Laura
OsCam

 

This year, 5th grade students from PS28 explored the question “How do our identities evolve as we build community?” To address this question and the creation of our final project, was very important to build the knowledge and understanding of non-conventional materials and art forms. Studying Artists like Nick Cave and Joan Jonas, the students explored mediums that approach cultural expression and individuality where different points of view were embraced.

Inspired by Nick Cave's Artwork "Garden Plot aka wall relief' we upcycled old shirts and fabric scraps to create woven pieces that will represent the brick in our tent. It was important to explore these mediums as a metaphor in how we build our community like knitting a web of group and personal experiences.

The verbal elaboration of ideas helped us to connect with the process of art making, therefore, exploring painting exercises of Joan Jonas was key to study our identity through self-portraits. Placing the canvas fabric over our face to blindly map our expression with acrylic markers gave us a distortion image of ourselves that made us question the way we see ourselves and we are seen by others.

The group creation of an art installation is a transformational force that teach us how to connect and enhance our well-being and everyone’s in our community, for this reason our final step was to place, first the bricks (woven pads) and then the roof (self-portraits) of our house (tent) as a team: building our community as we build our identity.

Learning Through Art (LTA) is the Guggenheim’s hallmark artist-in-residency program. The program sends experienced teaching artists into New York City public schools where they collaborate with classroom teachers to develop, facilitate, and integrate art projects into the school curriculum. During the twenty-week, in-school residencies, students throughout the five boroughs examine, discuss, and create works of art. Visits to the Guggenheim support the residencies, offering new insights into art and challenging students to think critically about art and ideas. At the end of the residency, selected student works are presented in the annual A Year with Children exhibition held at the Guggenheim Museum.

LTA was founded in 1970 by Natalie K. Lieberman in response to the elimination of art and music programs from New York City public schools. Over the past 52 years, LTA has served over 150,000 students from diverse economic and cultural backgrounds in all five boroughs of New York City.