art and television production majors.
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Residents, educators air concerns over school performing arts space
- By Lauren Shows
- Published: February 23, 2024
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Topics: Yellow Springs School Board , facilities , levy
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Tribune readers: A new public art installation is coming to Salt Lake City. What should it be?
A traffic circle on the city’s west side is set for a makeover this summer. we want to hear what you think the new public art installation should be..
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) A roundabout at the intersection of 500 North and 1300 West in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024. The site will soon be home to a new art installation.
A new art installation aiming to reflect the Fairpark neighborhood’s character is expected to land in a traffic circle at 1300 West and 500 North this summer.
While city officials are in the final stages of nailing down exactly what that west-side installation will be, we want to know: What would you like to see there?
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) A Jeep drives through a roundabout at the intersection of 500 North and 1300 West in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024.
The traffic circle itself is relatively new to the neighborhood. It was built as a part of improvements to 500 North that aimed to reduce speeding after a child was killed by a car there in 2018.
In late 2022, once the circle was completed, the city’s Art Design Board decided the intersection would be a prime place for public art.
Since then, the city has surveyed residents to get their opinions on the project and received 16 applications from artists interested in making their mark in Fairpark.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) A woman crosses the street near a roundabout at the intersection of 500 North and 1300 West in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024.
The new piece, whatever it is, won’t be as large as the 9th and 9th whale — officially titled “ Out of the Blue ” — because the west-side traffic circle is much smaller than the one that hosts the whale.
But before the final renderings for the project drop next month, we want to hear your ideas. Something like:
• A kayaker on the Jordan River.
• A skater hitting one of the deep bowls at the VANS skatepark.
• A bull rider at the Days of ‘47 Rodeo.
• Hamilton “Ham” Porter, the catcher from the 1993 baseball classic “The Sandlot,” heckling a batter in an iconic scene filmed just northwest of the intersection at Riverside Park.
Check out our Google Form to share your ideas. We’ll keep you in the loop.
(Bethany Baker | The Salt Lake Tribune) Businesses near the intersection of 500 North and 1300 West in Salt Lake City on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024.
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Frank Gehry-designed performing arts center at the Colburn School is under construction
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One of architect Frank Gehry’s long-standing wishes is finally coming to life: a new concert venue in downtown Los Angeles that will complement his famous Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Preliminary work has begun on a $335-million expansion of the Colburn School of performing arts designed by Gehry that includes a mid-size concert hall he expects to be in near-constant use for events put on by students, professional artists and academics.
“It’s a chance to do a lot of experimenting,” he said.
The long-planned Colburn School addition will be the third Gehry-designed building on Bunker Hill, which already has Disney Concert Hall and the Grand LA , a $1-billion apartment, hotel and retail complex he designed for New York mega-developer Related Cos.
The new Colburn structure is under construction on a former parking lot, cater-cornered to the current campus, at 2nd and Olive streets just east of the Grand, creating three contiguous blocks of Gehry-designed buildings.
Colburn Center, the new building, will be modest in appearance compared with the other two but represents a significant leap for the Colburn School, which opened on Bunker Hill in 1998 and has around 2,000 students.
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“The Colburn Center will be a game-changer, stepping up everything we do,” said Sel Kardan, president of the Colburn School.
The centerpiece of the expansion will be a 1,000-seat concert hall named for Pasadena philanthropists Terri and Jerry Kohl with an in-the-round design meant to create intimacy between the performers and the audience. The hall will include an orchestra pit and a stage large enough to accommodate “the grandest works,” Kardan said, making it suitable for orchestra, opera and dance.
“There’s always been a dream of having a place where our largest ensembles can play,” he said, such as the school’s symphony orchestra, bands, youth string programs and children’s choirs. “Currently, those programs take place off-site.”
The size puts it in a sweet spot between the 2,265-seat Disney and the popular 415-seat Herbert Zipper Concert Hall already on the Colburn campus. The nearby Dorothy Chandler Pavilion seats about 3,200 guests. Larger still is the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live , which seats 7,100.
“It’s more rare to find a kind of medium-sized venue,” Kardan said. “They’re extremely desirable and highly functional. They also have enough seats to be really economically viable.”
Japanese acoustical engineer Yasuhisa Toyota will be the acoustician for the hall, as he has been for all of Gehry’s concert halls, beginning with Disney Hall.
The Colburn Center will also more than double facilities for the school’s Trudl Zipper Dance Institute , creating what the school called “one of the most comprehensive dance education complexes in Southern California.” The dance facilities will include a 100-seat theater for dance and four professional-size studios for dance instruction and rehearsal.
The center will include a rooftop garden large enough to host receptions and outdoor performances, as well as a ground-level garden with a performance space that will be open to the public.
“I think it is very exciting that the school is going to expand,” Mayor Karen Bass said. “I think one of the things the school is known for is an incredible facility and experience for young people. It also provides access through scholarships, so it is a treasure for the city that is accessible to all.”
The Colburn School estimates that it already brings in 10,000 people a week, including students attending classes, lessons and rehearsals. Others rent the current performance and lecture spaces, helping attract audiences who attend more than 500 performances a year in the existing small venues.
