Encouraging Teachers to Play with Materials

A couple weeks ago,  I was invited as a visiting artist to
Ed Pazzanese class "Art-infused Early Childhood Education
Activities" at the Urban College here in Boston.  I visited last
year as well and had such a good time with his "students", I
gladly came again.  His students are teachers and caretakers
in a combination of headstart, preschool, kindergarten, and
other situations supporting young children.  After working
all week long, these amazing folks show up for a 4 hour
class on Saturday mornings to further their education. One has
a dream of starting her own schools.  Ed's philosophy
of education is deeply rooted in the child centered Reggio
Emilia approach to early childhood. To use his words,
this course"focuses on the interplay between art, play, literacy
and the environment. "  His course is filled with great readings,
writing challenges. active discussion  and lots of experiential
practicum in the arts.(Check out the artwork created using
masking tape created at a previous class on the wall here:

The class began with a discussion of the value and importance of
developing multi-generational programs. Ed had previously shown
the students a video of the Families Creating  Together organization 
he  began a number of years ago whose focus is offering opportunities
for families to gather  in a multi-generational and inclusive
environment, welcoming adults and children with and without
disabilities and offering Spanish and sign language interpreters
if needed.  I led a "our neighborhood our stories"  mixed media
workshop for FCT last summer...will lead another this summer...
it's an amazing group!! Judy Battat, FCT program advisor and
evaluator was there this Saturday to talk about FCT and other
programs she is involved in. 

After a break, it was my turn to present  -
The art challenge this Saturday was to use the various recycle
materials Ed picked up at Extras for Creative Reuse 
plus some materials I and some students brought and
to create a city scene...could be imaginary or realistic. The students
were divided up into two group tables..and told to try to look at
the materials from a kids' point of view.  Then each create
something which would be combined with the others to
create a story scene...requiring working together in a cooperative
way (sometimes a challenge for adults and children.) At the
conclusion, each person told about their part...and then one
or two people wove a story incorporating them all.

Some dug right in, others took a little longer to come up with ideas,
not unlike the variation in children I would guess.  With support
from others, ideas were stirred and structures emerged: 

I was pleased to see that some ideas begun, morphed into something
else.. (a fence into a track for a subway car..with car..) The individual
pieces and use of materials (ribbons for wall covering for example)
were quite wonderful.   We had everything from city street scenes
(complete with bicycle and sports car:

To dress shop, hotel, Prudential Tower with water fountain with tossed coins:

  even a car wash (check out the face on the happy car being washed!)

To backyard scenes with BBQ and places to relax:

In the end each group gathered round while the table participants
presented their piece and combined all into a single story or two...
If we had had more time those stories could have gone on and on..

 A granddaughter came with her Nana and enjoyed the final
results:  That's the morphed orange line subway car on the track
in the center I mentioned earlier.

Last year when I worked with Ed's class, the materials were
a little more challenging and odd...the end results ended
up more in the imaginary realm...made me realize the impact
of exactly what materials are presented.  These creations
were wonderful, but another time, I think it would be
fun to challenge even more.

It will be fun to hear what from this experience the students
took back to their classrooms.  Last year Ed reported
many did similar projects albeit it ones geared to appropriate
ages in their classrooms.  


I admire tremendously Ed's passion for spreading the
importance of art infused education to promote
problem solving,  creative thought,  cooperation and
skill development . I'm still working up the exact description
for the 5 weekly mixed media workshops I will be leading
for the Families  Creating Together this July..tentative title
"Story Creatures".

But before then...tomorrow I'm gathering folks at the
Hawthorne Youth and Community Center to make
signs for the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute's  Mother's
Day Walk for Peace....and to share community stories. 
The theme for this year's walk is  "Celebrating the Courage
of Community".  I'm heading up a team to walk in honor
of the director of HYCC who died last year...after
a lifetime of commitment to families and community.

More about the LDB Peace Institute and the walk in
my next post.

Peace and onward!    Wendy

Year end reflections & thoughts for a new year

Here we are once again reflecting on the past year and contemplating
the turning of the new.  It's been a year of challenges, celebrations,
confounding occurrences, and blessings.  Through it all
my blog postings became erratic and absent....My apologies to
followers for that.  I'll try to do much better in 2016..

 Starting with the positive:
   We survived the most snow filled winter in Boston records.
I felt very lucky to have my studio inside my home.  Also
fortunate to be only a couple blocks away from where I helped
with an after school program (when school wasn't closed.)


