The Greenwich Arts Council’s Youth@Art Committee is designed to reach
out to all children in our community but especially those who don’t
have ready access to an arts program or arts experience. To that end,
the GAC has created in school and after school artist-led workshops
for participating schools, building upon what may be taught in the classroom,
in an effort to expand and enhance each child’s experience and perspective
on life using the arts as a tool for this purpose.
A key aspect of the GAC
after-school workshops is the development of an arts workshop program
that can be carried out in other schools. The programs stress the
value of guiding young people in an appreciation and understanding
of all the arts disciplines. The workshops, which give youngsters
hands-on experience in developing their artistic ideas, are carried
out on both a scheduled and informal basis and have produced exciting
results for the children involved and their instructors. Whenever
applicable, the workshops are coordinated with the The Bendheim Gallery’s
exhibition schedule, often with the participation of the artists represented.
The
GAC Youth@Art program is a broad reaching program which seeks to engage
hundreds of elementary, middle school, and newly this year, high school
students from the Greenwich public school system with a greater understanding
of visual art through immersion in teaching methodologies derived
from Harvard Professor Howard Gardner’s work in Multiple Intelligence
Theory. In essence, this educational method is based in an “inquiry”
approach, which recognizes that each young person experiences the
world and accesses learning through different sensory priorities.
The goal is not to “fill” the student with facts, but rather
to open up passages to a student’s unique set of receptive abilities
thus allowing lasting learning to occur.
To
validate this method GAC uses Student Docents under the guidance of
master art educator Lynda Carroll, formerly with The Aldrich Museum
of Contemporary Art. The Student Docent component of the program increases
the visual and literary skills of the students selected, while also
facilitating the larger program goals and requirements of the Board
of Education. Knowledge of art, public speaking experience and enhanced
self-esteem are among some of the immediate benefits available to
these students.
The
Students Docents are trained to guide their peers from their class
grades through various exhibitions at the Council’s Bendheim
Gallery, eliciting their observations and opinions of the works on
view. With teacher and parent aide support, this larger group of students
reflect on their experience and give feed-back, frequently in the
format of structured hands-on workshops. The photography workshops
in which each student was given his/her own camera have proven to
be particularly successful, and provided the material for a special
exhibition of student work at the newly renovated Arden-Innis House
at Greenwich Point. Where possible we try to bring artists whose work
is included in the exhibitions into direct contact with the students,
allowing them to informally interact and respond to the students questions.
Schools
that have been traditionally involved with the Youth@Art program are
Hamilton Avenue School, New Lebanon School and Western Middle School.
These schools are generally regarded as the least advantaged schools
in the Greenwich system, with significant populations of Hispanic
students whose English language arts skills may sometimes lag other
students. A special and highly successful initiative this past year
was the introduction of students from the special education program
at Greenwich High School into the project. These students struggle
primarily with emotional and behavioral issues, and opportunities
to take part in off-site outreach programs are rare.
Exhibitions
that were most intensively utilized in the Youth@Art program this
past year were: The Photography Club of Lower Fairfield County, The
Art of Contemporary Illustration, LOOK WHO’S HERE! Artists Make
Mirrors.
An
assessment of her experience as a Student Docent from 5th Grader Ella
Morrissey:
