Learning Through Art: Steven Alan at P.S. 42
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Teaching artist Jennifer Cecere has been instructing 5th graders at P.S. 42 in the Lower East Side as part of the Guggenheim Museum’s Learning Through Art program for 12 years. Working with their teacher, Eric Carbone, Jennifer introduces students to working with fabric through a variety of mixed media projects, including collages, sewing, and most recently, mobiles. We’ve been donating fabric to the program for a while and recently stopped by to observe the process and admire the students’ work. We also talked to Jennifer about this year’s project, which will be featured in the Year with Children exhibition at the Guggenheim later this spring.
This year’s work began on a personal level. The students created portraits of themselves or their classmates, which prepared them to take on themes that connect to the historical figures they are learning about in Social Studies, using art as a vehicle to communicate something about them. Drawing on the techniques they have learned, they will create mobiles about a character from history for the final project.
For the first assignment, students created traditional silhouettes, but used stitching to add in their features and details.
Students looked at the mobiles of Alexander Calder before creating these three-dimensional portraits from pipe cleaners.
Next, they learned about proportions, moving on to very detailed proportional sketching of the figure. They then designed clothing for the figures, beginning by sketching patterns on tracing paper, then cutting the fabric and learning to sew.
As teachers, Cecere and Carbone were struck by the level of focus and attention to detail exhibited by the students. They made very considered, conscious decisions when it came to choosing their fabrics, and really took to making patterns and appreciating how their own clothes are made. As they were working, they saw the kids looking at their own clothing, examining the seams to see how they were put together. We can’t wait to see what they come up with for the exhibition.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 at 11:54 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
24 Responses to “Learning Through Art: Steven Alan at P.S. 42”
Congratulations on this project.Very Inspiring.It would be wonderful if all 5 th graders could be exposed to this program!
It would be!
PS 42 Fifth graders loved seeing their work on the web!!!
Great Post!
Thanks
thanks for the cloth jacky chen
thank you for putting my work on your website. oh if youlooking at this respond “hi Mr.Carbone
Student of ps42. Looking foward to the final project of Abe Lincoln!
I am one of the students in that class, and I loved seeing our work on the web. Thanks for all the fabric donations!!
Thank you for fabric you donated and thank you for posting our artwork. It was really nice of you.
Thanks for all the nice comments! We loved seeing your work and look forward to the exhibition.
I am a student from P.S. 42. Thank you for donating fabric to P.S. 42. (Yay i see my design!)
Thanx for the fabric! we couldn’t of done it without u guys!!!
lol—
Thanks for this wonderful post.
I was in this class. It was fun and enjoyable program. Thanks Jen and Drew!!
Thanks to everyone at Steven Alan for your generosity over the years. You’ve helped to inspire a few budding fashion designers in my class. We really appreciated you showcasing our hard work in this way. Here’s to future collaborations!!
hi a random message hi friends
thank you for donating fabric so we can make our manequin sussesful
thank u for making us famous and thank u for the wonderful fabric
Thank you for donating fabric and posting our work on the website. =)
I love this program. It was enjoyable to work with Jen and Drew!!!!
Can’t wait to finish my final project on Susan B. Anthony!!!
student of ps42. thanks for posting our stuff and the fabris donations steven alan!!!
cant wait to see what my my big andrew jackson project turns out to be!!! B)
What a wonderful project! Love it!
-Carole Hochman