Civil War Monument

The third public art work we are working on is the Civil War Monument. The students looked at photos taken by me and another student. From the photos we came up with questions about the monument.

So we moved on to the next public art in Winthrop. We went to the town office and saw the photos by Roland Lavallee. He was a resident of Winthrop and took many, many photos of the town over the several decades. The following link is where you can find more information about him and his work. Roland Lavallee

On the Town Web Site

Today students worked with Margy Burns Knight, Deane Buuck, and Helen Forbes. We all worked together to load pictures on photobucket as well as linking everything to the Winthrop town web site. We decided on 10 pictures of the sculpture "Our Cynosure". There are captions on each photo to give people information about the sculpture. This is the beginning but we are off to an amazing start. More information to come about the sculpture.

Wikis are Wicked Cool!

So I had this brainstorm about how to get the kids to write about Derek Glaser's visit to the classroom. We used a wiki. What is a wiki you asked? Well it is an place online where you are invited by someone to edit a document. You can see who edited, when they edited and what they edited. So today I invited the kids to edit the document on Derek's visit. It was wicked cool! The students were engaged by reading what each other wrote and discussing how to write better. This is the perfect time for the wiki. I want the kids to write about the experience and post that information to the blog. I am so excited about the wiki, students can truly take ownership over this Service Learning project.

Derek Glaser visits the Classroom

As an artist I am always amazed and excited to meet and discuss art with other artists. Today was truly no disappointment. Derek Glaser visited my class today, he is the artist who created "Our Cynosure." Derek also lives in Winthrop and is the cofounder of the New England School of Metalwork. Derek showed the students how he created the sculpture from the very beginning drawings to the final installation. It is really hard to summarize what an incredible experience for these students to see the process. Students again had perceptions of what the sculpture is about. The first thing we discussed is that the sculpture is a cyclone, students assumed it is a tornado. Again it is hard to summarize the whole presentation. However as an art teacher I had some incredible realizations. The first is how important community partners are for the school, they provide the students with real world experiences. This project started with my lesson about public sculpture. In this lesson I have the students create a sculpture for a public space. They create a maquette, a sculptors small scale model. We discuss and look at famous artists who create sculptures for public spaces such as Christo and Richard Serra. I realized after Derek's presentation what I was missing from the lesson. I was missing the community or real life connection. In his presentation he showed his maquette and the entire process creating a sculpture for a public space. I am going to change my introduction to this lesson to include Derek's sculpture and process. Each group will go down to look at the sculpture and learn about the art that was in front of us the entire time. A very special thanks to Derek for inspiring the students and making sculpture come to life in this community.

"Our Cynosure"

We are starting this journey with the sculpture in front of the high school. As a class we discussed which art work to begin with, students narrowed it down to the sculpture in front of the high school, "Our Cynosure" created by Derek Glaser. We walked down on a cold October morning. A total of 16 kids and 6 digital cameras. Students shared digital cameras and each student took at least 5 pictures. When we got back to the classroom we downloaded all the photos and looked at them as well. I asked how many students had ever been up close, only a few had. Many were excited about what they saw. One girl commented, "I really understand it now." Public art can generate a lot of emotions, because it is public. We each have a perception of what it can or should mean. But when we get up close and begin to understand something from a different point of view, we accept and embrace the differences in our communities.

The Beginning

I always love working with Margy Burns Knight. Her energy and enthusiasm is contagious! Margy Burns Knight is a local author of several children's books. She is currently working on a book about sculptures of famous women. In 8th grade I teach a unit on public sculpture. We decided to have Margy come in and discuss these sculptures she had been researching. The presentation was a great addition to the lesson on public sculpture. As students were shown the sculptures a discussion began the about the public art work in Winthrop. Students wanted to know more about the work in their community. So the students created a list of public art work in Winthrop. When the list was done we realized there are almost 25 public works in Winthrop. Currently students are working in small groups to photograph the work, research the story behind the art and somehow publicize the information. This is a year long project where every 8th grade student will be involved. We also plan to have one or two of the artists come in and have discussion with students. The students have discussed posting them on the town web site and creating a walking map/brochure of the art work.