The Colburn School has raised $315 million to date toward its $400-million goal for the expansion, the school said. The campaign will cover an estimated $335 million in construction costs as well as $65 million in endowment and operating costs to support the activities of the Colburn Center and the Colburn School.
The new building represents the near culmination of decades of efforts to redevelop Bunker Hill , a former residential neighborhood dating from the city’s early years that was razed in the 1960s to make way for “urban renewal,” a popular concept at the time intended to remake blighted city blocks from the ground up that displaced mostly poor people.
First among the new development was the Music Center performing arts complex, followed years later by office skyscrapers, a few apartment buildings and such cultural venues as the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Colburn School for music and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Disney Hall opened in 2003, followed 12 years later by the Broad museum.
Gehry’s design for Colburn Center was influenced by decisions he had to make while creating a mid-size concert hall inside an existing warehouse in Berlin. The space was small, so he had to put some audience members on the same level as the musicians.
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“The audience’s feet are on the same floor as the orchestra,” he said. “I had no idea, but that made a ‘wow’ difference.”
Another facet of the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin that Gehry is bringing to Los Angeles is what he calls a floating balcony. In Berlin, it wasn’t structurally possible to hook the balcony to the wall, so he suspended it in a way that gives the impression of floating above the action.
“At first, everybody said, ‘Well, that’s not going to work,‘” Gehry said. “Finally, that became nirvana. So wherever we go now, everybody wants a floating balcony.”
Hanging from the ceiling will be concrete sound clouds designed to improve acoustics and evoke a sense of airiness. Gehry hopes that catwalks can be added above the clouds that can be used in future performances.
“There’s a lot of space up there,” he said. “Our hope is once it’s built we’ll put catwalks through there and bring artists and performers so that will become another space, a part of the music.”
Upon completion in 2027, the Colburn Center should broaden the Bunker Hill arts district that is now mostly confined to Grand Avenue, he said.
“The body language of the building is to try to be user-friendly, not to preempt and become the centerpiece, but to be a part of the feeling of the district and cement it as a cultural district.”
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37 Unique School Auction Art Projects and Ideas
They’re fun for kids and bring in big bucks for your school.
As far as school fundraisers go, an art auction is one of the most fun—and most profitable—events out there. Parents love to invest in memorabilia that reminds them of their child’s school experience and showcases their talents. Whether you are looking for an elaborate collaborative project or something smaller that can be bundled, there are tons of ideas out there. Here are 37 simple but beautiful school auction art projects to help get you started.
1. Ceramic Wind Chimes
Remember your child’s school for years to come every time you hear this lovely ceramic wind chime singing in the breeze. Students use a Sharpie-and-rubbing-alcohol paint technique to create their own unique design on store-bought ceramic medallions . Then the discs are connected to a branch with fishing wire and metal eyelets.
Learn more: Hand-Painted Wind Chimes at Lifestyle for Real Life
2. Personalized Pillow
Who wouldn’t want to cuddle up with this adorable memento? Students cut graduated circles out of felt squares , then tack them together using an X-stitch with embroidery floss . Next, they cut out an oval leaf shape, embroider their name (or use a Sharpie), and attach it to the flower. Lastly, recruit a volunteer to either sew or hot-glue the flowers to a plain white pillow.
Learn more: Class Pillow at Wee Gallery
3. Vibrant Wall Hangings
These beautiful one-of-a-kind wall hangings are sure to bring in some serious coin. Make them as elaborate as the ones shown above, using canvas fabric, tempera paint , permanent markers, yarn , and dowels.
Learn more: Colorful Wall Hangings at Handmakery
4. Custom Tote Bags
These simple canvas bags are a perfect school auction art project to make for every errand-running parent. This blogger created these models using natural materials, such as leaves, apple halves, and potatoes. Other materials needed include textile paint, brushes, newspapers, and plain cotton bags .
Learn more: Custom Tote Bags at LuLovesHandmade
5. Colorful Fabric Weavings
These gorgeous wall hangings are simple for kids to create together. All you need is plastic garden fencing (it usually comes in a roll and can be cut into different sizes) and strips of fabric or ribbons. Ask parents for donations of any leftover fabric they may have, or check out websites like NAIER for free materials.
Learn more: Collaborative Weaving Project at Art Is Basic
6. Driftwood Wall Hangings
This project can start with a fun session of gathering sticks outside. Then, to decorate the sticks, each student can get creative with paint, markers, and washi tape. Finally, using screw eyes and suede cord , the sticks can be strung together for a beautiful wall hanging.
Learn more: Driftwood Wall Hanging at Twelve O Eight
7. Van Gogh Reproduction
Create an original mural using a large Van Gogh poster or print as a model. Cut the print into paper-sized rectangles. Then give each student a piece plus a piece of white art paper. Have each student re-create their piece of the poster using paint and oil pastels. Finally, put the pieces together for a beautiful, slightly imperfect mural.
Learn more: Van Gogh Mural at Elementary Art Fun
8. Colorful Story Quilt
You will need a talented volunteer who can sew to help stitch this project together! For the squares of the quilt, each student will draw their own picture using fabric markers . The teacher who assembled the quilt shown above asked students to create a picture inspired by the theme of friendship. Choose a theme that is meaningful for your particular group of students.
