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Six girls sat atop a large canvas drop cloth they had spread out inside the doorway of our fourth grade classroom. They had developed a technique for making what they referred to as “paint bombs.”

To create a paint bomb they poured viscous blobs of school-grade tempera paint onto an 8½ by 11 inch sheet of copy paper, gathered up the four corners so it resembled a giant Hershey’s Kiss, and affixed it with masking tape. The paint bombs were carefully placed in a box and carried outside to the soccer field. The girls then climbed to the top of a small set of bleachers and hurled their paint bombs onto a large piece of stretch paper rolled out on the ground below. The effect was cathartic. As the paint bombs exploded and splattered onto the bright white paper the girls shouted: “Whoa!” “I made the biggest splat!” “Woo!” “They’re literally bombs” and “Look how awesome that looks!”

The paint bombs were made during a time we referred to as Media/Shop/Studio. Each week during the 2011-2012 school year two hours were set aside for students to engage in self-initiated creative explorations. During Media/Shop/Studio students were allowed to use and explore a variety of digital devices like computers, iPads, and Flip Cameras, or engage in more hands-on activities such as woodworking, sculpture, or painting.

Resurrecting Joan Mitchell
As an artist, the exuberance of the paint bomb activity evoked for me the persona of the 20^th century abstract expressionist painter Joan Mitchell. Although Mitchell manifested a “rage to paint,” her milieu was the mid-twentieth century “male dominated art world” [1]. Mitchell “often felt overshadowed or marginalized in the competitive and male dominated group of New York Abstract Expressionists” [2].

Unfortunately, this bias persists in our twenty-first century classrooms [3] and “gender equity remains a problem in schools” [4]. Recent studies have shown that math and science are identified as male dominated subjects and the arts as female domains [5]. But even within the arts, gender stereotypes exist which diminish the importance of women artists and how their artworks are perceived [6]. Gender stereotyping has also influenced “the formation of gendered styles in children’s drawing” [7].

Yet at the same time, the arts may be used as a “platform to communicate” [8] and as a way to empower students. According to Wagner-Ott, a postmodern approach to art education disrupts traditional barriers and opens up avenues to “engage in classroom discourse at a deeper level” [9]. Growing up in an age influenced by the postmodern aesthetic, the six girls had no problem initiating the paint bomb activity. They devised the concept, gathered supplies, and began production without having to wait for instructions or attend to “narrowly prescriptive theories” [10]. My role as a teacher was to make sure they were safe, offer logistical advice, and then step out of the way and allow their self-initiated creativity to unfold.

Coda
After the last paint bomb had been tossed, I helped clean up scattered bits of paint-laden paper and trekked back to the classroom with the six girls, leaving the painting out to dry in the bright afternoon sun. Once the students left for the day, I returned to the soccer field. As I attempted to transport the painting back to the classroom I soon found that the weight of the dense puddles of coagulating paint caused the paper to tear and shred.  Realizing the futility of this effort, I decided to dispose of it in a nearby trash bin. I felt guilty making this decision without first consulting the girls but knew it would provide a good future lesson on materials and techniques.

The following morning as the students arrived I was surprised the girls did not inquire about the painting. But a week later at the start of the next Media/Shop/Studio, I saw the six girls, now with two boys in tow, joyfully traipse out to the soccer field paint bombs at the ready.

References
[1] Livingston, J. (2002). The Paintings of Joan Mitchell. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art.
[2] Prouty, L. (2011). In Context: Untitled. In Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Auction (pp. 98-101). New York: Sotheby’s.
[3] Owens, S., Smothers, B., & Love, F. (2003). Are girls victims of gender bias in our nation’s schools? Journal of Instructional Psychology, 30(2), 131-136.
[3] Tiedemann, J. (2000). Gender-related beliefs of teachers in elementary school Mathematics. Educational Studies in Mathematics, 41(2), 191–207.
[4] Garber, E. (2003). Teaching about gender issues in the art education classroom: MyraSadker Day. Studies in Art Education, 45(1), 56-72.
[5] Hill, C., Corbett, C., & St. Rose, A. (2010). Why so few? Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Washington, DC: American Association of University Women.
[6] Keifer-Boyd, K. (2003). A pedagogy to expose and critique gendered cultural stereotypes embedded in art interpretation. Studies in Art Education, 44(4), 315–334.
[7] Tuman, D. M. (1999). Gender style as form and content: An examination of genderstereotypes in the subject preference of children’s drawing. Studies in Art Education, 41(1), 40-60.
[8] Pennisi, A.C. (2006). Voices of women: Telling the truth through art making. The Journal of Social Theory in Art Education, 26, 85-104.
[9] Wagner-Ott, A. (2002). Analysis of gender identity through doll and action figure politics in art education. Studies in Art Education, 43(3), 246-263.
[10] Gude, O. (2004). Postmodern principles: In search of a 21st century art education.  Art Education, 56(1), 6-14.

