Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Wisconsin Schools Celebrate the Wisconsin Arts Board’s 50th Project
Visual Arts Lesson
Artist and teacher Jennifer Handrick felt moved to create lesson plans for the project because she wants to celebrate the importance of arts in education. “The power of arts in education is misunderstood or overlooked because they are so enjoyable and fulfilling that they are often not thought of as ‘work’ or rigorous, even though any visit to an arts classroom will show that they require immense focus, years of work and practice, and grow skills beneficial to every profession, often skills that are not focused on in core academic classes. An interdisciplinary project like this combines the power of all the arts and written language to create an experience that can be life enriching and even life changing.”
Handrick’s lessons invite students to create visual artwork that represents how wind moves in Hamilton’s poem. Through the exercises, the lines students draw while listening to the poem will intersect in interesting ways, carving space and limiting it. The invitation to move through uncharted space on a blank page is much like the invitation to engage in creativity. The students must perceive and then translate and transform their perceptions.
Click here to view the Visual Arts Lesson Plans
Media Arts Lesson
Media Arts instructor Harry Kellogg likewise was tasked with guiding students to make the creativity expressed in the poem “Like the Wind” into a visual artifact. He said, “My favorite thing about art is that it empowers us to bring any idea we can conceive into the real world. With that said, my own creative process typically involves a specific purpose or function.
Once I know what the purpose or function of the piece is supposed to be, I usually get an idea right away and begin working with whatever medium works best. From there, I tend to work very organically and build off of that original idea while incorporating imagery from nature, regardless of the piece's function/purpose.”
In the visual media lesson plans, students take selfies and use them as frames to explore identities that they move through. Those identities are visually represented when the self-portrait is complete. The process helps students to see themselves as not just static identities, but as networks of association and community. Creativity abounds where connection is found.
Click here to view the Media Arts Lesson Plans
View Next Lesson:
Play and Move Like the Wind: Theatre and Dance Bring Creativity to Life
Wisconsin Schools Celebrate the Wisconsin Arts Board’s 50th Project