2010–11 Learning Through Art Residencies

Listed below are brief overviews of the LTA residencies from the 2010–11 school year.

PS 8, Brooklyn
3rd grade
Teaching Artist: Jenny Bevill
Students thought about their daily personal choices and character traits while they studied Native American cultures. Inspired by how Native Americans used images to represent ideas, students worked on developing their thoughts through symbols. Throughout the year they built symbol libraries, practiced collaborative art making, and explored the choices they could make when working individually or as a team. Students discussed and looked at artwork, focusing on ways to express “big ideas,” and then translated their ideas into clay using metaphor, narrative, and complex symbols.

PS 8, Brooklyn
4th grade
Teaching Artist: Jenny Bevill
Alongside a focus on social studies, students investigated how historical and contemporary artists respond to both personal and world events. “How do artists respond?” was explored throughout the year as they looked at artworks and learned about new materials. Students then created a “chain” of responses that involved three rounds of art making. First the students created collages about personal aspects of their lives. These collages were then exchanged among the group and students used disposable cameras to take photos inspired by their peers’ collages. Lastly, the photos were exchanged and “responded” to with clay sculptures that reinterpreted the photographs.

PS 9, Brooklyn
3rd grade
Teaching Artist: James Reynolds
Building on their social studies curriculum, students investigated how fashion has been influenced by culture, status, role, ritual, identity, and celebration. After studying repetition and pattern, students created identity symbols based on their unique interests. These symbols were incorporated into a collaborative quilt. For the final project, Chinese and Nigerian status symbols inspired the students’ clay models. Students were challenged to design and update bags, shoes, robes, and masks so that they addressed modern day concerns.

PS 9, Brooklyn
4th grade
Teaching Artist: Emily Gibson
Studying the relationships between early American colonists and Native Americans, students explored the question “How are we connected to and divided from other people?” as well as their own relationships with friends and family. Students analyzed abstract and representational works of art and studied how artists express ideas through scale, color choices, repetition, overlapping shapes, and line quality. Students used oil pastels to create strong, vibrant colors for their abstract and semi-abstract works. Using line, shape, and color they sought to express information about connections and divisions regarding personal relationships in their own lives.

PS 28, Manhattan
2nd grade
Teaching Artist: Kristin Melkin
As they read stories that included complex and colorful characters, students considered themselves as characters and responded to the question, "What makes me, ME?" Students focused on portraiture—how a portrait shows not only how someone looks, but also character traits. Students created mixed-media portraits, which included a painted memory from their “inside” and a more realistic rendering of themselves painted on vellum.

PS 42, Manhattan
5th grade
Teaching Artist: Jen Cecere
Integrating the social studies and math curriculum, students explored the concept of "landmark" and its relevance to the community. Students created collaborative mosaics inspired by their research into the essential question, "What is the purpose of landmarks?"

PS 48, Staten Island
3rd grade
Teaching Artist: Ardina Greco
Students pondered "What kind of person am I? What kind of person do I want to be?" while learning about characters and folktales. Students investigated and created imagery about fictional and historical figures, as well as personal characteristics. Students explored the nuances of paint and collage as they built multilayered cardboard constructions and then added symbols in complex color combinations to express qualities like strength and peacefulness.

PS 48, Staten Island
4th grade
Teaching Artist: Mark Dzula
Students considered "How do myths reflect the world?" through discussion and study of ancient and contemporary mythologies. For their final project students developed their own question-inspired by myths and constructed character specific costumes and sets to bring their myths to life.

PS 58, Brooklyn
Grade: 3
Teaching Artist: Emily Lambert
How are we affected by various environments and how do we adapt? Third graders at PS 58 thought about this question as they learned about the biomes and habitats of animals around the world. Scientific and cultural studies of these biomes led the students to design their own imaginary animals and environments. Students used ink and watercolor to depict their new worlds and worked together to create scrolling scenes of these lively inhabited landscapes.

PS 58, Brooklyn
Grade: 3
Teaching Artist: Sarah Mostow
Students studied the art and traditions of world cultures and discussed the processes that artists utilize when exploring drawing and painting, personal expression, and the world of imagination. Students worked on ways to respond to questions such as “How can you show what you like to do with a friend?” Paralleling their learning about Moroccan and Chinese art, students were challenged to create artistic languages for expressing their personal worlds.

PS 86, Bronx
4th grade
Teaching Artist: Sonya Blesofsky
While studying New York City in their social studies curriculum, student thought about the question, "How does the history of a place shape who we are?" Students learned a variety of painting techniques, created maps—of both and real and imagined places—and ultimately created a painting based on a place of personal significance with either real or imagined history.

PS 86, Bronx
6th grade
Teaching Artist: Jeff Hopkins
How does an author or artist persuade an audience? While studying “point of view” in English Language Arts, students looked at how art can be used to make a visual point. Students explored a myriad of printmaking techniques and focused on using color, composition, mark-making, and exaggeration to express their individual points of view. For their final project, students selected and researched a current event, and then created prints that express their view of the event.

PS 88, Queens
5th grade
Teaching Artist: Susan Mayr
Students reflected on the question, "How do your decisions, reactions, and choices affect you today and connect you to your future?" A focus on how artists acquire skills to make educated choices and decisions drove the discussions and work. Students investigated both figurative and abstract works of art, learning about different styles, techniques, and concepts such as how artists get inspired. Throughout the year students practiced sketching from both observation and imagination, experimented with color mixing, and worked with a range of mediums: pencil, charcoal, finger paint, and acrylic paint. For their final project, students were given acrylic paint, brushes, and a blank canvas and the instructions to make choices using style, color, line, and shape.

PS 88, Queens
3rd grade
Teaching Artist: Antonia Perez
In connection with the English Language Arts curriculum, students considered the question “What is character?” As students investigated the character traits of figures in famous works of art and their own lives, they expanded their vocabulary and descriptive language. Students chose significant persons in their lives and wrote about their character traits and personal relationships. Focusing on ways that an artist can visually represent a person’s internal qualities, students experimented with sketching, collage, printmaking, and painting. The final popup books were made with marker and watercolor, displaying a scene that best represents each person’s single most significant attribute and how it relates to the student artist.

PS 144, Queens
3rd grade
Teaching Artist: Megan Lucas
These students created sculptural portraits representing the effects of culture and location on identity. Students researched various aspects of cultures around the world including folktales, food traditions, and natural environments. Then they carefully considered places to represent and gathered inspiration from their studies of objects and symbols as reflections of culture. The third graders then created creatures suited to a habitat of their choosing and worked over several weeks to assemble mixed-media sculptures and backdrops of the characters in their environments.

PS 184, Manhattan
3rd grade
Teaching Artist: Jeff Hopkins
Students discussed landmarks around the world and asked, "What do landmarks tell us about the people and places around them?" Students explored historical information about their neighborhood and were worked in teams to design new sculptural landmarks for the Lower East Side. Brainstorming, negotiation, and teamwork were integral parts of creating these innovative sculptures, echoing the process that communities often undergo when a new landmark is introduced into the urban fabric.

Photo: 3rd grade students from PS 88 Queens with teaching artist Antonia Perez, 2009–10. Photo: Rachel Florman