Learn more: Class Quilt at The Savvy Age
9. Painted Adirondack Chair
Who wouldn’t love to kick back in a deliciously colorful chair like this? Every student in the class can paint or decorate a different section, which will come together into a memorable piece of yard art. If you do not have an Adirondack, use a bench or table or any other kind of wooden furniture made of slats.
Learn more: Painted Adirondack at KHS Advancement
10. Recycled CD/DVD Coasters
Bring new life to old CDs and DVDs with these school auction art projects for kids. Ask parents to donate fabric, then allow each student to choose the one they like best. Simply cut the fabric to fit and glue to the surface. Finally, apply Modge Podge matte to seal the coaster. Package all the coasters together with a ribbon for a full set, or give parents the opportunity to purchase their child’s individually.
Learn more: Colorful Coasters at Crafts by Amanda
11. Collaborative Circle Tapestry
Using a 3-inch circle of cardboard, yarn, and a needle, students will first create a loom structure and then weave yarn in a circular pattern to create a unique and beautiful circle (see detailed directions here .) String individual circle weavings together using twine attached to a dowel or an interesting tree branch.
Learn more: Circle Weaving at Experiments in Art Education
12. “Chihuly” Sculptures
There are two different ways to create these beautiful school auction art projects. The first sculpture is constructed with coffee filter papers, water-based markers, paper cups, and a squirt bottle of water. The second one is constructed with plastic disposable cups, Sharpie pens, and a toaster oven.
Learn more: Top: Coffee Filter Chihuly at Spot of Color; bottom: Plastic Cup Chihuly at Rubber Boots and Elf Shoes
13. Hand Hearts Photograph
You will need a good camera for this project. Demonstrate for your students how to create the shape of a heart with their hands. Provide a colorful piece of paper as a background for each student to create their hand heart, then snap a photo. Mount all of the students’ heart photos together with a crisp white matte border surrounding them, then frame.
Learn more: Heart Hands at PopSugar
14. Woven Watercolor Strips
Determine the width and length you want each strip of watercolor paper for the weaving to be. Give each student one strip and let them apply different watercolor paint techniques in the color palette of their choosing to their individual strip. Weave the strips tightly together and glue down onto a piece of black background to form this beautiful piece of art!
Learn more: Woven Paintings at New Zealand Artwork
15. Reach for the Stars Collage
Have each student trace from their hand up to their elbow onto a piece of good-quality card stock (or pair them up to do it with a partner). Color and decorate using crayons, markers, paint, or pastels, then cut out the tracing. Assemble all of the hands onto a dark-blue poster board, overlapping from the bottom, with each hand pointing up, as if it is reaching toward the sky. Glue different sizes of shimmering gold stars at the top of the board.
Learn more: Reaching for the Stars at Artsonia Art Museum
16. Boho Flower Wall Hanging
Who knew egg cartons could be so beautiful? Cut into different shapes, then painted, the individual “flowers” are strung together using twine and attached to a dowel or stick. The directions below recommend spray paint, but for younger children, tempera or watercolor paint would work better.
Learn more: Egg Carton Wall Hanging at Craftaholics
17. The Hand Tree
Celebrate the uniqueness of every single student in your class with this colorful, whimsical tree project.
Learn more: Hand Tree at Candice Ashment Art
18. Personalized Ceramic Bowl
There are many variations of this craft out there. We like this version, found on Pinterest, that creates a fun scene using students’ fingerprints. If you want your piece to be professionally fired, you or a parent volunteer can arrange to borrow the proper paints and markers, as well as buy your pottery piece, from a Pots ‘n Paints–type of business. After your students add their contribution to the piece, you can return it to the shop to be fired.
Learn more: Smiley Fingerprint Bowl at Pottery Piazza
19. Wall of Hearts
Using heavy-duty craft paper, have students paint their own design on a common theme (for example, hearts, as shown in the image). Other theme ideas: trees, shapes, first letters of each student’s first or last name, stars, emojis.
Learn more: Hearts Collage at Art Teacherin’ 101
20. Tile Squares Table
This one requires a little legwork to find and prepare just the right table base—a perfect job for a parent volunteer like this blogger. Click below for details.
Learn more: Tile Tabletop at Mom With a Glue Gun
21. Serving Tray
Something practical like a beautiful, one-of-a-kind serving tray could be a hot-ticket item for your school auction art project. Using color-diffusing paper and watercolor paints, each student creates their own design. Then the pieces are adhered to the surface of the tray and sealed.
Learn more: Watercolor Tray at Art Camp Studio
22. Vase of Flowers
Another Van Gogh–inspired art project, this one allows each student to create their own individual flower to add to the vase. A colorful collection any parent would love to display.
Learn more: Van Gogh Flowers at Art at Becker Middle School
23. Custom Plates
School auction art projects that will also get good use? Yes, please! These whimsical plates would be a cheery addition to any kitchen. The example above shows simple line drawings of fruit. But you could pick any theme you like—self-portraits, animals, flowers. Here are step-by-step directions for decorating china with Sharpies.
Learn more: Customized Dishes at PopSugar
24. Clay Mosaic Mirror
How pretty would this look in an entryway? Clay discs, created by each individual student, are artfully arranged inside a frame. Once they are glued down, a mirror is added in the middle.
