We did our final performance at St. Joesph's High school. It was the coolest school performance that I've ever been a part of. I was super impressed with the students: their creativity and their strong message. We also had the best lighting, and sound, put on by the high school drama club. I was a night that I'm sure the students will never forget.
Many parents and guests at our even voiced their love for the performances. It was amazing to hear so many positive comments. One parent expressed to me that she was so happy that her son, who favors athletics over the arts, was having this kind of positive exposure to the arts. The students were glowing. Their confidence and pride was evident. Numerous guests thanked us for the message - one of cultural acceptance and harmony. The last song that the students danced to was called Unity, and the chorus says, "peace, love, unity, and having fun" which was exactly what we were all experiencing.
After the production, we had arranged to work with the Mendel Art Gallery on cultural art and harness the positive energy of the students from the final evening. This worked amazingly well. We were able to visit the Mendel to view a lot of great art, and to work on expressing our creativity through different mediums.
We had students do research on a culture of their choice. They were to write a report on the culture of a region, as well as investigate the arts and food and how culture can be expressed through those areas. Students also had to find an artist from that culture that they would research and then recreate a piece of that art. Once the research was nearing completion, we worked with the Mendel to recreate a piece of art. Students had such a wide variety of art mediums and techniques chosen, that it was difficult to imagine success. The Mendel helped us gather the supplies and materials to work on the recreations, and then Wendy and Kelly came to the school to help students with their projects. We had students painting with acrylics, water colors, pencil crayons, marker, printmaking, sculpting and building. We decided it was best to break the students into two groups and have two adults with each group. The students had to work largely on their own. We attempted to work with each student to get them on the write track, and to assist when they had problems. This worked well, and many students made great progress.
During the month of May our graffiti mural and our artwork was on display in the auditorium of the Mendel. It was a very cool honor. At the end of May we walked with students to view our art and the Student Art which was also on display. I know that students felt a real sense of pride when we entered the auditorium. They were also blown away by the quality of the student artwork on display in the gallery. Many students are quite excited about the opportunity to take high school art classes.
This was a very fun, interesting, challenging, and rewarding project to be a part of. It is so wonderful to be able b ring inquiry based learning and the arts together. Inquiry allows us to explore deep ideas and the Arts help us to be able to experience creativity, collaboration, and to experience learning in a fun and creative way. It was a wonderful experience, and the students learn in a much deeper and more authentic way. I believe this is a project that changed all of us for the better.
I want to thank the artists that were involved: Jordan Shultz, Mike Mirlin, and Pavlo Isac. I also want to thank the Mendel Art Gallery for allowing us to have our work on display for an entire month, and for supporting our work in the classroom. Thank you to PAVED Arts for creating a montoge video of our final performance. Thank you to Dianne Goulet for trusting me and doing another grant with me. Finally, thank you to the Saskatchewan Arts Board for your support in the form of an ArtsSmarts grant. This grant allows us to do work with kids that we could not do without significant financial support.
