Kidtopia

Project Overview

Working in groups, students created a large multi-panelled painting, depicting an ideal place they would like to live in. Students learned about the geography, food, shelter, clothing, and transportation of their own community in Brooklyn, NY and different cultures around the world, including the Maasai in Africa and the Inuit in Canada. They compared the similarities and differences between these different cultures and integrated some elements from each culture into their artwork. After creating the paintings, students made small sculptures of objects that they would need to live in their invented place. Essential Question: How does where we live affect how we live? Artistic Goals:

1. Students will learn drawing techniques (contour drawing and drawing from observation). 2. Students will learn color mixing and painting techniques (including how to represent a place). 3. Students will understand how composition and space are arranged in a landscape painting. 4. Students will learn how to work together to brainstorm ideas.

Curricular Goals: 1. Students will learn what a community is. 2. Students will learn about the geography, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and culture of the

Maasai and Inuit. 3. Students will learn the similarities and differences between the communities they are studying and

compare these communities to their own. 4. Students will understand that where one lives affects how one lives.

National Content Standards Addressed: Visual Arts K-4.1: Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes

Students describe how different materials, techniques, and processes cause different responses. Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and

stories.

Visual Arts K-4.2: Using Knowledge of Structures and Functions Students know the differences among visual characteristics and purposes of art in order to convey

ideas. Students describe how different expressive features and organizational principles cause different

responses.

Visual ArtsK-4.6: Making Connections Between Visual Arts and Other Disciplines Students understand and use similarities and differences between characteristics of the visual arts

and other arts disciplines.

Social Studies: Geography: NSS-G.K-12.2: Places and Regions Students should: Understand the physical and human characteristics of places. Understand how culture and experience influence peoples perceptions of places and regions.

NSS-G.K-12.5: Environment and Society Students should: Understand how human actions modify the physical environment. Understand how physical systems affect human systems.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. All rights reserved.

Part 1: Learning Artistic Techniques

How do artists depict their environments?

Activity 1: Line Drawing and Perspective While on a neighborhood walk of their community, students practiced line drawing techniques. Back in the classroom, students learned that artists use atmospheric perspective to represent space by overlapping objects and diminishing the size and detail as the object moves back in space. Working in groups, they practiced these techniques by creating collages inspired by their neighborhood observations. Recommended Time: two 45-minute sessions Inquiry Artwork: Edouard Vuillard, Place Vintimille

Materials: paper, pencils, black sharpie markers Activity 2: Painting Technique Students learned about the value of color by first only painting in black and white, creating a landscape inspired by their earlier drawings and collage. Students practiced making brushstrokes that they thought expressed a particular mood, and looked at landscapes by Cezanne and van Gogh to help them think about the ways in which artists convey a sense of place in their work. Once students had an understanding of black and white painting, they learned techniques for color mixing by making a color wheel. They then integrated color in their landscape and as a class created a list of feelings they believed their paintings evoked. Recommended Time: two 45-minute sessions Inquiry Artwork: Vincent van Gogh, Mountains at Saint-Remy

Paul Cezanne, Bibemus Materials: black and white paint, colored paint, paintbrushes, paper, pencils, collages from the previous session Part 2: Investigating Communities How can objects represent a community? Activity 3: Image Inquiry Students learned about the Maasai and Inuit cultures by looking at images of objects used by members of these communities (see resources). Through their discussions of these objects, students learned how the environments where these communities live affect how they live. In deciding what a community means to them, students created word webs and flip charts to compare these cultures with their own.

Recommended Time: three 45-minute sessions Inquiry Artwork: see resources Materials: paper, pencils, images, flip chart paper

Activity 4: Brainstorming In preparation for their group paintings, students brainstormed a class list with all of the elements they wanted to represent in their ideal community. They integrated aspects of their own community and the communities they learned about while thinking about their ideal place.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. All rights reserved.

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. All rights reserved.

Part 3: Planning and Layout What kind of place do we want to live in? Activity 5: Collaboration

Working in small groups, students worked together to create a collaborative work of art. Each group of 4-5 students chose elements from the class list and decided how to represent these elements in a single drawing of an imaginary place, which was created with pencil on large 18x24 sheets of drawing paper. In creating their group drawing, students incorporated the perspective and drawing techniques they learned about earlier. Recommended Time: two 45-minute sessions Materials: large paper, pencils

Activity 6: Mural Planning Students looked at Vuillards Place Vintimille, and noticed the ways in which this artist depicted a single scene across multiple panels. They then hung their place drawings side by side in a similar manner, and thought about the details they could add to make them work together as one large scene. With their plans in place, students gathered in their small groups again and transferred their drawings to large 24x36 panels of pre-primed canvas Recommended Time: three 45-minute sessions Inquiry Artwork: Edouard Vuillard, Place Vintimille Materials: paper, pencils, paper, canvas panels Part 4: Constructing Final Project What would life be like in our ideal place?

Activity 7: Painting Students drew on their knowledge of space, color, brushstroke and narrative while painting each panel in their small groups. Once all the panels were completed, the class looked at them together as a cohesive whole. Next, students discussed changes and additions that would express the story and mood of their imaginary place. Recommended Time: twothree 45-minute sessions Materials: acrylic paint, paintbrushes- a variety of sizes and shapes, primed canvas

Activity 8: Small Sculptures Once the panel painting was completed, students considered what they would need to live in their invented place. They wrote reflections about objects they learned the Maasai and Inuit used and then brainstormed 3-5 objects they would need to survive. Next, students created sculptures of these objects using wire, tape, cardboard and paper. Recommended Time: three 45-minute sessions Materials: wire, tape, cardboard, paper, paint, paintbrushes

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. All rights reserved.

Resource Materials

Linking Lands Curriculum World Affairs Council www.world-affairs.org, 2004. Maasai Books: Carpenter, Nancy and Virginia Kroll, Masai and I Dahl, Michael, Kenya (Countries of the World) Hru, Dakari and Anna Rich, Joshuas Masai Mask Lilly, Melinda and Charles Reasoner, Warrior Son of a Warrior Son Mollel, Tololwa Marti and Paul Morin, The Orphan Boy Parker, Vic, Were From Kenya Inuit Books: Dabcovich, Lydia, The Polar Bear Son Huffmon, Betty and Terri Sloat, Berry Magic Martin, Jacqueline Briggs, The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish Santella, Andrew, The Inuit: American Indians Steltzer, Ulli, Building an Igloo Williams, Suzanne M, The Inuit (Watts Library) Movie: Allakariallak, Nyla, Cunayou, and Allee, Nanook of the North

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York. All rights reserved.

http://www.world-affairs.org/

Sample Inquiry Plans

Edouard Vuillard Place Vintimille, 1908-10 Distemper on cardboard, mounted on canvas. Two panels: 78 3/4 x 27 3/8 inches and 78 3/4 x 27 1/2 inches. Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Justin K. Thannhauser 78.2514.74.

Inquiry Script: What do you notice? What can you guess about this place by looking at this painting? Imagine you could step inside this painting. What would it feel like to be in this neighborhood? What

would you hear? What would you do? This painting depicts a neighborhood in Paris where the artist, Edouard Vuillard, lived for 20 years. It was

where he spent his youth and a place where he had many friends. It was his community. How is it similar to or different from your community?

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, Ne