Teacher Art Workshop
‘Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’
Pablo Picasso
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Central to Lewes New School's teaching and learning philosophy is the question of authenticity - of doing things for real. For both teachers and children this is largely made possible by working alongside ‘experts' who can in turn teach us more about what's involved in their different fields. The teachers' day with practising artists, Marco Crivello and Stephanie Davies-Arai was one such opportunity.
As our children get older we often notice that they become more inhibited in their artistic expression. All too often children begin to see themselves as good or bad at art with the judgment usually depending on whether they are able to make convincing representational images of the world around them. Drawing from their own artistic practice Marco and Stephanie facilitated a range of activities that helped us to tune back into an expressive freedom that we might have enjoyed as young children.
To view more photos of the Teacher Art Workshop, please click here.
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After the day the teaching staff reflected on how the different activities had created a set of conditions which had made our learning possible. Amongst those we valued particularly highly were the opportunities to work for long stretches of time; to work with an attitude of experimentation and abstraction; to be held in a balance between clear boundaries an experimentation; to enjoy a flow from one activity to another where ideas could build on each other.
As we head back in to the classrooms and resume the task of teaching, we have been puzzling out how best to apply what we learnt. As a result many new and interesting approaches to the teaching of art are beginning to emerge around the school. At the same time we are reflecting on the bigger picture of what we do and exploring whether the conditions we experienced to be so important for our own development are made sufficiently available in the many other areas of our community's learning.
To read the teacher's testimonials, please click here.
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