    Our four children and their families all gathered in Brooklyn
to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary....coming from
Virginia, Ecuador and Brooklyn to be there. 

     In September, our 7th granddaughter was born...rounding
out our grandling number to 8...two for each of our children.
All healthy  and coming into their own in beautiful and
amazing ways... a blessing not to be taken for granted.


     Shows continued to offer inspiration. Being surrounded by
creativity of others always pushes me. Exploring new locations
worked out well - especially my last show, Chicago One of a Kind
where I walked down memory lane. My years there as a
child contributed majorly to my love of cities and the path to
becoming an artist. Interesting how just 5 years can lead the way.
The One of a kind show succeeds in getting a large and
diverse public to attend. Response to my work was very
enthusiastic with brisk selling.  I have signed on to return next
year. Wish it was a little closer, but hope to convince my hubby
to drive with me again next year. I would like to explore the
public art in Chicago more next year. 

Challenges and future plans:
   As I posted earlier, Sam Sadd the director of the
Hawthorne Youth and Community Center where I have been
artist in residence for the past several years, died in January.
She died the day the concrete was poured for the new energy
efficient expansion of the center...living long enough to know
her expansion dream would be a reality.  Grief and loss are
processed by each of us in our own ways. Her absence was
a shock and challenge on various dimensions.  I ended up
helping keep the  after school program going until the end
of  the year - 35 hours/wk instead of 2. (blog posts tended
to slip through the cracks.) The experience reinforced how
much I enjoy working with children, but also challenged me
to figure our what hours and ways made the most sense. 

   The center rehab is largely complete, but HYCC transition
has been difficult financially. To date no replacement director
has been  hired and no regular programming for youth is
going on there now. A real saddness for me especially as
First Night roles around.  For the past several years, neighbor
artist, Lisa Lee and I have facilitated a First Night parade
project which gathered youth and broader community to
participate in the parade on New Year's Eve.  It was an
important way to connect neighbors and past participants
at the center and to make everyone feel a part of Boston.

   In July I led art workshops for the multigenerational inclusive
organization , Families Creating Together.  Neighborhood
places and stories was our focus.  Being in a larger environment
and one with good support staff was awesome. I hope to work
with them again.

   I'm still trying to figure how I will work and interact with youth
in 2016.  Helping youth feel they are "seen" and cared for seems more
important than ever as we face the uncertainties of an unpredictable
world.

What will 2016 bring?  I wish for thoughtful debate, action, and
agreement on important issues on the political front - an unrealistic
dream? perhaps...but the world will indeed be a dark place if
dreamers don't dream on.

I heed the words of Michael Coady's poem "There are also Musicians"
shared by Brian O'Donovan on his WGBH radio program and
at the end of the  Christmas Celtic Sojourn performance we attended.
  "Though there are torturers in the world
  There are also musicians."

....it is our role as artists to continue to lift up the beauty and joy
that persists in the world while we work hard for justice and peace.
When attendees passed by my booth at the Brooklyn Museum show
this past November, I saw many visibly relax and smile....prompting
a smile and breath may just be my job right now. 

May creative energy flow in 2016 encouraging problem solving,
listening to each others stories and celebrating life.

Adventure on.  Wendy



 

 





 


 

Making cuddly pillow to process grief

  Lately, local, national and world events have made me do a lot of
pondering about how we  process grief and help others do the same,
especially children.   It seemed an appropriate time to write up the
pillow project I led in February.

  How to help the after school group of children understand and process
the the grief of losing someone who had been such a consistent
presence in their lives for so long?  That was the challenge when Sam,
director and surrogate grandmother/friend to all of us died in February.
We had told them she entered the hospital and explained it was serious.
They all wrote her sweet cards of love and appreciation with favorite
memories which we took to her. We reported back to the kids how
pleased she was to receive them and how it helped the hospital realize
how much Sam was loved. We didn't encourage get well quick cards.
We then  moved on to letting the kids know that she was not going to
be coming back....like so many other times...and yes was dying.  Then
told them  when she died.  We let them be sad, show emotions, show
grief as they all needed to. My challenge was to help them process in an
additional  way.

  Zina Worley( Z's Fashion and Accessories) had donated lot of  fleece
scraps to the center and I had picked up additional textile materials at
the  Extras  for Creative Reuse Center  in Lynn when I went up
gathering  materials for the First Night workshop. Making large
pillows seemed a  good way to go....lots of soft materials to handle.
Just laying  them all out on the table the day Sam died seemed to help
even the most emotional of  the kids.

