Category: Show

Week Fifteen

12/15/2017

This week was focused on celebrating the work students have done so far this year. It is amazing to think that in just a few short months, students have completed and published over 1,500 artworks. Some of those works were showcased at The Van Singel Fine Arts Center this month as a part of the district student showcase.

We had our reception on Monday, which brought out a great crowd. Even better was seeing the growth of student skills through each grade level. This annual show is an awesome demonstration of the work our school does to cultivate creative thinking and encourage the development of artistic skills throughout their educational career.

It is one of my favorite events because it allows me a chance to meet with parents and students, my colleagues, and former students and offers opportunities to connect these groups together in meaningful ways. The conversations with students as they have gone through our program have been instrumental with the continued development of curriculum. These events help foster that and I am so proud of our students for showcasing their work.

Scholastic Entries

This was also the week students submitted works to The Scholastic Art Awards competition. It was a crazy time getting works screened, finalized, uploaded, forms printed and signed, and payments sent to our regional affiliate. I am so proud of our entries this year and know that we will have some luck thanks to the hard work and dedication of so many towards this process. We entered work in 11 categories this year, ranging from Film and Animation, to Sculpture, to Mixed Media, and more. It will be fun to find out results on January 5th!

Here are a few of our entries:

I am also excited for the works I entered with our high school teachers, too. Here is a sneak peek at some of those:

It will be fun to see how students achieve this year. We have a lot to live up to, with our school usually being in the top tier each year and routine national medalists. Even so, students continue to amaze at the lengths they will go to push themselves to try new ideas, experience with media in new ways, and grow into artists in their own right.

I could not think of a better way to spring into the last week of school before break, nor a better way to start out 2018 with finding out the results!

Good luck to all who participated this year!

End of 3rd Marking Period

3/30/2017

District Art Show

I am incredibly thankful that I get to work with the talented students and staff at BCPS and each year at our k-12 show, I that feeling is magnified. It was great to showcase the works of our students in this show that will run into the end of next month at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center and close out Youth Arts Month with a reception that honored those student-artists on display.

STEAM Collaboration: Artist Rooms

We finished out our 3rd collaborative project this year, just as we close out 3rd marking period and leave for Spring Break. I had my doubts about whether or not we were going to keep these kids engaged so close to break and how well they were going to pull off the work required with only 8 working class days to get it done. As usual, students did not disappoint and really turned out some of the most creative and interesting interpretations of artists works as various rooms.

To cap off the project, students presented their slide show and work to other members of the class and then placed them on display in the library. With the help of our LMC specialist, we got out the Scholastic Art Magazines students used and placed them between the maquettes. It is a great display and one that we plan to keep up for the rest of the year. Another great way to close out Youth Arts Month as well as March is Reading Month.

The Real Week Nine

3/23/2017

STEAM Collaboration #3: Artist Rooms

STEM and Art students joined forces once again this year for a new challenge: take an artist from Scholastic Art Magazine and create a room that demonstrates his/her style. I wish I could take full credit for this idea, but as with most things, I came across @QEHSArtDept posts on Twitter showing off bedrooms created by students that looked like artists' rooms and some lovely cultural rooms at the 2015 National Art Education Association conference in New Orleans that sparked this collaborative unit.

In order to get students in the mindset, we showed them this video from the artist duo Nix and Gerber. It was a great introduction to how artists plan, collaborate, and repurpose materials and the fact that they create replicas (which is what we were asking of students) was perfect! Once students got into groups of three, they selected rooms using a Google sign up (so there were not more than one repeat of room), students began searching through Scholastic Art Magazines, finding an artist to use to design their rooms.

After signing up for an artist (there could not be duplicates), students then broke their groups into three roles: The Project Manager, The Blueprint designer, and The Sketch Up Artist. All three students were in charge of creating a model of their design based on the blueprint and sketch up.

By the end of the week, students have a pretty good start on their models, using their plans to help guide them. They will be bringing all of this together next week and present their finished works. In addition, these works will go on display in our library and also be featured in our Arts a la mode/Fine Arts night on May 23rd.

It has been really fun see students struggle towards solutions and grow in the process. There have been interesting design choices and thoughtful narratives to support their decisions as artists and a lot of problem solving as they try to engineer the final product. We have also been putting the 3D printer to work this week as students used Tinkercad to make furniture, accessories, and other objects to go into their models.

Here are some process images from the week:

Student Show

Being able to join my colleagues in the BCPS Visual Arts team to do so brings me a lot of joy and pride. At least once each school year our students are able to display their works at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center and represent the excellence of Visual Arts in each of our six buildings and across each grade level. Selecting which works to display from WMS 7th and 8th graders were tough, but that is a good kind of problem to have.

For this year's show, I tried to select student work that reflected a variety of media, demonstrated skill or inventiveness of media, and work whose artist statements were demonstrative of the learning and thought process that took place of the artist who created it.

Because I have adapted a model of teaching that asks students to choose the ways in which they interpret themes (via the media, subject, etc.), the variety in the works on display are both exciting and interesting to view. I look forward to celebrating these works and the rest of our student artists at the opening reception on Monday, March 27th at 5:30 p.m.

