Henri Rousseau Pre-School Style

The Early Childhood Learning Center in Phillipsburg, NJ has just hosted their second Traveling Exhibit. Students are never too young to be inspired by art.
Ginnie Sacchi was kind enough to share the preschool's Henri Rousseau inspired artwork.
Awe..... This is what Ginnie has to say about the preschool's exhibit experience.
Hi Lisa, The children, families and staff of the Phillipsburg Early Childhood Learning Center enjoyed the Traveling Exhibit of Henri Rousseau's art. We are grateful that our school's PTO sponsored the event to enrich our children's experience. Art teacher, Troy Guzenski, helped the children create lion faces, monkeys and jungle pictures throughout the school and individual preschool teachers explored the jungle theme using assorted media to build murals with their students.
I am attaching a few photos of student work to share.
Thank you, Ginnie Sacchi.

Art of Ancient Egypt Exhibit is a hit

Art Teacher Marina Monteleone of Millburn Middle School in Millburn, NJ was our lucky winner of an exhibit rental while attending the AENJ conference back in October. She chose our New Art of Ancient Egypt exhibit and you can see why. It's beautiful! Marina wrote in to share her exhibit experience and her exhibit inspired student artwork with us, Thanks Marina.
This is what she had to say. I received the exhibit today! It was so easy to set up and the students seem to really be interested in it. The students will be working on an Ancient Egyptian art project to correlate with their current Social Studies unit, if they are in 6th grade, or the the Social Studies unit from last year, if they're in 7th grade. The project in art will be to make a traditional Ancient Egyptian deaddress including the nemes, but change it in some way to bring it to present times. For instance, they may add a Yankees logo, or more modern looking makeup to the headdress. I have metalic mediums that students can utilize to add details and decoration to their pieces and take inspiration from the traditional headdresses that were made with gold. Those students that are a part of the Millburn Middle School online art gallery will have their artwork up when they tell me that they are finished. They can be viewed at www.artsonia.com/schools/school.asp?id=65828.

And We Have A Winner !!!!!!!!!

Everyone, I'd like to introduce you
to our Lucky Traveling Exhibits
winner, Marina Monteleone, Art
Teacher from Millburn Middle School
from Millburn, NJ. We met while
we both attended the Fabulous,
Art Ed. Conference held in Somerset, NJ earlier this month. Traveling Exhibits held drawings for free exhibit
rentals and there you have it.
You can see how excited Marina is
about winning as she strikes up a pose
for us in front of our Jackson Pollock exhibit that was displayed in the
convention center. The exhibit that
Marina has chosen to inspire her
school with is our New Art of Ancient
Egypt Traveling Exhibit. Be sure to visit the Traveling Exhibits Displays if you see us at your State Art Education conferences and perhaps you could be a lucky winner too!
Way to go Marina, I look forward to working with you, inspiring many at Millburn Middle School!

I'd Like To Share A Love Note......

As coordinator for Traveling Exhibits I get the wonderful privilege of working with Teachers, Librarians and Museum Directors across the country gifting awe, inspiration and a memorable, cultural, museum experience to "Many". Whether hosting Art exhibits, Science or Social Studies there is a lot to experience and learn from each Traveling Exhibit, bringing their subject matter larger than life. As Traveling Exhibits continues to grow, we are becoming busier and busier and our fan mail is poring in. Skip the owner of Teacher's Discovery has re-named our fan mail to our "Love Letters". If you've read my introduction here on my blog than you know that I have created this blog to be used as a venue for our exhibit renters to inspire their peers. Well keeping on with that agenda I decided that I really wanted to share this love letter with you from Ms. Maxwell, Spanish Teacher at Woodglen School in Califon, NJ. So.... Here's Ms. Maxwell.....
Dear Lisa,
I extend tardy but hearty thanks to you and Teacher's Discovery. I have always enjoyed and used all the great items I have purchased in the past from Teacher's Discovery, but I was most impressed with the traveling art show. The promotional material was excellent. Our custodial staff, Mrs. Gaskill and I had no problem installing and dismantling the show. What a great product from conception to presentation. However, now there is an emptiness that must be filled. We realize what we were missing.... art and color.
What a transformation Picasso made to the room and what a reaction we had from our audiences. We planned the date to coincide with our drama club presentation of "Mulan" to increase exposure. Everyone who entered the room paused to study when confronted with the paintings on the wall. The PTA who sponsored the show had but one response; what are we going to do next year, Kahlo? The Board of Education enjoyed the back drop to their meeting. The show affected many. The custodial staff had their coffee breaks and lunch in the room just to be able to see it more often.
Cheryl Gaskill and I were able to co-teach a lesson to our joint Spanish classes using the life sized Picasso paintings. It was great to have them see the paintings almost as they would be, rather than using a book or a too small poster. Many were truly mesmerized and it gave them an opportunity to study three paintings in depth. Had they gone to the museum, they would not have walked away so impressed nor so educated. Less is more. Students we did not expect to like the show wanted more. They loved it, but that is how art works, it speaks to some more than others. Even if they did not like art they were able to see how two paintings by the same man can be very different. They could sense the light, colorful calm before the storm of Night Fishing at Antibes compared to the negative, harsh reality of Guernica.
In my next class I had the students try their hand at drawing like Picasso. They were to draw faces of other students and were to try to capture their personality or their physical characteristics... but not in a traditional manner (no oval face!), as Picasso might have at age 80. Amazingly many could. They seemed to understand what he was trying to do and a bit more of the man himself. I credit the show for allowing them to experience art in depth for at least one day.
Thank you again, personally I loved it and miss it. However, it inspired our school to create some Student Wall Art next year. Looking forward to future exhibit rentals.
Sincerely,
Jerilyn Maxwell, Spanish Teacher

