Sunday, February 10, 2008
Washington Elementary School
Friday the Kid's Chalk Art Project descended upon Washington. The morning was cold, had my gloves, and hat on. I set up with music and 2 cases of chalk. The kids came out around 9:30am and I left after 3:00pm with the playground full of art and kids still drawing.
Now where's that hot tub!
It was a really good day for chalk drawing, the kids are so cool, wide open, interested, and willing to try something new. In a school where there are no paid art teachers, these kids were totally excited and everyone was drawing - everyone!
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Moments that I Remember:
• A teacher standing around, I go over and look at their hands "hey... you're hands are still clean, wheres the chalk colors? They didn't know they could also draw, they get down on the pavement and begin to chalk draw and don't stop until the class has to leave.
• A little girl making a BIG drawing that takes several other classes to fill in.
• Kids wanting to show me their drawings.
• Kids asking for help with their drawings.
• A boy looking lost, I get him to draw with me, we draw a basketball and fill it in with wild colors.
• Special Ed class, fun kids!
• A teacher can't draw, not because she didn't want to but her knees wouldn't let her, so I offer to draw for her. She picked the colors and I start to draw a star.... other kids come over and help.
• I am being interviewed on video, kids come over to hang out with me (really to be on camera) and I end up interviewing them on why art is good for them.
• Kids at recess come over and ask it they could draw - YES!
• A girl who I sense may feel neglected says wouldn't be allowed to come on the big "Kids' Chalk Art"drawing in June. I tell her she can come with her class on the field trip during class time. She had chalk all over herself and we had fun drawing together and talking.
• A teacher bring a boy over to me, she said that he was caught drawing over other kid's art and using angry words. I talked to him, talked about respect for others creativity, respect for oneself. I gave him some consequences. He had a make his best drawing and then show three other kids what he made. We also walked around together and looked and talked about the drawings that we liked.
• This school has many kids from around the world, not much money, and fewer parents involved in school activities. Many kids may be struggling with English, but man.... could they draw!
To learn more about the KIDS' CHALK ART PROJECT and how to donate to the cause, please visit our web site.
www.reenchantingtheworldthroughart.org
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Thursday, February 7, 2008
Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
In 1993 Youth in Arts, the San Rafael chalk drawing festival, had their 10th year anniversary. Over a dozen artists worked for 6 days and created a half size copy of Michaelangelo's ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.Tomorrow, we chalk draw at Washington Elementary School in Alameda. It will be a long day. I look forward to seeing all the kids and looking into their eyes.
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Sunday, February 3, 2008
ORIGINS
Fast forward. I've been chalk drawing in festival ever since - 18 years. Now comes 4 different lines that converge to create the Kids' Chalk Art Project. Chalk drawing, elementary school, and a men's group called the East Bay Nation of Men (Ebnom), and Google Earth.
1) In 2003 Youth in Arts , the chalk drawing festival in San Raphael CA, created one of the largest old master chalk drawing, Michelangelo's ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I was one of the artists working on this big collaborative project, it took dozens of people and 6 days to create a 25 x 65 foot chalk drawing.
2) My kids were now in elementary school in Alameda CA. I was being an art docent which is a parent volunteer program that brings art into the classrooms. I looked around and was curious why there were paid music teachers but NO art teachers at all. As a professional artist and educator I know that whatever all the reasons were and are, that this is wrong. It's not a way to invest wisely into our kids and into the future of our country and into the world. Not nurturing kid's creative spirit is in my opinion is suicide. Supporting and inspiring kid's creative spirit is planting seeds in fertile soil and one of the best things we can offer up to the local community and world. Anyone who is able to be creative in any and ever situation in their lives is free, powerful, alive, aware, able to choose, and be of service to businesses, community, relationships, and to themselves.
3) Ebnom is a local non denominational men's group that supports men, families, and community, and has a wonderful sense of spirit and is filled with a bunch of amazing big hearted guys. I was at one of the events and a man stood up and asked,"What would you do if you have 40 men and all their assets (time, tools, and energy).... got a DREAMS?" I had never been asked this question before and so I thought about it for two weeks.
4) When I first got on Google Earth, I zoomed down into my kid's elementary school playground and I saw the chalk drawing that we had done that year with all the kids.
Then I had the vision, all four lines came together, the question, the recent chalk drawing adventure, and my experience in elementary school being an art docent and seeing that something was missing, and seeing a chalk drawing by kids from a satellite photograph.
Let's create the world's largest chalk drawing, break the Guinness World Record, inspire humanity, get a satellite photograph of it, and create some cash flow to help get art teachers back into the elementary schools, and more.
PLEASE CONTRIBUTE NOW to the Kids Chalk Art Project.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Ten Reasons Why Art Is Good For Kids
1) Art Teaches Problem Solving. Making art teaches that there is more than one solution to the same problem. Art challenges our beliefs and encourages open-ended thinking that creates an environment of questions rather than answers.
2) Art Prepares Kids for the Future. Creative, open-minded people are highly desired in all career paths. Art and creative education increases the future quality of the local and global community. Being creative is a life long skill and can be used in every day situations.
3) Art Generates a Love of Learning & New Ideas. Art develops a willingness to explore what has not existed before. Art teaches risk taking, learning from one’s mistakes, and being open to other possibilities. Kids who are creative are also curious and passionate about knowing more.