  As with most HYCC projects, we did not rush...worked one day a
week (or a bit more sometimes) The  project took about a month -
planning, choosing colors, designing, and hand stitching. It is
informing to see how many kids have never worked with a needle
and thread and which ones have. As they were working, they
continued to talk about Sam and process the loss.

As you can gather from photos the final results varied beautifully.
The only consistency was general size.  I had purchased 20x20
inserts to put inside the pillow covers the kids made...so we had a
basic shape and size to aim for.  I figured an insert was definitely
the way to go. We machine stitched three sides with kids involved
in that as well; then each learned to do a blind stitch to close up the
fourth side.

It was sweet to get reports back from the kids and their
parents after they finished and took the pillows home. A few said
they slept better than in a long time.  In retrospect, I wish we had
extended the project to adults - board members and others who were
processing Sam's loss.  It might have been useful during this difficult
period of transition. Often kids are a lot more resilient than adults.

Next post....back to art and shows.....

Adventure on.   Wendy

Architectural Notes from the Neighborhood - HYCC kids study, observe, learn

...How is it that months slip by so quickly?  Suddenly Spring is
behind us and summer blazing... My apologies for such a long
delay in posts.  As one ages, it seems like time speeds up rather
than slowing down.

One of the activities that kept me busy this Spring was working

with Hawthorne Youth and Community Center's after school
kids  in a project we called "Architectural notes from the
Neighborhood." Landscape architect (and neighbor) Jessica
Leete and I were the facilitators of the 10 week project funded
through a grant from the Boston Foundation for Architecture.
The BFA gives a variety of grants to non-profits and groups in
the Boston area. The ones HYCC has received have made a real
impact on  the kids we work with. Last year we studied
greenhouses and  built a model designed by the kids (see my
 6/29/13 post and 6/15/12 for "making ours green")

Our historic Boston inner city neighborhood is filled with many
styles of architecture from Colonial, Italianate, Greek
Revival, Victorian, medieval to modern and everything in
between.  The project aim was to  help the kids become closer
observers of the neighborhood and  in turn the world around
them.  We did this through taking walks in our Highland Park,
Roxbury community, talking about what we saw and having
them record their observations through note taking, drawing,
and photography.

 

Usually when you place cameras in  kids' hands, there is an
automatic reaction to take photos of each other We allowed
a bit of that, but kept the focus on the buildings.   We didn't
dictate which houses or features of buildings they wanted to
document so were intrigued to see "their" perspectives.
It's great having digital cameras so you don't have to
limit number of photos taken.  The kids shared three cameras.
As you can see, some of the kids (ages 5-12) have fantastic "eyes"
for  design. It's going to be fun to watch these "Jr. architects"
grow.

Jessica worked on drawing with them, teaching them
blind contour drawings - drawing without looking at
their paper, and slowing their eye and hand down to observe
closely....and importantly not worry about what the end
result was on the paper.  The  exercise  helped them
concentrate on line and shape, rather than finished drawing.

 Then they moved on to looking at paper and object. The
 exercise made a  difference in the final drawings the kids made.
 Drawing is definitely not my strength, so I plan on doing more
of the exercise myself. One 2nd grader did an amazing job of
capturing this house.

We talked to them about various architectural styles and
taught them lots of architectural terms to help them talk
about what they saw.  It was fun to see their excitement at
being able to identify features as we walked from their school
to the center - "Hey, that's a gable dormer!!...I see a gambrel
roof".That's a mansard roof, isn't it?"..and to hear their
questions and comments  about the new houses being built
which we watched change day by day. (There is a lot of
construction going on in our neighborhood rehab and new.)

Interactive games always help learning...

Jessica printed  a time line of styles on large format paper along
with some terms. We added photos they had taken and the kids
drew lines connecting features. They saw how many houses
incorporate elements from various styles.  They shared the
game  with parents at our final  presentation at Haley House
bakery Cafe ,challenging  their parents to put term cards on
the big sheet next to photos.

We also  made a matching  game using all their photos
and cards with terms.    Parents and kids played the
game at the celebration.  It will continue to be used
at HYCC and added to.  This fall we'll have the kids
photograph the houses they saw being built so they
can be in the game next to construction photos.