Learn more: Embellished Mirror at Art Is Basic
25. Peace Dove
Working together, the students in this class used their fingertips, dipped in paint, to create this colorful dove. At the bottom, each student identified their fingerprint with their signature.
Learn more: Fingerprint Dove at Beverly Cleary School Foundation
26. Under the Sea
This project would be perfect for a class that’s studying ocean life. The teacher can paint the background of blues for the seawater and beige at the bottom for the sand. Then, each student could contribute their favorite sea creature. Finally, each student can sign their name in the space at the bottom.
Learn more: Under the Sea at Joy in the Works
27. Craft Stick Collage
Give each student four to six large wooden craft sticks to color in completely with color Sharpie pens or tempera paint. Encourage students to decorate each stick uniquely. After you have collected all of the sticks, lay them out on a large foam board in a checkerboard manner, experimenting with what you think looks best. When you are satisfied with your design, glue it down. Attach a hanger to the back of the foam board.
Learn more: Craft Stick Collage at Teaching Middle Level
28. Decoupage Glass Magnets
These quick and easy school auction art projects are perfect for little ones. You’ll need glass magnets , glue, Modge Podge, and original artwork made by your students (made with paint, markers, or crayons on paper). Have each student make a few, then gather them together in small gift bags and sell them as a bundle. Full directions below.
Learn more: Glass Magnets at Modge Podge Rocks
29. Wall Hanging
This gorgeous wall hanging is sure to add color to any space. Have a large selection of yarn in different colors, sizes, and weights for students to choose from. Let students choose if they’d like to braid their strands, finger-knit them into a chain, or simply let them hang straight. Attach each student’s strand to a dowel and then add a hanging cord. For an extra challenge, teach them how to hand-dye the yarn before they create their strand.
Learn more: Yarn Wall Hanging at Studio DIY
30. Group Puzzle
Buy or have someone donate a puzzle with relatively large pieces. Usually a preschool puzzle with 25 to 30 pieces works well for this. Have students decorate the plain backside of each piece with permanent markers. Encourage them to add lots of details. When they are all colored in, spray all of the pieces with a shiny clear topcoat of spray paint. Assemble the puzzle and mount it to a piece of cardboard or plywood. Attach hangers to the back or prop it up on a tabletop easel.
Learn more: Collaborative Puzzle at Art Is Basic
31. Cardboard Sculptures
So fun, so funky, this colorful sculpture is made from cardboard paper roll and discs cut from cardboard. Have each student make one of these school auction art projects, then arrange them in a forest for parents to buy.
Learn more: Cardboard Sculptures at Artful Parent
32. Painted Wooden Blocks
These colorful, hand-painted wood blocks , individualized by each student, could be auctioned off as a whole or individually.
Learn more: Painted Wood Blocks at Art Camp Studio
33. Pom-Pom Wall Hanging
Yarn pom-poms are easy to make and are also an excellent way to use up scraps of yarn. Have each student contribute one or a few and create this fun, whimsical wall hanging for auction. For more, check out these pom-pom craft ideas .
34. Crane Mobile
Once you get the hang of it, folding paper cranes is not only simple, it can be addicting! Teach your students, then have each of them contribute a few to create a gorgeous mobile that would look perfect in any home.
Learn more: Paper Crane Mobile at The Art of Education University
35. Decoupaged Stool
This vibrant stool is customized by students with acrylic paint, Sharpie marker, and bold words cut from magazines. Sure to be a hot seller, check out the step-by-step directions below.
Learn more: Decoupaged Stool at Art Is Basic
36. 3D Sunburst
Turn trash into treasure with a recycled pencil starburst display. No need to purchase new supplies, just start early and collect abandoned pencils. Allow groups of students time to glue pencils on one section at a time.
Learn more: Pencil Starburst at Christy Ferrell on Pinterest
37. “Stained” Glass Panels
As sunshine passes through these DIY stained-glass panels, vibrant colors light up the space. Simple to create (craft sticks, tissue paper, and glue), these beauties are sure to be a bestseller at auction.
Learn more: Stained Glass at Artful Parent
Does your school put on an auction? What are your favorite school auction art projects? Come and share in our We Are Teachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.
Plus, check out our big list of restaurants that do school fundraisers..
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Lev Manovich
Professor of cultural analytics at the european graduate school / egs..
Lev Manovich (b. 1960) is both an artist and one of the leading theorists of digital culture and media art. He is the author of a number of books, including Software Takes Command (2013), Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database (2002–2005), and The Language of New Media (2001), which has been widely acknowledged as “the most suggestive and broad ranging media history since Marshall McLuhan.” At the moment, Lev Manovich is a professor at the City University of New York, the director of the Software Studies Initiative—which works on the analysis and visualization of big cultural data—and a professor of cultural analytics at The European Graduate School / EGS. In 2013, he was included in the list of 25 People Shaping the Future of Design; whereas, in 2014, he was recognized as one of the 50 “most interesting people building the future” by The Verge.