David Rufo is an artist/teacher/researcher working on his PhD at Syracuse University in Art Education. With seventeen years experience as a general classroom fourth grade teacher, David’s current research interest is the self-initiated creativity of children in a child-centered environment. In addition to being a full-time teacher, David is also an adjunct instructor at Syracuse University where he has created and taught a course titled, Art Educators as Contemporary Artists. His most recent article titled, “Building Forts and Drawing on Walls: Fostering Student Initiated Creativity Inside and Outside the Elementary Classroom,” was published in the May 2012 issue of the peer-reviewed journal, Art Education. His current paintings incorporate watercolor, ink, and antique letterpress to examine children’s literature. Contact David

Also by David Rufo in ALT/space:
Snowfall

The teachers and I, acting as a facilitator, at Christina Kent have been exploring the Reggio Emilia philosophy since 2010.  The use of “art” for children in our practice is a departure from what many teachers are taught, and challenges many assumptions about the use of art in early childhood classrooms. 

In my experience as an early childhood art educator, many teachers are confronted with the dilemma of creating a balance between allowing for free expression and product oriented art projects.  Some believe that young children should be given lots of materials at once and then told to “have at it.”  For some children, this is confusing and they are unsure of what to do when given this much freedom.  On the other side of the spectrum, children are given limited materials and shown samples of what their project should look like when finished.  This approach is often called cookie cutter or product centered art.  The challenge for teachers is to find the space in between where children are allowed to experiment while still given some structure. 

I see the learning of materials as a language just as one would acquire a new written language. This is done in stages.  First, children learn what a material can do by experimenting and becoming familiar with its properties.  The learning of a material and its properties is like learning new words.  Children learn that each medium has a different voice or speaks a different language.  However, the exploration of the material is not an end in itself.  Afterwards, children apply the material to communicate their understanding of the world around them.  The result is not only the exploration or the product, but also the processes by which children chose to express their ideas.

I asked Christina Kent teacher Amber how she approached teaching children to use the art medium of paint.  Amber has a background in the visual arts and approached teaching children to paint similar to her own experiences with the medium.  First, she said that she set some parameters and then allowed children to have freedom within those parameters.  “I allow children to break some of the rules within the parameters to learn in their own way how paint can be used.” 

For example, recently she gave children two colors of paint and asked them to discover what they could do with those two colors.  As a result, children learned new colors and created new names such as “PB&J Purple, Purple Eyes, and Monster Red.”  Amber also described how children are learning literacy, social, and fine motor skills while they are negotiating their own learning through exploration of a medium. 

In our work, children’s visual interpretations are collected and studied as parts of documentation that reveal their growing understandings of an interest that is studied in the classroom.  Amber’s next challenge is to have children apply this new-found knowledge of colors to their interest in moths that have infested the Albuquerque community.  Amber is extending their interest by asking them to create their own interpretations of the moths and their colors.  I’ll be writing about this project in my next post.

Gigi Schroeder-Yu began her career in education as an art and drama teacher in elementary classrooms in Arizona, Wisconsin, and Chicago. She completed her masters degree from the University of Arizona and is currently pursing her doctorate degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana.  For she several years has assisted with the implementation of the Reggio Emilia Approach while working for inner city programs in Chicago, central Illinois, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Currently, she is a professional development provider for Christina Kent Early Childcare Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  They are implementing collaborative professional development through the study of children’s interests and the use of documentation protocol.  Contact Gigi

Also by Gigi Schroeder Yu on ALT/space:
Where Do the Dinosaurs Live?
The Business of Studying Children’s Interests

Traditionally, visual art classes and exhibitions are segregated by age groups: young children, preteens, teens, and adults, for example.  But I’ve wondered what would happen if these groups could be brought together using the same teaching techniques, possibly even exhibiting their work together?

Currently, I’m the artist-in-residence for Art & Ideas Contemporary Art Gallery & Studio in Plymouth, Michigan. As a TA here and in the public schools, I engage youth and adults of all ages, abilities and interests in art classes designed to open new modes of expression and thought.

