- #Stretch and explore studio habits of mind how to#
- #Stretch and explore studio habits of mind series#
Not only is Monet a great example of how artists explore new ideas and concepts, but he is also a nod to the traditional Arts Canon. By introducing students to Monet’s artwork and the reasons behind his style of painting, I show students how a famous artist, whom we consider traditional now, stretched and explored traditional artistic ideas. When he first began to show his artwork, people thought his paintings looked unskilled or sloppy. His artwork is meant to give you the impression of how objects look, not to show how they actually look. He wanted to demonstrate the effects of light on the colors of objects and how things looked through mist, rain, smoke, and steam.
#Stretch and explore studio habits of mind series#
Rouen Cathedral Series 1892-1894 by Claude Monet – (30 versions)Ĭlaude Monet’s style is an example of ‘Stretch and Explore.’ Monet was a founder of the impressionist movement, and his artwork rejected the painting style of his day-very realistic painting. Studio Habits of Mind are research-based best practices observed by the Project Zero team in various studio art classrooms.
‘Stretch and Explore’ simply means to “play, use mistakes, and discover.” It was conceptualized as a Transdisciplinary Studio Art practice by Harvard’s Project Zero in 2003 in their Studio Habits of Mind book.
#Stretch and explore studio habits of mind how to#
When talking to students about larger concepts, like how to ‘Stretch and Explore’ new ideas, I introduce different artists’ artwork as examples of how they stretched themselves and explored new ideas. One way in which I have achieved this balance is to focus on larger concepts rather than specific artists. We cannot ignore the past but instead need to acknowledge, recognize, and address it, while at the same time moving the indicators forward in regard to diversity.
How can you balance society’s strong connections to the work of traditional white male artists and artwork while making sure you, at the same time, bring diversity and representation into the classroom? This is the key challenge. These are the big-name artists that we constantly read about or watch movies about. These are the artists that parents learned about. Yet, as a visual arts teacher, there is often pressure to teach such traditional artists to students because these famous pieces of artwork hang in all of the big museums. So, as a visual arts teacher, what is the best way to bring diversity into the classroom, and how do we embed competencies into the lessons to deepen the learning process?Īrtists from left to right: DaVinci, Pollock, Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, WarholĬan you recognize the images above? Each demonstrates how little diversity there is in the traditional Visual Arts Canon.
The traditional historical narrative of the Canon, the time period before the mid-twentieth century, has not changed that much. Although there has been increased interest in incorporating diversity over the last 20-50 years, any diversity added to the Canon has been predominantly artists that have been active during this same time period and not necessarily from earlier periods. A great example of this is the traditional Visual Arts Canon. Diversity typically references those who have been traditionally marginalized. The range of human differences (race, ethnicity, age, etc.) means there are people who have been and remain underrepresented in many institutions and broader society. Embedding Identity gives students a chance to broaden their perspective on how people look at and experience the world around them.ĭuring the second part of this three-part series, I outline how we can embed Diversity into the visual arts curriculum and use competencies to broaden student experiences.ĭiversity has many different definitions, but I particularly like Cooperative Extension’s definition: “ Diversity is the presence of differences that may include race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, nationality, socioeconomic status, language, (dis)ability, age, religious commitment, or political perspective.” By connecting 21st-century skills to the art process, we are not only giving our students a fantastic art education but also the ability to succeed in any future venture. The first part of this series spoke about the traditional Visual Arts Canon as a bastion of the “old white guy club.” It tackled how to embed Identity within the visual arts curriculum by using competencies to deepen the learning process for our students.
0 kommentar(er)