Manovich graduated from the Moscow Institute of Architecture in 1979 with a degree in civil architecture. In 1983, he enrolled in the Tisch School of Fine Arts, where he attained a BA in the Department of Film and Television. In 1988, he received an MA in experimental psychology from New York University, after which he was a graduate student exchange scholar at Cornell University, from 1991 to 1992. Finally, he received a PhD from the University of Rochester in 1993, in Visual and Cultural Studies, with a dissertation titled: The Engineering of Vision from Constructivism to Virtual Reality , under the supervision of Mieke Bal and Norman Bryson. Since finishing his PhD, Manovich has taught at the University of Maryland; the University of California, San Diego; and the Graduate Center at CUNY. In addition to these posts, he has also taught at The European Graduate School / EGS, the Centre for Cultural Studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London, the Gothenberg Art Academy, the Institute of Creative Technologies at de Montfort University, the University of Seigen, and many others.
Manovich has given classes on a wide range of topics within the field of new media—and their consequences on the wider culture—including: Analyzing Cultural Data (2015), Social and Cultural Computing (2014), Software, Globalization and Political Action (2014), Big Data, Visualization and Digital Humanities (2013), Data Visualization and Computational Art History (2012), a PhD Seminar on Digital Humanities (2011), History of Art and Technology (2000, 2002–03, 2007–09, and 2011), Cultural Analytics (2009), Visualizing Culture (2008), Contemporary Computer Topics (2008), a PhD Seminar on Design, IT, and Globalization (2007), Introduction to Computing in the Arts (2006), Computing Culture (2006), Mapping Digital Culture (2005), Info-Aesthetics (2000), The Language of New Media (1999), Theories of New Media (1999), and many others.
Of the several books Manovich has published since 1993, The Language of New Media (2001) is certainly the most significant, since it was “the first rigorous and far-reaching theorization of the subject” and continues to be one of the fundamental texts in the field. In The Language of New Media, Manovich places new media within the history of visual and media culture of the last few centuries, thereby revealing both its roots and innovations. In brief, Manovich argues that new media relies on many of the conventions of old media, including the rectangular frame and mobile camera, and suggests that new media functions to create an illusion of reality, address the spectator, and represent space. The book also investigates and analyzes forms unique to new media, such as the interface and database. In more detail, the book develops and describes the general principles underlying New Media: numerical representation, i.e., new media objects exist as data; modularity, i.e., different elements of new media exist independently; automation, i.e., new media objects can be created and modified automatically; variability, i.e., new media objects exist in multiple versions; and transcoding, i.e., the logic of the computer influences how we understand and represent ourselves. Further, The Language of New Media provides a series of elementary definitions of new media: new media as opposed to cyber culture; new media as computer technology and as a distribution platform; new media as digital data controlled by software; new media as the mix between existing cultural conventions and the conventions of software; new media as the aesthetics that accompanies the early stage of every new modern media and communication technology; new media as faster execution of algorithms previously executed manually or through other technologies; new media as the encoding of modernist avant-garde; new media as metamedia; and new media as a parallel articulation of similar ideas in post-WWII art and modern computing.
Aside from book length publications, Lev Manovich has written over 120 articles, which have been published in over thirty countries. Finally, since 1999, he has given over 600 lectures, seminars, and master classes in North and South America, Asia, and Europe.
Over the entirety of his work, Manovich is credited with the development of a number of fundamental ideas, concepts, and methodologies, including: database and cultural analytics. In brief, the concept of database was introduced in a 1998 article “Database as a Symbolic Form,” wherein Manovich opposes it to narrative forms, which were the principle methods of organizing cultural expression, and points out the web’s overwhelming privileging of and dependence on the former. The two, in fact, are—according to Manovich—antithetical. One characteristic of a database is the organization of data in isolation—or outside of a narrative context—thereby, making all data of equal importance. The database, in consequence, becomes something like a meta ready-made with the potential to destabilize all petrified forms, ideas, and narratives and materialize into a system of endless of possibilities. This form, however, is not an absolute liberation, but it imposes a different set of limits and possibilities than those of narrative forms. At that time, Manovich also focused on the related concepts of paradigm and syntagm, arguing that new media has forced a reversal in their traditional relationship; namely, instead of syntagm being explicit and paradigm implicit, now it is the paradigm (database) which has material existence and the syntagm (narrative) which is de-materialized.
Cultural analytics, on the other hand, is a methodology that makes possible the tracking of developments in our cultural imagination. The expansion of digital culture has caused a significant increase in the number of cultural agents worldwide, the consequence of which has been that the old theoretical tools for tracking and understanding such developments are no longer adequate for the data. Manovich’s suggestion has been—and continues to be—to appropriate software from science and apply the techniques of data mining and interactive visualization within the humanities. According to Manovich, “culture has become data”; thus, the proper study of culture demands the use of software to: analyze cultural artefacts; visually represent patterns, data sets, and flow; and interactively explore the results. In consequence of the change of form at stake, the study of single events has become futile; it is necessary to begin studying trends and patterns in culture and, thereby, perceiving individual projects in a larger context of global cultural production. For instance, when considering historical data, cultural analytics allows us to map all that remained outside of the standard canon of some field and, thereby, present historical developments without bias to names but defined by the larger patterns of cultural activities and dispositions. Manovich, however, does not promote cultural analytics as the only method for understanding the humanities—both in the present and in their historical development—but sees it as a methodology that can partner with, or supplement, other available tools and methods. In short, the idea is that it is only by combining more traditional methods with data analysis that it will be possible to understand the historical developments of the humanities as well as make rational predictions on future developments.
