Creating a strong community in the art classroom has been a top priority this year. Sometimes it seems challenging, especially in a 9th & 10th grade high school, when kids clump together in different cliques and feel most comfortable with their friends. This year I have started talking about community from the first week of school, and instead of talking about our art class, I refer to our space as the art studio and invite them to think of themselves as real artists working in this shared space.
I show an artist video at the beginning of every class, and one of my favorite Artist of the Day videos is Candy Chang’s TED Talk ‘Before I Die I Want To…’
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uebxlIrosiM]Her poignant story and community based art project really demonstrates how a simple idea can connect many people. After showing the video, I asked each of my students to respond to a daily question with an ‘exit ticket’, a post it note that they use to write their response to the question and leave for me to gather and find out about their thinking. Here are some of their responses to the question “How can our art impact our school community?” after we watched Chang’s video:
- Inspire others to step out of their comfort zone
- Art is a great stress relief. You need things that are colorful around the school to make people feel at home.
- By giving the school life, color & passion
- It can change things for the better. It can inspire people
- Art can unite the whole school community and create a solid bond for a long time
- Change a perspective on a view they already have
- It gives a voice for students and provides freedom for expression. It also presents new ideas and stimulates the imagination.
- Make our school look better, make it more colorful and create a better learning environment
- It can show people that anyone can become an artist
These are just a handful of the wonderful responses I got from my students. I think it’s going to be a really great year!