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Lesson Plans


RE: Real Life Art / Capitalism...long post

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
NMTchr
Wed, 11 Aug 1999 11:05:06 EDT

Money money money.......design & marketing. Those two things always get the
"hardest" of my students interested and active. I start out by listing the
addresses of local museums, studios, foundries, AND instructions on how to
copyright or "TM" their own ideas.....you can just see the wheels in their
head start to turn.

We start out the year with the "What is Art? / Art involves all 5 senses
lecture." I have a bag of props (posters of famous work, various kitchen
utensils, junk food, local folk art etc.)...during the lecture the bag gets
passed around and the class debates whether or not that object is art. It
never fails to get their attention when we talk about the sculpture they all
wear on their feet (shoes are always an attention getter). During the debate
& lecture is a great time to slip in history and more "traditional" art
tid-bits.

As a sidenote on the local art - I'm lucky enough to live in a small
southwestern town where alot of parents are artisans in their own right. I
always make sure to include weavings, clay pots, wood carvings. Art(ifacts)
that most of us have (and use on a daily basis) but have maintained more of a
functional purpose...and yet are *highly* prized by museums. Most of my kids
don't view these things as art......which is a great lead back to "What is
art?" discussion. Definitely tap into your local culture!!

One last thing: I'm in agreement with what the other art folk have said
about this subject. If you can somehow also tie in the topics of Food and
Grafitti (no, not as a combined subject) - there's no doubt you'll have their
attention for years to come.

ok? ..so here's the list: Money, Food, & Grafitti.

Have a great year!
;]