In addition to theoretical work, Manovich has been working with computer media as an artist, computer animator, designer, and programmer since 1984. He is, therefore, not only a theorist, but a practicing theorist and artist. In fact, the majority of his theoretical works—i.e., books, articles, lectures, etc—have been accompanied by and experimented with art projects. His projects and exhibitions stretch over twenty years, and include: On Broadway (2015), Selfiecity (2014), SelfieSaoPaulo (2014), Taipei Phototime (2014), The Exceptional and the Everyday: 144 hours in Kyiv (2014), Photorails (2013), Manga Style Space (2010), TimeLine (2009), Mission to Earth (Soft Cinema Edition ) (2003–04), Global User Interface (Soft Cinema Edition) (2002–03), Freud-Lissiitzky Navigator (1999), and Little Movies (1994–97). These and other projects have been presented at the New York Public Library (NYPL), Google’s Zeitgeist 2014, Chelsea Art Museum (New York, US), ZKM (Karlsruhe, Germany), The Walker Art Center (Minneapolis, US), KIASMA (Helsinki, Finland), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), ICA (London, UK), and Graphic Design Museum (Breda, The Netherlands).
Info-aesthetics , Manovich, Lev. Info-aesthetics. Bloomsbury, 2015. ISBN: 1849660077
The Illusions: A BIT of The Language of New Media , Manovich, Lev. The Illusions: A BIT of The Language of New Media. Kindle Edition. The MIT Press, 2014. ASIN: B00I5ZB5GA
Software Takes Command , Manovich, Lev. Software Takes Command. Bloomsbury Academic, 2013. ISBN: 1623567459
Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database , Manovich, Lev, and Andreas Kratky. Soft Cinema: Navigating the Database. MIT Press, 2005. ASIN: B0031I5O3Q
Black Box – White Cube , Manovich, Lev. Black Box – White Cube. Merve, 2005. ISBN: 3883961973
Soft Cinema 1 , Mavoich, Lev. Soft Cinema 1. Lev Manovich and ZKM, 2003.
The Language of New Media , Manovich, Lev. The Language of New Media. MIT Press, 2001. ISBN: 0262133741
Metamediji , Manovich, Lev. Metamediji [Macromedia]. Belgrade: Centre for Contemporary Arts, 2001.
The Engineering of Vision from Constructivism to Computer , Manovich, Lev. “The Engineering of Vision from Constructivism to Computer.” PhD Diss., University of Rochester, 1993.
Edited Works
Tekstura: Russian essays on Visual Culture
Manovich, Lev, and Alla Efimova, eds. Tekstura: Russian essays on Visual Culture . University Of Chicago Press, 1993. ISBN: 0226951235
Methods of Cultural Analytics
Mass Communication, Interface, and New Media Studies 3/3
Mass Communication, Interface, and New Media Studies 2/3
Mass Communication, Interface, and New Media Studies 1/3
Technology, Digital Media, and Visual Culture 2/2
Technology, Digital Media, and Visual Culture 1/2
Visual Communication, New Media, and Contemporary Society 3/3
Visual Communication, New Media, and Contemporary Society 2/3
Visual Communication, New Media, and Contemporary Society 1/3
Bruno Latour and Visual Culture 2/2
Understanding Software Culture: How Search Works 2/2
Bruno Latour and Visual Culture 1/2
Understanding Software Culture: How Search Works 1/2
Contemporary Information Visualization and Categorization 3/3
Contemporary Information Visualization and Categorization 2/3
Contemporary Information Visualization and Categorization 1/3
Software Culture and Information Visualization 3/3
Software Culture and Information Visualization 2/3
Software, Visualization, and Society 2/2
Software Culture and Information Visualization 1/3
Software, Visualization, and Society 1/2
Examples and Techniques in Information Visualization
Interactivity and Dialogue in New Media 11/11
Interactivity and Dialogue in New Media 10/11
Interactivity and Dialogue in New Media 9/11
Interactivity and Dialogue in New Media 8/11
Interactivity and Dialogue in New Media 7/11
Interactivity and Dialogue in New Media 6/11
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Marc Chagall and Jewish Theater, Part One
by Jeanne Willette | Nov 11, 2016 | Modern , Modern Art
Marc Chagall in Moscow
The murals for the jewish theater.
To the end of his life, Marc Chagall remained circumspect about his ouster from the People’s Art School in Vitebsk. And the coup against the artist was no small event. Chagall had been appointed by none other than the People’s Commissariat of Enlightenment, Anatoly Lunacharsky (1875-1933), an old friend from their days in Paris, living in the artists’ building, known as La Ruche. Moe than the friendly connection with the new government, there was the symbolic gesture of Lunacharsky appointing a Jewish head of an art school for the people, indicating the end of the Pale of the Settlement, or the erasure of the line that had kept Jews cordoned off and separated from non-Jewish Russians since 1791. Under Catherine the Great and Alexander II, areas beyond the original borders of Russia had been annexed, especially Poland, which continued a large number of Jews. The “Pale of the Settlement,” a phase coined by Nicholas I, scooped up, so to speak, much of this new population, which was subject to restrictions on their movements. For the most part, these restrictions were to eliminate economic competition from Jews and the travel restrictions were based upon a policy of restricting the comings and goings of Russians in general. After centuries, suddenly, in 1917, all Russians were equal, opening unimaginable vistas for Jews who were filled with hope for the future. Therefore, to remove a friend of Lunacharsky and a Jewish artist over aesthetic differences could have been a dangerous move for Chagall’s “enemies,” Kazimir Malevich and El Lissitzky. But, Chagall, embittered, removed himself from the unpleasant situation and left Vitebsk for Moscow and a new project. Writing sadly about these difficult days, the artist later wrote sadly,
I would not be surprised if, after such a long absence, my town effaced all traces of me and would no longer remember him who, laying down his own brush, tormented himself, suffered and gave himself the trouble of implanting Art there, who dreamed of transforming the ordinary houses into museum and the ordinary habitants into creative people. And I understood then that no man is a prophet in his own country. I left for Moscow.”
