Partnership with The Guggenheim Culminates in 2nd Grade Exhibit at the Museum

Saint David's special partnership with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and our second graders for a 10-week unit of art study and practice, culminated this week with the boys' exhibit at the museum.

In Look, Imagine, Create: Collages, Paintings, and Construction the boys took me, faculty, and their parents on their exciting adventures in art this fall.

First, in the museum's Thannhauser Collection gallery, the boys were our docents. They took pride in sharing what they had learned about a particular piece of artwork, be it Picasso's Lobster & Cat, Mondrian's Dunes in Zeeland, or Chagall's Flying Carriage, to name a few.

How powerful for them to be in front of the actual work itself as they discussed abstraction, use of color, and shape, and their personal reactions to it! Not only did they answer our questions, but they asked some of us as well.

More powerful still was how, through the course of the unit, the boys drew inspiration from what they learned about the different artists' techniques and approaches to create their own original works. This they also shared with us in the Guggenheim's art studio, which was transformed into an exhibit hall of the boys' creations in painting, observational and ink drawings, construction, and collage.

Their projects were all driven by motivating questions, related to the artwork that inspired them. When working on a project related to Flying Carriage they considered: "When was a time you had an adventure? How can you show it in a painting?"

The boys told us what inspired them, the techniques they used, what they found challenging and their favorite part about making the artwork.

Since September they have spent their 80-minute art sessions at the Guggenheim, studying the iconic architecture of the building as well as modern masterpieces from the Thannhauser Collection. In the museum's art studios they participated in hands-on activities under the guidance of Art Curriculum Chair Jenna Boccella, their art teachers Melanie Fidler and Hannah Frassinelli, and museum educator Hollie Ecker.

For our young boys to begin to develop a strong vocabulary about art, and to have access to experts from a museum like the Guggenheim in addition to the expertise of their Saint David's teachers, provides them with a unique opportunity to dive into their curiosity about art and realize new depths of understanding and creativity.

Comments

OLIVER!

This morning our fifth graders continued a great year-end tradition at Saint David's, The Fifth Grade Musical. The boys performed Oliver! and they were fantastic, providing impressive performances and demonstrating great vocal ability. They have been mastering the dialogue and musical numbers for weeks, and clearly gave it their all. Congratulations to the cast on a job well done, and to their Producers/Teachers James Hubbard and Jamie MacNeille, Director Phyllis Clark, Musical Conductor Jeff Moore, and the Parent Committee of Cynthia Chapman, Susan Kissane, Tara Neumann, Joyce Restituto, and Ann Roberts. Musical theater is alive and well at Saint David's!

Sixth Graders Meet with Dr. Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at the American Museum of Natural History

Dr. Carter Emmart with Saint David's Sixth Graders This past Friday, as part of our unique partnership with the American Museum of Natural History, sixth graders had the great honor to attend a private lecture given by Carter Emmart, Director of Astrovisualization at AMNH. Dr. Emmart told the boys about his passion for science along with an overview of the history of the Hayden Planetarium. He also gave the boys advice on how to take scientific information about the universe and compile it into an interesting and captivating show for an audience. The boys were able to see Dr. Emmart's original sketches, which helped create the Uniview program they are using to develop their presentations. The session provided our boys with an opportunity to learn how art and science come together in the planetarium, and to obtain expert advice on developing their own space shows from one of the creators of Uniview . You can learn more about Dr. Emmart's work and Univie...

Tales of a Good Man

"Sometime in the midst of all this, we became friends. And his story, and all its vast world passed into mine." --From the Introduction of Blood & Oil by Roxane Farmanfarmaian. "Stories are so important; they become traditions that tell about the good that often comes out of bad experiences..." So began Roxane Farmanfarmaian's fascinating talk Monday night at Saint David's Seventh Grade Father-Son Dinner. Dr. Farmanfarmaian, Affiliated Lecturer of Modern Middle East Studies at the Political and International Studies Department at Cambridge University, was introduced by her nephew, Saint David's seventh grader Cyrus '17. She spoke to the seventh grade boys and their fathers about what makes a "Good Man" through the prism of her book Blood & Oil : A Prince's Memoir of Iran from the Shah to the Ayatollah (Random House 2005), which she co-authored with her late father, Prince Manucher Farmanfarmaian. The memoir i...

Headmaster's Blog

Search This Blog