Traveling Exhibits Inspiration Avenue: IN

Showing posts with label IN. Show all posts

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Another Love Letter from Brenda at Maconaquah

Lisa, The Degas exhibit is Marvelous! I couldn't believe it could be better than Rousseau, but it was!!! A teacher and I stood in a little alcove and watched as the students came in the morning after we hung it. Their expressions were also ours, of "OH!" and "Oh, my!". We were all speechless, it took our breath away. My principal wanted to wrap up in the last one, and she is trying to find a way to have this one in her living room!! Besides the wonderful reproductions of the artwork, the opportunities to teach about life skills that you have used in the "biographies" on the panels is exactly what I try to teach my students. From "believing in yourself" from Rousseau to "never giving up" with Degas, I could not dream of anything better to use with my students in this great vocation of teaching art. Thank you SO MUCH for creating this wonderful differentiated tool. I sent you pictures of our Rousseau activities. I hope they came through okay. We are deep into Impressionistic movement pieces now, so will keep you informed. Once again, thank you for this wonderful experience.
Brenda

Rousseau Inspired Student Art Work, Another Love letter from Brenda

Good afternoon Lisa,
I cannot tell you how much we have enjoyed this exhibit! The kids as well as the staff, and especially me!!! Yesterday all the middle school art classes came over with a scavenger hunt and other materials from their teacher. Today, several board members and community members have been here to enjoy the exhibit. Several from the community have never been inside our school so this has been such a good PR opportunity. I gave them the royal tour with all the murals I have painted here too. Thank you for the quality of the exhibit, the ease of installation and the materials to go with the exhibit, and most of all your willingness/eagerness to help make this a wonderful experience for all of us. Thanks. I am sending you pictures of my 3rd graders working and 4th and 5th grade Rousseau inspired jungle pieces that have been finished. I can hardly wait for September when the Edgar Degas exhibit arrives. I'm already advertising it to my art groups. Thanks again,
Brenda.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Another Love Letter....... From Brenda at Maconaquah Elementary

I am thrilled to be able to share another love letter with you. This is from Brenda, an Elementary Art Teacher at Maconaquah Elementary School in Indiana. The Henri Rousseau Traveling Exhibit is the first in her Student Art Experience and this is what she had to say,"Good afternoon Lisa,
WHAT A GREAT EXHIBIT. I am THRILLED, and the kids are really excited. I have been teaching from the panels since Wed (our first real day to do art class and not rule days). We have done history, observations, contrast and compare............... I could not ask for a better resource. Thank you so much. Thanks too for sending the info on the two artists and the pin. You truly are the best company I have ever worked with. Thanks so much. I will send you pictures of the kids and their projects when we are finished, and of my room." Brenda has 8 more exhibits in her Student Art Experience. So watch for Brenda's updates and student art projects. This is why we do what we do. Obviously Brenda is inspired, therefore her students will be inspired too! Thanks Brenda

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Civil War Exhibit Inspired Many at the Tipton County Public Library

Tipton County Public Library in Tipton, IN hosted our Civil War Traveling Exhibit the week of May 11 - 15th.
Librarian Kendra Hummel has gifted awe and inspiration to many patrons and students with our stunning exhibit which features photographs from this very important period of our American History . TCPL's activities while hosting the exhibit included reenactments, soldier's in uniform, field gear, ball gowns and book displays. TCPL invited in over 200 5th and 8th graders from local schools to take part in the libraries many activities.
See how fun learning about American History can be? Way to go Kendra!

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