Marc Chagall. The Fiddler (1912)
Chagall walked into a pause in the historical Russian penchant for anti-Semitism. For the Russians, the war had just ended but during the Great War, local prejudices against Jews ran high. Over six hundred thousand Jews were ousted from their homes by the army and the historical pograms led by Cossacks increased–all because Jews were being scapegoated and blamed for the military’s difficulties with the Germans. But after the War, the government policy towards Jews changed abruptly. The significance of the sudden surge or influx of Jewish culture into the mainstream of Russian society rests upon political changes that went beyond the Revolution itself. When one looks at a list of prominent Bolshevik leaders of the October Revolution, it become clear that the majority were Jewish. According to Mark Weber’s article “The Jewish Role in the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia’s Early Soviet Regime,”
With the notable exception of Lenin (Vladimir Ulyanov), most of the leading Communists who took control of Russia in 1917-20 were Jews. Leon Trotsky (Lev Bronstein) headed the Red Army and, for a time, was chief of Soviet foreign affairs. Yakov Sverdlov (Solomon) was both the Bolshevik party’s executive secretary and — as chairman of the Central Executive Committee — head of the Soviet government. Grigori Zinoviev (Radomyslsky) headed the Communist International (Comintern), the central agency for spreading revolution in foreign countries. Other prominent Jews included press commissar Karl Radek (Sobelsohn), foreign affairs commissar Maxim Litvinov (Wallach), Lev Kamenev (Rosenfeld) and Moisei Uritsky. Lenin himself was of mostly Russian and Kalmuck ancestry, but he was also one-quarter Jewish. His maternal grandfather, Israel (Alexander) Blank, was a Ukrainian Jew who was later baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church. A thorough-going internationalist, Lenin viewed ethnic or cultural loyalties with contempt. He had little regard for his own countrymen. “An intelligent Russian,” he once remarked, “is almost always a Jew or someone with Jewish blood in his veins.”
According to Weber, over time, when anti-Semitism inevitably returned to this land of the pograms, this early history of active Jewish participation in the Revolution was obscured. But at the time, outside observers such as Winston Churchill were well aware of the role played by Jewish revolutionary leaders. “With the notable exception of Lenin, the majority of the leading figures are Jews. Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from the Jewish leaders. Thus Tchitcherin, a pure Russian, is eclipsed by his nominal subordinate, Litvinoff, and the influence of Russians like Bukharin or Lunacharski cannot be compared with the power of Trotsky, or of Zinovieff, the Dictator of the Red Citadel (Petrograd), or of Krassin or Radek — all Jews,” Churchill said–and his observations were not necessarily positive.
The most famous member of the inner circle was Leon Trotsky, targeted by an anti-Semitic cartoon from the White Army
This connection between Jews and Communism or leftism or revolutions was made by others, thus linking Bolshevikism with the Jews, with what would be tragic consequences. Rival factions in the Soviet Union were resentful of the sudden favoritism, and perhaps most unexpectedly, the ranks of the secret police were filled with Jews, also certain to former more discontent. However, in 1920, when Marc Chagall arrived in Moscow, he was part of a vanguard that would attempt to knit the Yiddish culture into Russia, an empire that once kept Jews within the Pale. Once the Jews became full citizens and were granted their rights as citizens of the Provisional Government, the explosion of Jewish culture was immediate. As Jewish Renaissance in the Russian Revolution , written by Kenneth B. Moss, explained,
Most Jews in Russia and Ukraine no doubt spent the years of the Revolution and Civil War merely struggling to survive, like most of their countrymen. But a disproportionately large minority participated in Revolutionary Russia’s tumultuous political life.Most famously, many played important roles across the spectrum of Russian radical and liberal politics..Yet for a significant cohort of intellectuals, writers, artists, patrons, publicists, teachers, activists embedded in this national intelligentsia, February also bore a second imperative..some o Russian Jewelry’s most talented men and women also threw themselves into efforts of unprecedented scale and intensity to crate what they called a “new Jewish culture.”Between February 1917 and the consolidation of Bolshevik power in 1919-1920, European Russia and Ukraine became the sites of the most ambitious programs of Jewish cultural formation that Eastern Europe had yet seen or indeed would see again.
