Art & Language Arts Online

The 11th Annual Alumni Event–Full of Ideas, Info, Food, and Fun!

August 7th, 2010 Theresa Sotto 5 comments

It was so great to reconnect with teachers who participated in the Art & Language Arts program over the past 11 years. This year’s alumni event focused on the theme of food in art. Teachers who attended the event explored the relationship of food, art, and history through tours, art-making activities, artistic food preparation, and a lecture by food educator and author Linda Civitello.

We can’t wait to hear how teachers will incorporate today’s information and activities in their classrooms.

: Museum educator Sandy Rodriguez describes how to sketch from a still life.

: After viewing how artists like Cezanne created a still life, teachers were ready to create their own.

: Teachers were so focused on their sketches that you could hear a pin drop in the room.

: Museum educator Kelly Williams leads an activity on creating decorative plates based on a 16th-century dish and an 18th-century centerpiece depicting ingredients for a stew.

: Teachers decorated their plates with everything from patterns and seascapes to life cycles, as depicted here.

: Teachers also molded food ingredients and animals to adhere to their plates.

: Inspired by a Man Ray photograph created for an ad, teachers created sun prints using basic shapes.

: They then incorporated their sun prints into collages.

: And finally, they wrote slogans to go with their ads. What a great way to integrate art and language arts!

: Chef Viviane Arlotto leads an activity on preparing banquets for students like the banquet depicted in a French tapestry.

: Food educator Linda Civitello, author of Cuisine and Culture: A History of Food and People, shares ideas with teachers.

: Teacher Frank Cooper shows off an artfully decorated cookie to his colleagues.

: Teachers use cookie cutters to make tea sandwiches as pretty as they are tasty.

: Teachers had a great time turning pineapple skewers into sculptural creations.

: And the result…sculptural skewers and artful tea sandwiches!

Categories: Art-making activities, Arts-integrated language arts lessons, Getty programs, Reflections on Getty workshops

Day 5: Teachers Presented on Lessons Exploring Texture, Narrative Art, Tableau, and More

July 31st, 2010 Theresa Sotto Comments off

It has been a long but incredibly rewarding week at the Getty Center. On the fifth day of the seminar, teachers incorporated the strategies we discussed all week in their own arts-integrated lesson plans. I was so impressed by what they were able to accomplish in just a couple of days. Thank you to this year’s class of Art & Language Arts teachers. It has been so much fun discussing works of art and art education teaching strategies with you all week!

: This morning’s media exploration involved making sun prints from items from nature. A great activity for sunny LA!

: Teachers re-visited a painting that they wrote about on the first day of the seminar.

: We were able to journal in quiet galleries before the museum opened to the public—at least for a little while!

: Using hands as a viewfinder, one teacher notices how a detail of Manet’s painting was not created with just white paint alone, but several different colors.

: Teachers share how their experiences of an artwork changed since the first day of the seminar. They returned to the work with more knowledge about art history, a deeper understanding of composition, and a greater appreciation for art!

: Kindergarten and first grade teachers brainstorm on a lesson on texture in art and the environment.

: Fourth grade teachers connected to a unit called “Risks and Consequences” through a discussion of a turbulent painting on the sea by Joseph Turner.

: Kindergarten and first grade teachers used a painting of animals parading towards Noah’s Ark as the basis for teaching students texture words.

: Second grade teachers compared a portrait of a beautiful princess to a painting of a man toiling in the fields.

: To connect to a lesson that explores what body language communicates in art, teachers posed to depict different occupations. What occupation is being depicted here?

: Third grade teachers developed a lesson incorporating tableau to consider what might have happened before and after a scene depicting a musician’s brawl.

: Fifth grade teachers connect their language arts theme of “Cooperation and Competition” to a 19th-century painting of a demolished château.

: The last day of our five-day seminar ended with cookies, brownies, lemonade, and of course free posters! What a wonderful way to celebrate the end of an intense and enriching week!

Categories: Arts-integrated language arts lessons, Getty programs, Reflections on Getty workshops

Tags: painting, summer seminar

Day 4: Art Inspires Ideas for the Classroom

July 29th, 2010 Theresa Sotto 6 comments

After three full days of tours and lectures and discussions and seminars and art-making and readings (phew!), teachers started developing their own lessons inspired by a work of art in the Getty’s collection. One of the biggest challenges was choosing just one work of art!