DOF

Dual Enrollment students finished up another assignment last week that focused on Depth of Field. This term is used to describe what is in focus in an image. Students were encouraged to capture a wide range of subjects and use a shallow, mid, and wide DOF in their images.

Here are some examples of their work:

Anna

Anna

Ellise

Ellise

Emma

Emma

Kathy

Kathy

Krista

Krista

There is only one more week until Spring Break. As you can see by my repeat of week nine (since it looks like I missed a week six or seven this go around), I am in need of it. I wish all teachers and students the best as they finish out this week and marking period STRONG!

Art Show!

4/19/2016

Monday was our annual Spring show at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center. It was fun to see the space packed with art and the community celebrating our students. I am so fortunate to work in a district that values the creativity explored in the arts and that helps students foster a passion for finding new solutions to a variety of design problems.

Art Show!

12/11/2015

The December Art Show is always one of the favorites! It is super fun to see parents fill the Gainey Gallery and view the work by our student artists grades k-12. This year was no exception. I selected the top 4-5 examples from each class and printed out artist statements as well as matted the work for a more professional display. This is the first year I have tried it and I have gotten a pretty positive response, so I will keep using this method in the future.

One of my favorite aspects of the show is being able to view the progression of skill and concepts as students age in the district. It is so fun to see the younger kids look in amazement at the older students' work and the older students remember their elementary experiences fondly when looking at the younger students' work.

Overall, it was a great show and example of why BCPS is a premiere Visual Arts program! I am so proud to be a part of the Visual Arts team and I am especially excited about the upcoming Scholastic Art Awards competition, which students are finalizing work for this week!

Check out some of the elementary crowd and high school work below:

WMS Fine Arts

5/22/2015

Yesterday was our Annual Fine Arts Night at WMS. It has gone through many variations and I think yesterday's might have been the best one yet! It is always hard to know how to make shows like these more interactive and better attended for my students.

With the music classes involved, it is more of a no-brainer. The kids perform and parents show up. With Art, it can be a little more passive which has not helped with attendance. This year, with the help of the STEM teacher, we decided to run workshops and offer students the opportunity to bring family and friends in the STEM room and experience a taste of our classrooms. This was probably the most participation I have been from my students than any other year.

Art activities included a collaborative painting and Gelli Arts Monoprinting and STEM activities included designing and launching bottle rockets. All of the activities were student-led and super fun. You can check more out from the evening in the video below.

It was such a fun night and I am excited to do more of these types of interactive workshops in the future!

Art Show Fun!

5/12/2015

May is one of the most fun months because it is a time when we get to showcase and celebrate student accomplishments and growth at our Visual Arts District Show in the Van Singel Fine Arts Center. I decided to do something different this year with the display and select the works in my area rather than display it all. It allowed more room for the individual works to breathe and it also allowed students the opportunity to have their work displayed with a nice finishing border. I think when I plan for next year, I will work to have more uniform sizes of art, so we can offer those borders to more students.

One of my favorite parts of the show is seeing the progression of student work from grades K-12. I work with a stellar team of teachers and they do a great job of preparing and pushing students to their highest potential of learning. I also am excited when former students take a moment to talk with me and my students about their work and plans for the future. Below are a few highlights from the show:

We had a nice crowd of students, parents, and teachers for our show.

It was fun to see students get excited about their work and those of other students!

Our high school display was an impressive mix of media and very inspiring to see.

High School students offered the younger ones a chance to ask questions about their work and ideas.

And of course, what is an art show without a bird?

Art Shows and Other Works

12/12/2014

This week has been an eventful one. So much so, I have not really had a chance to post until now. It started with our Annual Winter Art Show at the VanSingel Fine Arts Center and ended with me rounding up the last of the Scholastic Entries to be handed in on Monday.

Art Show Highlights

Our annual k-12 District show is one of my favorite exhibitions of the year. Luckily, we do this twice annually and showcase the best our students offer in the Visual Arts. I display one work from each of my students who make the selections of which pieces they would like on display. It is also fun to attend the reception and see the students react to their work on display, visit with former students and see how they have progressed, as well as meet upcoming students who I will get to teach in the future.

Art about Issues

8th grade students worked on making work that dove into an issue or concern they were interested in exploring visually. Here are some process photos of their work and finished outcomes. You can see the full gallery on Artsonia.

Shaylen J. - Bullying and Social Media

Colton K. - Addiction

Tanner M. - Sports Injuries

Brad R. - The Holocaust

Art is Up!

5/2/2014

Student work is on display at the Van Singel Fine Arts Center for the month of May! We will be hosting a community reception on May 6th, from 5-6:30 p.m. to celebrate the work of the students across grade levels. Every student from my 2nd semester 7th and 8th grade classes has work on display. I hope you will join us in this night that demonstrates the talents of our students K-12th grade at BCPS!

KISD Show

1/9/2014

BCPS student work is on display at the Kent Intermediate School District for the month of January. Work from grades k-12 are represented in a variety of media and covering a vast array of subjects.

There will be additional shows across the Grand Rapids area this month as we also prepare for the Scholastic show this month at Kendall College of Art and Design as well as the MAEA Region 9 show at the GRAM in February. I am incredibly proud of our students and their participation in showcasing their talents outside of our school.