Summary

Art in Community really appeals to me as a filtering down of connections from community artists, businesses and support for charities to high school artists, businesses, and local charities. This would almost be like a cultural movement. The Buzz Boxes are created in Jacksonville, FL proper, where I propose to implement this project is in Orange Park, in outlaying community. Perhaps later, other community high schools would also incorporate this project into their spring AP curriculum thus creating a local community movement.

 

Unit: High School, 9th – 12th, Art in Community

Big idea: Innovation, Technology, and the Future

Enduring Understanding 2: Careers in and related to the arts significantly and positively impact local and global economies.

VA.912.F.2.7 Evaluate the effects of creating works of art for sale or donation to support local organizations for social or economic causes.

Enduring Understanding 3: The 21st-century skills necessary for success as citizens, workers, and leaders in a global economy are embedded in the study of the arts.

VA.912.F.3.10 Identify and apply collaborative procedures to coordinate a student or community art event.

 

Overview: While this lesson has not actually been implemented, I was inspired by the local “Awareness With Art” sponsored by BUZZ Magazine where local charities and local artists are represented on one of the BUZZ boxes. The artist paints the box in any manner that they wish while incorporating the BUZZ logo on one side and the charity that the artist is paired with on top. A local business will sponsor the box making a donation to that charity. The business receives free advertising through BUZZ Magazine. Looking on the local level and the boxes for free newspapers, and small community newspapers. Why not create a connection using AP art classes, local charities and businesses? Depending on the number of boxes available, this could be done by a single student to a group project of two to four students. Also, just like the BUZZ Boxes, there would be voting for the best box which would be featured in our community magazine. The purpose of this project is to create awareness that art can be used to further social involvement with local organizations that support the community.

 

Essential Questions: How to go about creating a community piece? Where does the artist look for inspiration? What is the intended visual impact of the artwork? Is the piece any less a piece of art because it’s a newspaper box versus hanging on a wall?

 

Lesson 1: http://awarenesswithart.com/

Will go over the perimeters of what is required placement of certain items that have to go on the box. Will view the BUZZ Boxes and discuss the variety of artist’s solutions for their individual boxes. Will ask students what they think works on the boxes and what doesn’t and why? Will have students brainstorm local community charities and businesses that we could sponsor. Will have contacted free newspaper to find out their sponsors and affiliations so teacher is informed and their criteria for the project. Have students research other community art projects/artists in their journals.

 

Lesson 2: Students are to create sketches for boxes, at least 15. They will then work on refining down to three quality sketches. Only when approved will further refine down to final sketch. When sketch is approved will then transfer placement of visual imagery outline to box. Will then begin to apply mediums to their respective box. This will approximate ten to twelve class periods of 50 minutes each. Instead of voting on the best box as this could cause some unbalanced voting why not do geocaching where students search out all the boxes. Perhaps at each box they are required to take a selfie as documentation. The student that brings in all their selfies first receives a prize. This unit of study takes an everyday object and turns it into a piece of art that has social implications in that it benefits a small charity supported by local business. It teaches the student that art can benefit the community in making social connections.

 

It also teaches that art can be conveyed in many different styles but still be beneficial to the purpose it is to be used. Kevin Tavin said, “students’ visual culture including specific forms of popular visual culture that comprise everyday life.”By making connections to the community it breaks out of the walls of the classroom and shows that art can be more than a pretty picture. Elliot Eisner says that “pluralism, an approach to reality that recognizes that there are a variety of ways in which humans come to know and represent the world, the arts among them.” My goal is for my students to realize that art can be not only being visually impactful but also sociocultural too.

 

Artists

David Datuna

Richard Wentworth

JR (artist)

 

References

Barrett, T. (2003). Interpreting visual culture. Art Education, 56(2), 6-12.

Chalmers, F. G. (2005). Visual culture education in the 1960s. Art Education, 58(6), 6-11.

Davenport, M. (2000). Culture and education: Polishing the lenses. Studies in Art Education, 41(4), 361-376.

Delacruz, E. M. (1995). Multiculturalism: Myths, misconceptions, and misdirections. Art Education, 48(3), 57- 61.

Eisner, E. (2001). Should we create new aims for art education? Art Education, 54(5), 6-10.

Stuhr, P. L. (1994). Multicultural art education and social reconstruction. Studies in Art Education, 35(3), 171-178.

Stuhr, P. L., Petrovich-Mwaniki, L., & Wasson, R. (1992). Curriculum guidelines for the multicultural art classroom. Art Education, 45(1), 16-24.

Tavin, K. (2004). Wrestling with angels, searching for ghosts: Toward a critical pedagogy of visual culture. Studies in Art Education, 44(3), 197-213.213.