Since the opening of the gallery/studio in December 2009, I’ve seen many students engage in my art classes. I’ve found it so exciting working with small kids one day, and then the next day working with adults who are artists, accountants, engineers, teachers, therapists, project managers, or retirees. My challenge has been how to engage all my students across the vast differences in age, experience and background. 

I decided to experiment with the idea of transferring the same project across all age levels.  I focused an acrylic painting class on landscape and still life, hoping to transfer it to the youth levels after teaching it to adults. I found my step-by-step approach in teaching the acrylic classes effective for the adults, witnessing their success and learning that occurred from start to finish. 

I then decided to try this approach with my tweens (ages 9-12) program. I had questioned whether this kind of structure would squelch the students’ creativity, but was surprised how enthusiastic the kids were when I taught using this kind of structure.

Things were going so well with this new approach that I decided to propose an idea to the director.  What about having an intergenerational art exhibition that reflected this exchange of expression between age levels? The idea that you would see a five-year-old’s work juxtaposed with a person’s in their 70s intrigued me. As an artist I utilize the technique of juxtaposition in my own art work, so the thought of using juxtaposition in an exhibition of people of different ages created an interesting parallel as my vision as an artist.

July 9^th, 2011, was the opening night for the “Ages of Art Show” at Art & Ideas. There were 24 artists varying in age from five to well-past retirement age. Many had brought friends and parents, and it was one of the most meaningful nights we’ve ever had at the gallery.

At every opening night we typically have an artist’s talk or discussion. “Ages of Art” was no different. I knew that the participating artists might feel nervous about sharing their work. Many of the artists were nervous, and that was the most crucial aspect of their creating a meaningful presentation. Their vulnerability would create sincerity, and I knew they would be more honest about their work.  The fact that their presentations were not polished brought authenticity to the evening and was a profound experience for all who participated.  Each person expressed what it meant to create something that brought them closer their creative selves.

During this whole project I learned a great deal about creating programs that transfer lessons between generations. By creating an intergenerational show I was able to illustrate how juxtaposing artwork created by students of many ages can create a memorable experience.  This experience was echoed by the artists during their presentations.  Many of them shared emotional reasons about why creating art affected them, and how my approach as a teacher allowed them to access their own meaning.

My new approach also created unity between the artists through the emotional expressions of each presenter – some cried, some told personal narratives that linked to their art-making or life changes they were going to make. This taught me the value of hearing the students’ voices and letting them hear each other’s voices.  This exhibition allowed me to see that there is a creative process in the sharing of artwork as well as in the making of it. 

 Shaqe Kalaj is project-based artist working in a variety of media with the end goal of conveying meaning and the idea of transformation.  Shaqe infuses her work as a TA with her work as a visual artist.  As a TA in the schools she is focused in on integration and engagement.  Many of her projects in the school have heightened learning in other content areas.  Her work outside of the school atmosphere is to engage the community in meaningful work that allows the individual at any age to experience their potential and to experience what it means to be a part of an authentic community.  Contact Shaqe Represented by Art and Ideas Gallery  Shaqe’s Website 

Also by Shaqe Kalaj in ALT/space:
By Foot: Engaging Youth with Performance Art
Their Grades Shot Up!
Color as a Classroom Tool
Thank You For How
Beyond Self-Criticism

Sometimes you don´t know your teaching practice has changed until you´re confronted with a different environment and audience. I recently changed gears from teaching in a museum to teaching in a school and the transition has been a radical experience for me as a teaching artist.

In February 2011, I moved back to Lima after spending ten years in New York as a teaching artist working in museums and developing my own artwork. I was offered a position in San Silvestre School, a British, private all-girls school with the goal “to provide an integral education based on the best aspects of the British and Peruvian educational systems….”  Coincidentally, it´s also the one I attended all my school life, and considered one of the most prestigious schools in the country.

I now teach high school students studio art, the IGCSE University of Cambridge program, the International Baccalaureate (IB) Art Program and Art History. Although so different to what I’d been doing, it also seemed a perfect opportunity to apply and adapt all I’d learned in New York to a completely different setting, especially in art history.

Before moving to New York, I worked in a different British school in Lima where art history was part of studio arts.  I taught the subject using what I then considered an interesting approach, looking back though, it was mostly linear. This methodology would not be enough in my current teaching.

