The Geraldine Dodge Foundation Grant

This is the top quadrant of a poster I made in a busy Art Aware year in which we got a Geraldine Dodge Foundation grant. You can see the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the front of Cream Elementary School, whose children benefitted from the grant and a mural of the artwork a class did after their visit to the PMA.

In the second quadrant you see some pots by artist Toshiko Takaezu, “The Moorish Chief” painting, and a child’s drawing of it, a photo of artist John Overmyer with his brush, a wall of reproductions of famous paintings hung in the school and artwork by the kids.

In the third quadrant you see some children interacting with educators at the PMA and more kids’ artwork. Notice one child’s colorful drawing of the mobile “Ghost” by Alexander Calder.

More of the same in the fourth quadrant.

I really enjoy writing these blogs because they force me to go back and look at what Art Aware and its partner schools and institutions have done. When you’re in the middle of fulfilling the terms of a grant, there’s little time for reflection. That has to come with the distance of time.

The Dodge Foundation wanted evaluations filled out by children on how they liked the project. How did we do that for kindergarteners – with blank circle faces on which they drew mouths: smiley, neutral or sad. As I remember it, all the kids drew happy faces 🙂