Currently, I work at the Boys' Club of New York, an awesome organization dedicated to enriching the lives of New York City's boys and young men. I am this summer's Teaching Artist, which means that I write curriculum for and teach art to the boys, who are grouped by age. This summer's programming is four weeks long and Olympics-themed. Here's how I approached the curriculum overall:
"In this four-week, Olympics-themed program, boys will gain foundational skills in three disciplines: printmaking, collage, and painting. These three disciplines in particular are process-driven more than product-driven, which allows students of all skill levels to participate with ease. For the first three weeks, each lesson will begin with an introduction to an 'Art Olympian' (an outstanding contemporary or historical artist), then transition into student projects inspired by the artist’s process. In the final week, boys will participate in their own 'Art Olympics,' a team relay race in which they will utilize the skills they learned in previous weeks. In the end, all participants will be awarded 'medals' for their efforts."
In the first week, boys learned two printmaking techniques (rubbings and stamping) inspired by the artists Do Ho Suh and David Hammons. For this project, we looked at Suh's work titled "Rubbing/Loving" (2016), a large-scale rubbing the artist made of his entire NYC apartment, on the precipice losing it: https://art21.org/watch/extended-play/do-ho-suh-rubbing-loving-short/. Then, boys made their own rubbings inspired by the artwork. The boys are divided into three groups: Explorers (elementary school), Juniors (middle school) and Teens (high school), so each project is scaffolded accordingly. For this project, elementary school kids used pre-made plastic relief plates of animals and objects, middle school kids used plastic texture plates, and high schoolers found textures around the room. I was busy teaching so I didn't get many photos, but you can see some results below! One boy made a booklet of his rubbings, which I thought was cool.
