Arts in Education Week - Sept. 12-18

Today Susan Bivona, at her blog Art on the Move at http://art-on-the-move.blogspot.com/ posted that the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution declaring the week following the second Sunday in September (this year Sept. 12-18) as Arts in Education Week. Please check out her blog for more detailed information. I wanted to thank Susan for posting this bit of art advocacy, but couldn't figure out to leave a comment on her blog. So I'll say thank you here and hope she reads this!

I think it is vital for those of us who are teachers of the visual arts to be strong advocates for our programs, since we are often first on the chopping block. Somehow music and performing arts programs seem to have an easier time gettting public support, I think because of the performance aspect. Moms and dads love to come watch their kids on stage, and love the opportunity to clap and cheer. They don't always do that for visual arts.

By the way - the artwork at the top of the post was painted in tempera by a 3rd grader, as part of an Andy Warhol lesson. Those directly above are also by 3rd graders. We read a book (Uncle Andy's, by James Warhola) that told about a visit to visit Andy Warhol and his 25 cats. There is now another book, Uncle Andy's Cats, that is also a fun way to learn more about Andy Warhol. We discovered how simple it is to draw cats: all you need is a meatloaf (the body) arranged as desired for sleeping, standing, or sitting, a meatball (the head),paws as needed (depending on the pose), a tail, and some basic face features (triangle ears, upside down rounded triangle nose, whiskers, etc) to be successful.

The kitty portraits below were painted by 2nd graders.