This Yiddish culture that Chagall would animate and illustrate in the Moscow theater, the Yiddish Chamber Theater, was a folk, rather than an elite, culture. Based upon a distinctive language, Yiddish, that emerged around 1000 CE, emanating from the Ashkenazic Jews or the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, clustered in large numbers in the Russian Empire by the beginning of the twentieth century. This hybrid language, a mixture of Medieval German and Hebrew, was used exclusively by the Jews of this part of Europe. Jews from the Western nations, such as Germany, could understand smatterings of this very old language but, for Gentiles, the words would be impossible to comprehend. This point is important because the Jewish Theater, moved from Petrograd to Moscow by Lunacharsky, was intended to not just preserve and formalize a part of Russian society, previously excluded, the productions also had to be integrated and assimilated by a non-Jewish audience. For this audience, the task of interpretation was made easier by the fact that the performances were pantomime like. Given that the reception of these Yiddish literary creations would be directed to a mixed audience, the images created by Chagall had to the iconic but not stereotypical and instantly recognizable as paradigm figures of Jewish culture.
When the theater was transferred to Moscow, its name changed slightly, and, indeed, would change off and on until it was extinguished in 1949. In Chagall’s time the theater, which was unexpectedly avant-garde and experimental, was called State Yiddish Chamber Theater or GOSEKT. Under the leadership of Alexei Granovsky, the Theater in Petrograd came into being before the Revolution, the presentations were very sophisticated, devoid of kitsch and imbued with the influence of the German theater director and producer, Max Reinhardt (Maximilian Goldmann), an Austrian who worked in Berlin and reformed the naturalism of the turn of the century into a self-conscious total work of art or Gesamtkunstwerk . As Curt Levient wrote, “Granovsky had trained in Berlin with legendary director Max Reinhardt and developed a vision of theater that melded acting, set design, costumes, lighting, music, dance, movement, and gesture — even silence — into an organic whole.” In his important book on The Moscow Yiddish Theater: Art on Stage in Time of Revolution , Benjamin Harshav noted that Granovsky was persuaded by theater critic, Abram Efros, to ask the distinguished artist to paint the back drops. The “theater” was actually a confiscated home of a wealthy merchant who had fled the Bolshevik distaste for the moneyed class. The site of the actual performance was small, holding less that a hundred people who were lucky enough to enjoy the remarkable combination of Marc Chagall and Sholem Aleichem, whose play would be the inaugural production.
Recreation of Chagall’s Box: the Back Wall and Frieze
Working with a young group of players, none over the age of twenty-seven, Chagall had a unique opportunity in a nation at a new starting point to reset the conventions for theater, a desire he shared with Granovsky, to drag theater into the twentieth century. More than that, according to the 1993 catalogue from the Guggenheim Museum on the work of Chagall for GOSEKT (or GOSET), “Chagall presented a unique, and uniquely Jewish, approach. Through specifically Jewish visual puns, Yiddish inscriptions, and references to the festivities of Jewish weddings and Purim — a Jewish analogue to carnival in its emphasis on ludicrous masquerades and outrageous intoxication — he posited a distinctive model for the Jewish Theater.” For this occasion, Chagall produced what would later be called “Chagall’s Box,” murals which bound the theatrical world inhabited by his sets and costumes. The main set piece was a twenty-sux foot mural on the left wall, “Introduction to the Jewish Theater,” that formed the main backdrop for the three one act plays. He also painted four panels, representing the arts, placed between the windows opposite. Leaving no surface untouched, Chagall painted a frieze and the ceiling and then produced a mural called “Love on the Stage” for the back of the “theater.”
The production was so elaborate and the costumes of painted rags and dotted face make up so Chagall specific, Granovsky accepted the unique contribution but did not invite the artist and his complex and expensive schemes and motifs to do another production. And yet, the spell of Chagall lived on and subsequent set designers were impacted by his unbridled imagination that activated a magical Yiddish cast of characters. The artist was inspired by the nineteenth century authors who created Yiddish literature, Sholem Yankev Abramovitsch, who wrote under the nom de plume, Mendele Moykher Sforim, often referred to as “Mendele,” and Yitzhak Leib Peretz, both of whom elevated and incorporated a folk culture into high literature. The writer whose stories were featured in the 1921 production designed by Chagall is perhaps the most famous, Solomon Rabinovitch, who also wrote under a name other than his own, Sholem Aleichem, which is a play on an old Yiddish greeting of “peace be upon you.” On the evening of January 1st of 1921, “Evening of Sholom-Aleihem” presented two one act plays, “Agentn (Agents)” and “Mazltov,” word that needs on translation.
Set for Mazltov
The plays may have been classic Yiddish literature but the action was totally avant-garde , based upon Granovsky’s idea that theater began in silence and a dark room and that the actors emerged in and out of the dream space. The actors were directed or guided, as it were by a “system of dots,” something like pantomime, in which the actors would freeze and pose in place, following “an assembly of dots,” as Abram Efros put it. In other words, theater was de-naturalized and flattened with the actual actors mimicking the painted figures of Chagall, binding the surrounding “Chagall Box” to the audience and to the actors, negating the theatrical stage and turning it into a dark non-space from which characters emerged as if from a canvas, becoming the artist’s creations.
The next post will discuss the famous murals, displayed until 1925 and hidden away for another five decades.
If you have found this material useful, please give credit to
Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette and Art History Unstuffed.
[email protected]
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