In New York I worked interpreting art with museum visitors, engaging diverse audiences in looking at and contextualizing artworks and objects. Now, however, when faced with teaching art history as a subject to young people in a school setting, without the context of the museum (objects, artworks and through these, the presence of artists) it felt isolated, arid, bland. I’m a firm believer in teaching from my passion, that as I teach I become a learner myself; the dissatisfaction I felt using a traditional practice became a challenge.

At San Silvestre, art history is offered as an elective course not part of the IGCSE program which students follow in Forms III and IV. The course is intended as a connection to the arts for students with an interest in the subject but who do not necessarily want to make art or consider themselves ‘creative enough’.  When I met my students however, they had a perception of art history as a boring subject. Or so they thought.

In a standard art history course students ‘look at’ artists and their practice in much the same way that zoo visitors look at animals: isolated from their environment, without actual objects or a direct artist connection. This lack of connection led me to find other ways to teach what the syllabus requires while at the same time encouraging students to think like art historians and be inquisitive about the process of creating art, building connections with their own lives and humanizing the artists being studied.

When teaching in a museum, the direct experience of engaging with artworks created an immediate interest in the students and prompted them to ask questions. The physical presence of a drawing or a painting, an installation, a video that you experience with your senses is crucial.  What could I do, without the presence of actual artworks that would help students understand how artists think and why they make art?  Most importantly, why should they care? 

Student displays. To the left, museum of Japanese mandalas and to the right, ‘awana’, museum of Paracas (Peruvian pre-hispanic) culture which showcased the influence of this ancient culture in modern Peruvian art.

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Entering my fifth year as a teaching artist, I have come to find that this role has many more dimensions than I initially thought when I first started.  Recent conversations with colleagues whom I have known at different times, have inspired me to reflect on the forms of work a teaching artist can do.  Ultimately, it appears that there seem to have been a number of entry points for me into this profession. 

First encounter
My first encounter of the work of teaching artists came after graduating from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) was Silk Road Rising (formerly known as Silk Road Theater Project).  I was invited to play Pipa for the exhibition opening of “The Art of Chinese Shadow Puppets” in the winter of 2007 at Columbia College Chicago’s library, organized by the Center for Asian Art and Media.  While the event served as a celebration of the Chinese New Year, the music also brought me and Silk Road Rising together.  At the time, the organization was undergoing a new development of an arts-integrated educational initiative, called “Myths to Drama” for the Chicago Public Schools.  The Ancient China unit included in the program curricula allowed me to unite the threads of my musical past and my recent training and love for art education.

Teaching through collaborating
Throughout the years at Silk Road Rising as well as other institutions I’ve learned that, for me, becoming a teaching artist means collaboration – with the students, and more importantly, with other educators co-facilitating projects in the classroom. Like in an orchestra, as a musician there are times I play solo, other times I play chorus, or echo, or silence.  In my case, this collaboration technique has become a way to demonstrate to the students how we would like them to work with each other; we work harmonically, but not necessarily equally in the length of time.   

Teaching through writing
The more I collaborate with different groups and communities, the more I value documentation as a way of professional development. I’ve found the importance of constantly reflecting and reassessing my own work. I choose writing, as I believe that written words can create ripple effects to the furthest places.  Additionally, by reflecting and exchanging ideas in the form of writing and in sharing my own and others’ work on blogs and prints, I become more conscious with my intentions, methodologies, progress, students’ responses, and my own position in relation to the subject and context which I am delivering to my students.  It is a process of self-evaluation, but also a mechanism of betterment for my own teaching.  Writing gives me a space of solitude and reflection.  

Teaching through administrating
When not in the classroom, I spend my time on planning, organizing and administrating. Working with a wide range of people through my jobs at college and museum, I serve as a resource provider, allocator and distributor for my students, interns, volunteers, teachers and funders, and other art and cultural enthusiasts.  I see my work as an art administrator a practice of building relationships between individuals and communities. Education can really take forms at multiple levels.

Carol Ng-He was born and raised in Hong Kong. Graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with MA in Art Education, she is a Chicago-based interdisciplinary artist and art educator. Carol has worked at Silk Road Theatre Project, Chicago Teen Museum, and Housing Opportunities For Women. Currently, she serves as Education Director at Intuit: The Center for Intuitive & Outsider Art, and is an adjunct faculty member at Columbia College Chicago.  Contact Carol  www.carolnghe.com 

Also by Carol Ng-He in ALT/space:
Art & Justice for All
The Outsider is In: Teacher Fellowship Program at Intuit