Traveling Exhibits Inspiration Avenue: Traveling Exhibits visits Harbor Beach, Michigan

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Traveling Exhibits visits Harbor Beach, Michigan

For my very first blog I have to tell you about a road trip that I had last Spring. A visit with Spanish Teacher Jon Fruytier at Harbor Beach Community School while they were hosting their finale of a nine exhibit experience with the Vincent van Gogh Traveling Exhibit in May of 2008. Harbor Beach, Michigan is a quaint, small town in the tip of the thumb on Lake Huron. With that being said, too far for a museum field trip to the DIA in Detroit. Jon was inspired, came up with a plan and has brought the museum experience into his home town via Fed Ex. Jon has been hosting the exhibits in his school for the last two years now, with 10 reserved for this year.
"How has he done this?" you ask. First, by giving local business owners the opportunity to fund the exhibits for their community school. He was inspired by our exhibits so much that he stepped out of the box and approached the local vet and rotary club for funding and that's how it started. He expressed the need and importance of the exhibit experience for his students and his community. And second, by using our press kits that we provide for the exhibits. Jon contacted the local papers and radio stations; which did a fabulous job publicizing the Traveling Exhibits and their sponsors. Jon has hosted field trips for schools in nearby districts and has also opened up the school to the public during certain hours of the day to view the exhibits.
In my exhibits road trip I was able to experience just what an impact the Traveling Exhibits have on students of all ages. It was obvious that these kids have been learning from this larger than life size exhibit and retaining the information. Kindergartners to upper level students where raising their hands with excitement to answer questions about Vincent van Gogh and his artwork and took pride in telling their interpretations on the pieces of art. They enjoyed teaching me about van Gogh. I was also able to see how our free download materials that we offer such as the Did You Know posters are displayed and can be useful tools in making art personal and more interesting with trivia and fun facts, provoking the hmm factor...
I am so grateful for the opportunity to be able to see first hand the Traveling Exhibit Experience and to work along side such dedicated educators like Jon Fruytier and so many of you reading this blog. If you'd like to read more about Jon Fruytier and Harbor Beach, MI here are some links to just a couple of his press releases.
http://www.michigansthumb.com/articles/2008/11/10/news/features/doc49185c56821fc919204668.txt

http://www.michigansthumb.com/articles/2008/11/10/news/features/doc49185c56821fc919204668.txt

1 comment:

AnonymousJanuary 19, 2009 at 5:28 PM
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Things That Make You Go Hmmm.... Did You Know?

Did you know x-ray technology has shown that there are three different versions of the Mona Lisa under the visible one?

Did you know Leonardo da Vinci spent 12 years on Mona Lisa's lips?

Did you ever wonder where Mona Lisa's eyebrows are?

Did you know that Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is 2'6" x 1'9"?

Did you know that when Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1912, six replicas were sold as the original, each at a huge price in the three years before the original was recovered?

Did you know Leonardo da Vinci invented high heels?

Did you know Leonardo da Vinci wrote all of his personal notes from right to left, forcing those who read them to use a mirror?

Did you know in all of Salvador Dali's paintings you can find a self-portrait?

Did you know Salvador Dali designed a chess set for the American Chess Federation? The pieces were modeled after his and his wife Gala's fingers using casts of his molars for crowns.

Did you know Henri Rousseau was a self taught artist? He never took an art class and began painting in his forties.

Did you know although Henri Rousseau was known as a charmingly naive "primitive" artist, his rap sheet included jail time for theft and bank fraud?

Did You know Vincent vanGogh was a missionary before he started painting?

Did you know that when you look at a bright color (like red) and then look at a piece of white paper: You briefly see its opposite (pale blue)? Try it, it works!

Did you know that Michelangelo was 26 when he started his statue of David? He finished it 17 months later.

Did you know that Frederic-August Bartholdi sculpted The Statue of Liberty?

Did you know that Pablo Picasso's career lasted seventy-eight years? From 1895 until his death in 1973.

Did you know that the only sculpture that Michelangelo signed was The Pieta, completed in 1500?

Did you know that Mary Cassatt was the only American to exhibit with the Impressionists?

Did you know that Vincent vanGogh completed over 800 paintings and 850 drawings in the decade before his death?

Did you know that Jackson Pollock studied with Thomas Hart Benton at the Art Students League in New York?

Did You Know? Picasso's Girl with a Ponytail Sylvette David is an artisit

Lydia Sylvette David began her artistic life not as a painter, but as a model for Pablo Picasso. When she was seventeen years old, she was living in the south of France with her English-born mother who was an artist, her brother, and her boyfriend, Toby Jellinek, a maker of avant-garde metal chairs. Picasso had set up a studio nearby and noticed Jellinek’s unusual pieces. He asked him to deliver a couple of the chairs to his studio, and with him went Sylvette David. Shortly after, Picasso presented a picture of her, drawn from memory, and convinced David to model for him.

A shy girl, David was tall and had striking looks. She wore her hair in a long, blond ponytail, a style like that which Brigitte Bardot would later adopt. It was her hair and face that captivated Picasso, but unlike many of his other models, their relationship was purely platonic. In the months she sat for him in 1954, Picasso produced over forty pieces based on her likeness. Photos of Picasso and his model also appeared in an issue of the widely read magazine Paris-Match.

David would relate that she began drawing to pass the time while she sat for Picasso, often posed in a rocking chair. She later married and moved to England with her husband, and not wanting to capitalize on her fame as a painter’s muse, signed her work with her married name, Lydia Corbett. Eventually, she added a second signature to her paintings and watercolors, that of Sylvette David. As her reputation as an artist grew, she exhibited her work in England and France, including several London exhibitions.

I was inspired to contact Lydia Sylvette after reading Laurence Anholt's book
"Picasso and the girl with the ponytail". She's a lovely woman. She sent me images of her artwork in hopes of developing curriculum and getting more recognition in the states. What do you think? Would you like to know more about Lydia Sylvette?

Diego Rivera helps celebrate Mexican art, music and language in Bannockburn, IL

Art Instructor Shawn Le Gloanec had this to say.... Hi Lisa! the murals were the connecting link for our cross-curricular study of mexican art, music and language. Our Spanish teacher ,music teacher and I each created lessons in our respective areas. The students listened to and performed music from mexico .The spanish classes identified many of the important Mexicans portrayed on the mural and researched their lives. In my art classes, we watched an excellent video about Rivera and other mexican mural artists such as orozco and siqueiros. We also designed and painted cloth tote bags using many of the colors and objects inspired by the mural. All of this culminated in a marvelous field trip to our Mexican Fine Arts Center in Chicago. We are looking forward to our next opportunity to bring a new mural to our school. Thank you for making yourself so available by phone,

Escher Visits Bartlesville, OK This Is What Their Daily Paper The Examiner-Enterprise had to say

Satin prints of the works of famed artist Maurits Cornelis Escher are on display this week in the library of the Bartlesville Mid-High School. Pictured along with some information about Escher are Mid-High art students (from left) Nicole Caster, Luke Libby, Blaize Kissell, Ashley Ryel and Matthew Reeder. The exhibit features some information about the artist himself, whose works have been well-received over the years by math scholars and scientists, who enjoy his use of geometric distortions. The Escher exhibit was made possible after a grant proposal by Mid-High art teacher Lea Burke was accepted by the Bartlesville Public School Foundation. The grant will result in four more exhibits being displayed in the Mid-High library during the second semester of the 2008-09 academic year.

Traveling Exhibits Meets Viktor Schreckengost