I have been in charge of the art appreciation program at our school for 2 years. I also have a Bachelors degree in fine arts. Our school has a great program with 65 volunteers. I have a committee of 5 people that run the program. First look up Crystal productions www.crystalproductions.com
Get a budget from your PTO we have a closet with envelopes conaining info to go with the posters and crayola.com under the educators will get you started on lesson plans and activities relating to specific artist. good luck I would be more than happy to answer more specific questions.
We have an art parent program and it is sponsored by a local Art Council. They provide portfolios about various artists. I'm not sure exactly what is in the portfolios. I think some of the artist's artwork, books about the artist, activity suggestions. We have a few portfolios kept at the school, or parents can go pick them up at the Art Council. At the beginning of the school year we ask for a volunteer for each classroom. Most get a volunteer, but some do not.
We did this at our old school but we called it Art Masterpiece. We had several paintings that hand on the school hall walls all year. The Masterpiece lessons are built on these paintings. We had Faith Ringhold, Van Gogh, Dali, etc. I taught one of the Faith Ringhold lessons. I read a short biography about the artist to the students and then we named different things we noticed in her painting. PArt of the kit contains other prints of her paintings that would be displayed on a chair or easel. After reading the biography, I read her book (she also wrote a children's book so this was unique) and then we followed up with an art project of our own. Faith Ringhold for example, did a painting as a tribute to Van Gogh (he's in it) and it's a sunflower quilt (this also introduced the next lesson on Van Gogh because she was influenced by him) Her primary artform was story quilts.
Oh anyway, I digress. The kids each tore pieces of paper to glue to a square paper and the picture was to make a sunflower. We then took the squares and connected them to make our own "sunflower quilt" The project would then be displayed on the walls outside the classroom.
Basically each artists "kit" had more than one print but the hallway print as the main subject. THey contained stories/biographies/studies on their form etc. Some were more advanced for higher grades for example. Volunteers presented them periodically throughout the year...
This may have come out scattered but I think I relayed it all...
We have an art program at our school called "Meet the Masters." It sounds like the program you are looking for. The teacher gives a short lesson the a famous artist and then the students make an art project using that artists special technique.
Love it! Sounds better than the Arts and Humanities bulletin I want so badly.
Here is what you could do. Figure out your picture, piece of art etc. and just google it or something. You would be suprised what you would come up with. Alot of teacher sites offer theme lessons or crafts that are relatively inexpensive from Wal Mart or a craft store. Also if you have a museum, culteral center, or college near by they could probably help you with ideas. Make sure you make a schedule with your teachers and there are no "surprise" visits from your volunteers and you many want to have a time limit on the lessons. Perhaps you could form a committee that would get info together and offer some plans for volunteers.
Does anyone run this program in their school? A volunteer takes a print of a painting, sculpture or other type of artwork to the classroom. Usually, after a brief talk about the artist the picture is discussed. A craft or activity can follow. My question is-how do y'all run it and where do you get your materials.
