012710 We’re so influenced by the art we do, the art we see.

012710 We’re so influenced by the art we do, the art we see.

Camden students from Kindergarten through 3rd grade did their own variations of “X-5” by Robert Indiana* who was influenced by Charles DeMuth’s “Number Five in Gold.”

It’s great to see how children interprete and create their own variations on a theme. They were given an outline of Indiana’s star in a circle and asked to draw a large number 5 either on top of the star or “behind” it. The teacher then mounted the squares of artwork on red paper in a series of X’s (reiterating the theme) throughout the school. How colorful it was.

In the past children’s artwork has also been exhibited in City Hall. People coming in to pay a tax bill or attend to some other matter stop to look and momentarily forget the business at hand. The display is a gift to them. It makes them think of their own children or their own childhood.

It’s important to display children’s artwork for the sake of the students themselves and for the sake of adults to keep them in touch with spirit of youth.

*Indiana is the creator of  “Love” statue in Philadelphia

Art Aware Class

This is me in an Art Aware class. Notice the reproductions of art and the art teacher (Linda Hartzell from Gesu School) behind me.  The kids are holding up some spontaneous 5 minute art they did. My job isn’t to do hands-on art, rather it is to supplement what the art teachers do.

(See the Philadelphia Museum of Art Teacher profile on Art Aware and also the 2009 Poster of Camden Students at Peace Doing Art: 

http://www.artaware.org/artnews2009.htm)

Today we had our last Art Goes to School meeting before 25 of us volunteers go into 12 Cherry Hill, NJ elementary schools with a portfolio of about 15 reproductions of art. It will take us three months to cover all students, grades 1 through 5, in the School District. How everyone looks forward to the AGTS visit.

Art Aware is a spin-off from AGTS, but it operates only in the inner cities of Camden and Philadelphia where most suburban volunteers are fearful to go. So that means for the past 20+ years only a handful of us have covered 25+ inner city schools.

Thankfully (and perhaps dues to Art Aware’s presence) the Camden, NJ School District still has it’s art teachers. Art Aware celebrates and is grateful for the work they do with the elementary school children…..so, so much!

Camden Students at Peace Doing Art

  I’m new to this wordpress blog site and the upload of the Art Aware 2008 Poster of Camden Students at Peace Doing Art wasn’t successful yesterday (or I didn’t do something I should have) from my home dial-up Internet connection. I’m now on Wifi at the library. You can get an idea from this image how creative the art teachers in Camden, NJ are in initiating a variety of styles of artwork from their elementary school children.

I don’t want to wear out my welcome on this blog so I’ll try to post  just once a week.

Art Aware – First Blog

This is the first blog for Art Aware, a twenty-year non-profit organization created to bolster the arts in inner city elementary schools. I am Barbara Pfeiffer, Founder and Director. For an introduction, we’ve uploaded the 2008 Art Aware Poster of Camden Students at Peace Doing Art.

It represents 17 Camden, New Jersey, schools and work that was initiated by art teachers from grades pre-K to six.

Art teachers are absolutely necessary for students to achieve a well-balanced education. For the under-achiever as well as the over-achiever, art class is the great leveler. Different strokes for different folks. There is no right or wrong. Showing reproductions of famous masterpieces from Leonardo da Vinci to Jackson Pollock proves it.

And so in this poster there are examples of talented art teachers encouraging children to experiment with many styles.  Go to artaware.org for close-ups of some of the work. 

Visual images are not only for kids to learn by.

A balanced human being is one who can tap into one’s own creative energies as well as others’.

Celebrate the arts!

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