Visual Arts

We recently conducted Parent Workshops at two of our partner schools in Manhattan, IS 528 in Washington Heights and MS 258 Community Action School on the Upper West Side.  These hands-on arts workshops give our students' families the opportunity to experience what students have been working on in our programs. 

At IS 528, we held two music-related workshops- a digital music production class led by teaching artist Karamba Sise and a drumming workshop taught by Harold Akyeampong.  In Karamba's workshop, parents listened to examples of original music created by the students and then explored making their own tracks in GarageBand.  In Harold's workshop, parents explored using congas to create various rhythms with their hands and drumsticks.  A short video clip of the group working a beat using drumsticks is below:

 Teaching artist Katherine Toukhy also led parents through a visual arts workshop that used the work of Haitian and Dominican artist Fireili Baez as inspiration for participants to create original pieces in watercolor and collage that celebrated the female form.  The group enjoyed experimenting with watercolor technique and creating their own works that reflected the way that Baez refelcts her cultural identity in her work.    

At MS 258 Community Action School, the workshop centered around issues related to bullying and cyber-bullying.  Students and parents came together to discuss the kinds of behaviors that constitute bullying, and how cyber-bullying is different from other kinds of bullying behavior.  After viewing examples of web videos created by young people to tell their stories of how they overcame challenges related to bullying, the group created their own video to help spread a positive anti-bullying message:

 

As part of the Expanded Learning Time pilot program at MS 258 Community Action School, teaching artist Brendan Boland has been partnering with Ms. Dyer, the school's math teacher, to lead a math and art integration program.  Students participate in the program as part of the school's "Saturday School" academic enrichment program.  Brendan and Ms. Dyer's program uses the arts to help students understand math concepts in new ways.

The group has been focusing on topics related to measurement, graphing, coordinates, positive and negative numbers, scale and proportion.  Their current project involves students using a grid to help them create their own drawing by enlarging an image by surrealist Paul Klee.  Students will then create an even larger version of the image by drawing and painting on pieces of canvas which will be assembled like a puzzle.  The group also plans to shoot a video documenting how their painting comes together.

"We've been working on grids.  We have to measure out the grid to make our drawing.  It's kind of hard to make sure things are not too big or too small.  It's a fun way to learn math and art at the same time." - Heaven, 6th grade

"We are working on "Sinbad the Sailor" by Paul Klee.  We're learning how to find the coordinates, which relates to math, and how to draw carefully, which relates to art.  My favortie part was drawing the fish and the sailor and looking at all the details.  I like learning art and math together because it helps us learn math better.  I think this project is really fun." - Iyanatu, 6th grade

 

Debut Gallery Show at UAP Offices

09 Feb 2012, 3:34 PM by keith, High School

A group of students from Manhattan Academy of Arts & Language (MAAL) recently visited the UAP offices to curate a show of their work and install it in our new gallery space.  We are thrilled to now have a dedicated space for a rotating display of original art from our amazing students. 

Teaching artist Elise Rasmussen has been partnering this year with Mr. Dwyer, the school's ELA teacher, to integrate photography and visual arts into the ELA curriculum.  The project featured in the gallery consists of a series of portraits students took of one another with corresponding poems that explore identity.  Through their words and images, students decided how they wanted to present themselves to the world, and what aspects of their lives have shaped their sense of who they are.  Students experimented with various lighting techniques to help capture their personalities and also explored how to incorporate text into their compositions.  Working with Elise at the office, students edited the photos, added text in Photoshop, framed them, and decided how they should be displayed. 

"The project was about describing ourselves and showing how we feel.  I think taking photos is another way to express how you feel in a moment.  I liked writing the poem most.  It was kind of hard to express myself.  It's really cool to have our project in the gallery.  I hope people see it and understand that it can be hard to express yourself, but you can think with your heart and show how you really are." - Perla, 10th grade 

"I feel so happy to have our work in the gallery.  I feel important.  It's good for us to help put the work up because it's our work and our friends' work." - Milenka, 9th grade

"We had to talk about ourselves and what we think people think about us.  I learned about others in my class through the project... about people's character and favorite things.  I feel like we did a great job and I am proud of myself to have my work in the gallery." - Stecy, 9th grade

"We took photographs and created something to show our personality.  The project makes you think about how you really are.  I learned about editing photos and writing poems.  My favorite part was getting to work with the computer.  I want people to see my picture and feel what I felt when I took the picture and wrote the poem." - Laura, 9th grade

IS 528 Holiday Share

23 Dec 2011, 11:54 AM by keith, Middle School

Students in the Video and Visual Arts after school programs at IS 528 in Washington Heights held a Holiday Share event at the school to celebrate present their recent work.

Visual arts students displayed recent pieces covering serveral projects, all rooted in cultural traditions from around the world.  They discusses their process and decision-making, highlighting various visual arts concepts they had worked on, such as realistic body proportions, symmetry and patterned decoration.

Video students held a screening featuring two of their finished projects, the IS 528 Digital Portrait and "Revenge," a short horror movie that tells the story of the ghosts of bullied teenagers that haunt the students that harmed them, wreaking havoc on their Halloween party.  They also alswered questions from the audience and gave a preview of their current project which consists of paper characters in stop motion scenes with original dialogue.

"Our party is about celebrating the long time we worked together on out videos.  We wanted to show our work.  It's fun and I have been learning a lot of new things about video.  My favorite thing I learned was to make a stop motion video with characters and making them move so that people couldn't see our hands moving them." - Mark, 6th grade

"Today was a holiday party for the good work in video and visual arts.  I'm in both clubs, so I felt more proud.  I'm excited about the kachina dolls we're making.  They come from Native Americans and I'm not finished yet, but I really like it." - Gian, 6th grade

"In video we're working on animating paper avatars.  The stories are about heartbreak and friendship and stuff.  I'm excited about what we will try to do in 2012." - Isabel, 7th grade

"In visual arts we share our projects.  We help each other to do good work and encourage each other.  We're working on adding lines and patterns to a photo of a face.  We could do our own face of another face.  I like that so many people get to see our art and when they ask me questions about my art, it makes me feel like a real artist." - Joseline, 6th grade

This year at Manhattan Acadmy of Arts & Language (MAAL), teaching artist Elise Rasmussen has been collaborating with Ms. Delgado in two Global History classes.  Throughout the year, students will be creating arts-based projects that use photography and visual arts to showcase their understanding of various historical concepts and eras from the curriculum.

In the Global History 3 class, students have been studying political revolutions from around the world to better understand the roots of revolution and how revolutions affect the lives of the people.  They worked in groups to create propaganda posters each related to a specific revolution, and then presented them to the class to explain the background, and important events and people involved.  Each poster included a slogan and at least one original photo that the students created to capture the spirit of the revolution.

The Global History 1 class has been exploring religions from around the world, and examining the differences and similarities across religions.  Students created and presented posters to communicate messages of non-discrimination based on religion, each using an original photo devised and shot by the group.  In these images, students experimented with using lighting techniques to help make their intended messages come across even more powerfully.

"We were learning about world cultures and religions and how we can all live together.  It's an important message because some people think that our differences are bad, and they might act weird.  My favorite part was taking the picture.  We're trying to say that we might come from different cultures, but really we're all the same." - Emelly, 9th grade

"My project is about how religions shouldn't make boarders between us.  My favorite part was how our picture uses hands to represent people of different cultures.  In the world, there are so many people, and so many religions." - Freddy, 9th grade

"My poster is about how there are no real differences between our color or religions.  This message is important because we are all equals.  My favorite part was taking our photo, because it shows that we can all be unified and equal." - Manuela, 9th grade

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