Current Art Lesson Offerings​

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CULTURAL DANCE

 

Traditional Dance/Full Circle Movement 

Teaching Artist: Lesly Baker 

Grades: K-12 

Students will learn traditional steps of five cultural dances, HULA, BOLLYWOOD/BHANGRA, SPANISH GYPSY FLAMENCO, FUSION, EGYPTIAN BELLY DANCE. The students will be encouraged to express their physical creativity as they connect to the music and rhythms while learning short choreographed routines. They will also be introduced to floor work, (creative travel across the floor) with combinations of steps and patterns. Cultural dances allow students to begin to understand another culture. Dance at its core is communication through geometry, expressed through the patterns of step, music, and beats.

Time: 1 hour 

 

 

WATERCOLOR

 

Color My Feelings - Exploring Emotions Through Watercolor 

Teaching Artist: Stacy Lindsey 

Grades: K-2 

Children will be taught how colors connect to our moods and emotions. Through images brought by the artist and peer discussion, students will explore the way this affects the world around them and the choices they make in their art. During the session, students will make a colorful emotion chart.

Time: 3 to 5 sessions, 50 minutes per class.

Max class size: 24 - 30

Materials: Water cups & pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

Science of Watercolor 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: K-8 

Requires 3 or more sessions: Students will experiment with watercolor paints and household items to create and observe the reactions and results of working with watercolor. Students will then use the papers created to make a piece of art.

Time: Three, 1-hour sessions.

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

 

COLLAGE

 

Artists in Depth - Frida Kahlo 

Teaching Artist: Stacy Lindsey 

Grades: 5+ 

Frida Kahlo is a Mexican artist known for her soul-bearing self-portraits and multifaceted life. Students will make a self-portrait.

Time: 1.5 - 2 hours 

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

Artists in Depth - Jean-Michel Basquiat 

Teaching Artist: Stacy Lindsey 

Grades: 5+ 

Jean-Michel Basquiat is an influential Black American artist who changed the face of contemporary art. Students will create an homage to someone they care about or admire.

Time: 1.5 - 2 hours 

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

Artists in Depth - Jaune Quick-to-See Smith 

Teaching Artist: Stacy Lindsey 

Grades: 5+ 

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is a Native American artist whose expressionistic art explores Indigenous histories, identities, and foundational myths. Students will create an image that conveys a statement of their choice. They can choose a complaint, hope, memory, etc.

Time: 1.5 - 2 hours 

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

Color Harmony Collages 

Teaching Artist: Stacy Lindsey 

Grades: 3+ 

The artist will provide a brief overview of color theory basics. The focus will be on the concepts of harmony, complimentary, subsidiary, and tertiary. Students will then create a small collage using the concepts they learned.

Time: 1 - 1.5 hours 

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

 

DRAWING

 

Comic Art 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: 5+ 

Requires 2 or more sessions: Students will create a short comic strip using the basics of wireframes, character shape, conveying emotion, and proper proportions. Learn to think like a director and utilize staging, frames, settings, and character development.

Time: Two or three, 1-hour sessions.

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest. 

 

Drawing People in Motion - LeRoy Neiman 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: 4+ 

Students will draw people in motion! LeRoy Neiman invented sports fine art and students will use this idea to create their own sports artwork. Students will practice gesture drawing to find form and then expand on their ideas while drawing a person in an active pose.

Time: 1 hour

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

Japanese Pop Art - Takashi Murakami 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: 4+ 

Embrace the strange combination of traditional fine art and modern “low art”. Takashi Murakami, a living contemporary artist from Tokyo, blends ancient Japanese painting styles with the “lower arts” of commercial and cartoon artwork.

Time: 1 hour

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

Drawing Animals - Rosa Bonheur 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: 3+ 

Students will learn a simple method of drawing animals using geometric shapes. Several animals will be drawn in various poses in what artists call a “study” to best absorb this technique. Rosa Bonheur, an animal lover, was a bit of a rebel when it came to gaining access to the field in order to draw studies of animals in the wild.

Time: 1 hour

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

Macro Flowers and Skulls - Georgia O’Keeffe 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: 4+ 

Students will learn studio techniques used for drawing still life art. A combination of macro art and naturalism will be used in each still life. O’Keeffe fused zoomed-in images of flowers and cattle skulls to depict nature.

Time: 1 hour

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

 

PAINTING

 

Chinese Brush Painting 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: 1-8 

Pandas, bamboo, and monkeys are favorite subjects for Chinese brush painting. Students will learn Chinese characters, the proper grip of a Chinese brush, and several basic brush strokes. Students will create several art pieces and sign them with a special “chop”.

Time: 1 hour

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

Painted Desserts! - Wayne Thiebaud 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: K-8 

Students will learn about the pop art movement and different methods of using color to indicate shadow and form. In this lesson, students will use the Elements of Art: line, shape, color, and form to create pop art in the style of Wayne Thiebaud.

Time: 1 hour

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

Self-Portraits - Frida Kahlo 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: 1-4 

Students will learn all about Frida Kahlo, an amazing female artist from Mexico, famous for her surrealistic painting style. Create a self-portrait with a dream-like theme in bright, bold colors.

Time: 1 hour

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

 

CERAMICS

 

Ceramics - Hand-building, Sculpture, Tiles, Pottery Wheel 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: K-12 

Students learn ceramic hand-building skills along with the process of clay to ceramics. Each student will form, glaze, and take home their own piece of ceramic artwork. Past classes have created 3D cupcakes, animal sculptures, small bowls, coil pots, and sculpture whistles. Sarah has been teaching hand-building and pottery wheel techniques since 2006.

Time: Two, 1-hour sessions.

Materials: Clay (or $10 per student includes clay and glazes used), access to kiln. Pottery wheel instruction is possible for grades 6-12.

 

 

MIXED MEDIA

 

Handpainted Collage Animals - Eric Karle 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: 1-4 

Requires 2 sessions: Create collage animals in the style of Eric Karle, a famous children’s author. First, students will paint several “animal skins” using the Elements of Art. Then, students will create animal artwork pieces using their own paintings.

Time: Two, 1-hour sessions.

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

 

OUTDOOR ART

 

Student Chalk Mural Project 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: 1-12 

Students learn the beauty of impermanence by creating chalk art murals in public spaces. This project can be done nearly anywhere and teaches the art of relinquishing control. Students enjoy the design aspects of this mural project almost as much as the creation of the piece. The project difficulty level is determined by grade level.

Time: Two, 1-hour sessions.

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest.

 

Collaborative Mural 

Teaching Artist: Sarah Spring Cuthill 

Grades: 4-12 

Requires several sessions based on subject and size: Students learn foundational drawing techniques to design and paint a collaborative artwork. In this project, all art and painting are created by the students. The Teaching Artist teaches foundational skills, helps to arrange student artwork into a cohesive design, and facilitates students' collaboration in painting. Mural projects may be a group, class, or grade-level project.

Time: Six to ten, 1-hour sessions.

Materials: Pencils; the artist will provide the rest