An additional  "product" from the project was a set of 12

note cards.  Together, we looked over the hundreds  of photos 

taken  and voted on 8  favorites  to make into photo note cards. 

We printed up 4 more using  a collage of drawings using

one drawing from each student.  (We thank  BFS Repro 

Graphics  for helping support the printing.)  Each student

received a set of the cards as a  reward for their work. Extras

were made to thank supporters and to sell in the neighborhood

to help fund other activities at HYCC.

Each student wrote up a final paper about a favorite building

including one of their photos and/or a drawing; then presented 

them orally at our final celebration.  To continue the sharing, 

we put up a display of the project at the Dudley Branch library 

for the community to enjoy all summer  (The bench below the

display was made  during a  previous HYCC project.) 

And to encourage summer reading, we left some bookmarks

with drawings by the HYCC kids in the library. 

As these "Jr. architects" walk around the neighborhood and

other places this summer, we're confident they will "see"

in new ways thanks to the project.  I know every time I take

a walk now, I see architectural details I'd never noticed.

As the quote by Arthur Clark in my studio says: "Every

adult needs a child to teach; it's the way adults learn."

More about teaching and children and libraries in my next 

post, one which will go back to our trip to Ecuador. 

Have a great summer everyone...

Adventure on   Wendy

HYCC kids explore greenhouses

Another Spring - another fun project with kids at
Hawthorne Youth and Community Center's after
school program. Last year's project was Green
architecture, this year's focus was  greenhouses.
With a grant from the Boston Foundation for Architecture
we helped the kids learn about different types of
greenhouses, their construction and uses. Then had
them visualize, plan and make a model of their "own"
greenhouse.

During  initial discussions of greenhouses, we looked
at pictures of different styles (super fancy to simple),
locations (urban to rural) , and elements (glass, plastic,
metal or wood construction etc. ) Next we took a field
trip to the nearby working greenhouse on the top
of the Roxbury Community College. Ms. Nasreen
Latif,  in charge of programs using the greenhouse,
showed us the seedlings growing there.

 The kids took lots of photos inside and outside and

and checked out the solar collectors on the roof  as well.

Back at the center, the kids began exploring ideas
of how they might design a greenhouse.
They drew designs, thought what they would
like to grow inside, then turned to construction
ideas. The youngest kids (K1-1st grade) worked
on their ideas via blocks.

The older kids (2nd to 6th grade) used leggos:

We combined elements to come up with
a collaborative design and talked about scale.

A  small group went on  a special tour of the

greenhouse at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum,

Ms. Johnetta Tinker showed us around and
explained how the staging greenhouse in the
new wing is used to hold plantings used
elsewhere in the museum, as well as used
for art activities.  The kids took notes, photos,
and reported back to be able to report back
to the entire group. They explained how
they saw some of the nasturtiums which hang in the
courtyard in the Spring, talked about the flooring,
metal mesh tables and ventilation.

Then the serious model making began. ...Working on a
1"= 1 foot scale we created a 20" x 28" model on a
plywood base.  Colorful duct tape made a border, and
vinyl tiles the flooring - the kids wanted to be sure it
looked waterproof. Using model magic, self drying clay,
and other materials the kids created flowers, benches,
fountains,planting  beds etc.

 
Dowels up from wood kneewalls, wood cross supports,
wire curved roof beams...and the basic structure took
shape with liberal use of hot glue.

The kids had observed fans and watering systems in
the greenhouses, so made fans from popsicle sticks
and linked straws which stretched across and down the
walls offered the illusion of a sprinkler system.

Our finished walls were of heavy duty plastic stapled
to our structure.

The final model was displayed in the Isabella Gardner
Museum greenhouse as our contribution to the
Community Creations celebration. It's always
exciting and a real affirmation for the kids to see
their work exhibited, especially at a museum.
The model will be there through all June and
July for everyone to enjoy.

 Later we will take it to the Dudley Library to put on
display for additional viewing.

This spring the kids planted their own garden
plot behind HYCC and helped plant raised beds in the
lot next to HYCC. Maybe HYCC can have its
own full sized greenhouse someday. It's such
fun seeing kids excited in the presence of nature.

For now, I'm turning to working in our garden
and spending the summer  with our grandchildren.
Although, I hope to finish up a commission or
two as well.. I'll try to get up some process
photos.

My best to everyone for a wonderful
action filled summer.

Adventure on,  Wendy