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11. Earth, Art and Life: Young Artists’ Perspectives
- 2023/05/10
- 再生時間： 34 分
- ポッドキャスト
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あらすじ・解説
Earth, Art and Life: Young Artist’s PerspectivesSo much of what has been shared and discussed in this series on classrooms and climate change, has been focused on what adults think, say, do or do not do. In this final episode of the series, “Is Climate Change Changing Classrooms” the CHLL group (Cally, Heather, Lois and Louise) reflect on what young people have to say through their artistic expressions. The Brigham Young University Arts Education Partnership hosts an annual art competition for all grade levels, in all art forms. It’s part of an initiative called Arts for Life, Utah. The purpose is to highlight the impact of the arts on students' lives, particularly their social and emotional well being. The initiative is a collaboration between the BYU Arts Partnership where Cally and Heather work, and the four professional arts education organizations in Utah. The competition is called M(arts)ch Madness, and includes a bracket style competition inspired by the athletics March Madness. Students submit their work showing the impact of the arts in their life and their schooling experience. Usually the theme is Arts for Life. But this year students were asked to submit work on the theme of Earth, Arts and Life, in an effort to surface students' perspectives on the environment, as well. Examples of the student artwork and their artist statements are here in the show notes. The CHLL team reflected on what they noticed about the interface of the Earth, Arts and Life in student work, and what they could learn from student perspectives.Cally I would love to start with one of the paintings that's very memorable for me. There's so many artworks that I love, but I want to start with one, a high school 11th grader. This is his artist statement, “The name of my art piece is progress. It depicts a crow looking up at the clouded sky, knowing that he is not able to fly high without harming himself. I created my own paint out of smoke, which allowed me to paint the piece purely with smoke paint. I decided to use a crow, as crows are black and highly intelligent, which allowed for the use of monochrome colors. The piece is titled ‘Progress’. It shows an industrialized city filled with factories and buildings shooting pollution up into the air. I use smoke to represent how we as humans are affecting the Earth. …The crow is representing a human perspective looking down this long road at the pollution.” The student has used perspective to draw our attention to the factory that's releasing the smoke into the air. And the crow seems reflective. Gazing, watching, and wondering how this impacts him. I really liked the contrast of nature, and the concrete breaks and the strong lines of the image around it. I thought this was a powerful piece, and showed a lot of commitment to the theme. He chose smoke to do this monochromatic piece with shades, everything from white to very dark blacks, and mostly shades of gray.Develop Craft and TechniqueLois I think one of the things that interests me is the way this kid used material. One of the Studio Habits of Mind is to develop craft, and he really used the technique of perspective. It's like that crow is on the line of the perspective aiming right for the smokestacks. This crow is in the foreground and is dark and is facing away. It's really interesting how this kid was able to use technique to express something very personal. I think a really powerful thing about the arts is that, however much technique the kids have, students can use it to say what they want to say. Some students don't have very much technique yet, but still the expression is very, very rich. LouiseIn this series we've been talking a lot about curriculum development, and how who decides and who decides what is being taught and learned. In this one piece, it seems to me, there's so much curriculum opportunity on the topic of progress. What is progress? When I was a child, General Electric had a logo, ‘Progress is our Business”. It's a real question, what is progress as we are going forward? When we have exhibitions of student work, often it is a culminating event. But it's also the beginning. That’s the case with Lois’s Sea Rise Mural event at Umana elementary school in Boston to celebrate the completed mural. These events are opportunities to ask young people about the impact of artmaking and art viewing on their lives going forward. It is an opportunity for curriculum development because there are so many generative next places to go.Supporting Students’ Where They Truly Need Adult SupportLois There's this one piece, by a 10th grader in Timpanogos High School, of a cherry tree on a little island reflected in the water. The artist says, “You know, cherry blossoms connect me with me by reminding me that there's always a chance to start over and do better than the last time.” This makes me sad, because I do think that that's true, and that's something we really ...