Hal & the Eco-Maniacs Encourage Us All to Be the Change, to Be Green

Hal Lederman and his Principal Dr. Joyce Raynor from SSDSEU aka Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex & Union in West Orange, NJ have set an exemplary example of Being the Change and Being Green to their students, staff and community. They host an annual Community Service Day at their school and this year our Global Warming Traveling Exhibit was a beautiful and informative addition to their program. Hal was kind enough to provide me with a photo album featuring lots of students working hard together, student artwork using recycled materials and many other activities. There are some really great ideas here that will insire you, your students and staff . http://picasaweb.google.com/hlederman/Jan212009# When I read Hal's email, I decided that he's definitely the one who should be telling you his story. So with that being said, here's Hal in his own words.

Normally I teach 11th grade U.S. history and a senior year economics elective. Growing up in New Jersey, my family and I started to recycle glass and aluminum in the 1960s. During my college days I became an avid backpacker and when I became a teacher, I often organized and participated in outdoor educational programs and clubs. Three years ago I was asked by our principal, Dr. Joyce Raynor, to form and advise a school-wide environmental program that would include a student club (we call ourselves the Eco-Maniacs). Dr. Raynor is so committed to the environment that she won't turn on the light in her office! With her support, we embarked on an aggressive campaign to "green" our school. Since the club's inception, we have achieved the following:

1. Put our trash hauling contract up for competitive bid and found a hauler who would also properly dispose of our recyclables, including paper, corrugated boxes, plastic, aluminum, glass, and steel cans at a cost savings of $9000 annually from that of a previous hauler,

2. Purchased individual classroom and office recycling containers for paper, co-mingled containers, and trash,

3. Developed a school-wide educational program on the proper disposal of school waste, including annual waste audits,

4. Through Rutgers University, instituted the purchase of multi-purpose paper with a recycled content of 30% post-consumer paper,

5. Introduced recycled facial tissue and bathroom paper,

5. Replaced standard cleaning products with green seal cleaners,

6. Replaced standard fluorescent tubes with energy efficient T-1 bulbs,

7. Purchase our electricity from a provider who uses renewable resources,

8. Instituted battery and computer recycling programs, and

9. Achieved Green Office certification.

Our goals for this year include:

1. Building an outdoor composting site and educating students about composting,

2. Replacing disposable utensils, paper plates, napkins, and Styrofoam cups with environmentally friendly products, and

3. Retiring Styrofoam trays, aluminum foil products, and chopsticks used by our food service.

Our school works closely with an organization called Green Flag Green Faith: http://www.greenfaith.org/

I hope that answers your questions. In March our history department takes the juniors to Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and New York's Lower East Side. Hopefully, I will be able to rent the Ellis Island traveling exhibit. Meanwhile, the Global Warming kits was phenomenal and many were disappointed when it was taken down.

I hope that sharing this inspirational story will encourage you to be the change in your school.
If your school is Green then lets hear about it. Inspired Minds Want to Know.
Lisa ~ Your Traveling Exhibits Coordinator