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Youth@Art Builds on Workshops
       

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:

“When I was a docent, it was really exciting. The day that I went to the Greenwich Arts Council was so fun! I got this adult-like nametag, a cool notepad and this folder that had everything I needed in it.

We, the docents were assigned groups. My group was awesome. They were nice and polite and looked at the art and listened to me. I felt really like a teacher because when I told them to sit down they did what I asked. My group and I looked at so many cool pieces of art.

At the end of my experience all the docents got a certificate. I felt really important.

As being a docent I have to say that I learned a lot that I would need in the future. It was a great experience!”

 

Youth@Art is supported in part by funding from the Ruth Brown Foundation, the Wrightson Ramsing Foundation and the CT Department of Community and Economic Development.


Youth@Art does a caulk mural at Morgan Manhattan Moving

 

For more information about or to participate in the Greenwich Arts Council’s Youth@Art Student Docent Program contact the GAC office at 203.862.6750.

 

Youth@Art/Student Docent Program and Workshops


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