4) Art is Big Business. At the core of the multi-billion dollar film and video game industry are artists creating images and stories. Every commercial product is designed by artists from chairs to cars, space stations to iPods. A Van Gogh painting sold for 83 million dollars.
5) Art Develops the Whole Brain. Art strengthens focus and increases attention, develops hand-eye coordination, requires practice and strategic thinking, and involves interacting with the material world through different tools and art mediums.
6) Art Improves Holistic Health. Art builds self-esteem, increases motivation and student attendance, improves grades and communications, nurtures teamwork, and strengthens our relationship to the environment.
7) Art Supports Emotional Intelligence. Art supports the expression of complex feelings that help kids feel better about themselves and helps them understand others by “seeing” what they have expressed and created. Art supports personal meaning in life, discovering joy in one’s own self, often being surprised, and then eliciting it in others.
8) Art Builds Community. Art reaches across racial stereotypes, religious barriers, and socio-economical levels and prejudices. Seeing other culture's creative expression allows everyone to be more connected and less isolated - "we see how we are all related." Art creates a sense of belonging.
9) Art Awakens the Senses. Art opens the heart and mind to possibilities and fuels the imagination. Art is a process of learning to create ourselves and experience the world in new ways. Arts support the bigger picture view of life: beauty, symbols, spirituality, storytelling, and helps us step out of time allowing one to be present in the moment. Art keeps the magic alive.
10) Art is Eternal. Creativity and self-expression has always been essential to our humanity. Our earliest creative expressions were recorded in petroglyphs, cave paintings, and ancient sculptures. One of the first things kids do is draw, paint, and use their imaginations to play.
Mark Wagner © 2008
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Chalk One Up for the Arts - Edutopia Article
We just got some exciting press by magazine - EDUTOPIA
from the George Lucas Educational Foundation
www.edutopia.org/chalk-drawing
www.reenchantingtheworldthroughart.org
Sunday, January 20, 2008
It Will Take A Legion of Artists - Louise Music
The KIDS CHALK ART PROJECT is an example of the essential role of the artist in our communities and our schools. For the last 40 years, there has been basically no arts education in our public schools, save for sporadic music programs frequently funded by local Parent Teacher Associations, or visual and performing arts programs funded through special grants with and through community arts organizations.Today there is historic funding in the state budget, as Governor Schwarzenegger and the California State legislature have recognized that our public schools need to broaden the narrow focus on math, language arts and improving test scores. It is simply not good enough for our children. The needs of the 21st century workforce call for citizens who can collaborate, solve problems and design new solutions. Healthy communities require young people with hope, imagination, compassion and creativity.
109 million dollars in the state budget this year is being dispersed throughout the state and all of the school districts in Alameda County are creating district wide arts learning plans. Alameda Unified School district is developing a district wide visual and performing arts plan to bring learning in and through the arts to every child in every school every day, under the leadership of Superintendent Ardella Dailey and Assistant Superintendent Debbie Wong. They are receiving support and coaching from the Alameda County Office of Education.
But bringing arts learning into our schools will take more than an influx of new dollars. Many of our public school teachers have had little or no experience in the arts in their own educations or teacher preparation. Many community members may not understand why the arts in schools matter so much and why we should come together as a community to address this gap.
The KIDS CHALK ART PROJECT is a public art experience that invites all our children to learn new skills to express their creativity and ideas, for every child to experience success and recognition, and for the community to see the imagination of our young people become visible in Alameda. We must recognize the learning needs of every child and provide a well-rounded education that develops the opportunity for every child to engage in school, persist through problems, observe the world around them deeply, and make new meaning.
Mark Wagner has designed a project to help students, parents teachers and community members glimpse the potential of every child in Alameda and generate new hope for what is possible in our schools and in our shared future.
It will take a legion of artists, like Mark Wagner, dedicated to bringing the opportunity and right to full human expression through the arts to every child in every school. The Alameda County Office of Education is partnering with our local school districts to prepare artists to work with teachers to integrate arts learning into our educational environments and aim it at the learning in science, history and math required, so that every child has the opportunity to learn in the way he or she learns best.
Louise Music - Arts Learning Coordinator
Project Director, Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership
Alameda County Office of Education
Art is Education
19 Weeks to GO
KID'S CHALK ART PROJECT
www.reenchantingtheworldthroughart.org
Things are moving along at a fast click. We are having weekly team meetings, seeking an immediate fund raising person and down the short road events producer. Everyone is constantly networking and spreading the word to get the buzz going and out into the world.
We have begun to visit all the elementary schools of Alameda CA, presenting out project using a laptop and projector. We begin by using Google Earth and start in outer space zooming down, giving quick geography lessons until we see the small island of Alameda (off the coast of Oakland). We zoom in until we are at the kid's school (they love this). We then visit the site on the Base where we will be drawing come end of May. At the end we tell the kids an on-going evolving story about 2 kids getting lost and how they help and are helped out by the environment and by animals that are their school mascots (totem animals like the Falcon, Otter, or Owl). Then we go chalk draw on the playground.
We are excited to be having an article come out this week about our project by "Edutopia", a magazine by the George Lucas Education Foundation. Should come out Weds. Jan. 23. It will be in the "Head of Class" section. www.edutopia.org
We networked well at the Mac World Expo in San Francisco. Good things should come out of that! Stay tuned...
Updated FlickR Gallery with various Chalk Drawings Events including the schools.
www.flickr.com/photos/kidschalkartproject
~Mark Wagner
Creative Director
Alameda, CA USA - Photo: © Google Earth
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