Grade 2 at MoMA for Interdisciplinary Study of Picasso

Second graders visited the Picasso galleries at MoMA on Wednesday as part of a new interdisciplinary unit on the artist, designed by art teacher Melanie Fidler and Spanish teachers Maria Valdes and Elizabeth Whitman.

While at MoMA the boys viewed several Picasso and Cubist works, sketched a Futurist sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, by Umberto Boccioni and participated in a collage activity with various shapes of construction paper, inspired by the Three Musicians.

The teachers report that the visit was wonderful and the museum educators were impressed with the boys' knowledge of Picasso and his Cubist period.

The boys have learned about Picasso's life, and details about Spain and Spanish culture in their Spanish immersion classes, which have included sessions on the characteristics of each of the artist's periods of work: Red, Blue, and his most important, Cubism. In art they are now applying the characteristics and techniques of Cubism to create their own collagraph prints.

The Grade 2 Picasso unit is one example of the school's many partnerships with various cultural, historical, and scientific institutions in New York City and beyond. It also illustrates how subjects are approached in an interdisciplinary manner at Saint David's, giving the boys an opportunity to dig deep and wide in their understanding. For details on the Picasso unit, see the recent article in our Magazine: http://www.saintdavids.org/portal/uploads/Picasso_Unit.pdf

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