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  1. Hi Class!

    One of the interesting topics discussed in the high school break out session was cuisine. Cuisine is everyday art! I should know – I watch the Food Channel non-stop during summer vacation. The group watched a fantastic video clip featuring Anthony Bourdain in Senegal (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNSRQWM_Gj4). The clip showed food markets and a family preparing a meal in Senegal. Not only was the video clip an excellent way to break American stereotypes about sub-Saharan Africa, but it served as a great anticipatory set for understand family and social etiquette in a foreign country. I will absolutely include this in my sub-Saharan African unit next year. Cuisine is an art form that can open students eyes (and taste buds) to economics, customs, and politics/history.

    Another way that artwork is manifested in everyday life is through jewelry and clothing. I loved the batik exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Museum. The clothing and accessories that one wears are huge statements about customs, religion, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity/region. Additionally, the cloth being made by a Dutch factory can really illustrate globalization and world trade. I would love to include a lesson on fashion designers found throughout sub-Saharan Africa. So often students learn how Western nations have influenced Africa (slavery, imperialism, neo-colonialism) it would be a great change of pace to show how African designers are influencing the world.

    In my high school group, I talked about the film Brazil in Black. Here is the YouTube Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g29P3-xj7GQ.

    Nat

  2. Art is manifested in everyday life in many ways. We seek out art to understand ourselves and others, to entertain, and to feel and delve into emotion. Art can be as simple as the clothes or accessories that we choose each day for ourselves that in a way represent our personality or who we are. Art also exists in the buildings and architecture that surround us. Art exists in nature or even in the skylines of cities. Art exists as soon as you open a book, turn on the tv, or look at a picture or piece of art. While quality of art varies, I think it is so important to instill in students the idea that art is all around and exciting and can teach us about so many different parts of the world and different perspectives. By framing art in a more universal way, we give students an entryway into accessing art as a mode of learning that engages students while not intimidating them away from the misconception that art is always elitist and inaccessible. Art is an exciting way in which to introduce students to different cultures and to provide them with diverse perspectives. In addition to learning about new ideas and customs, students will also learn the many connections they actually share with people all over the world through art. I’m excited to continue to work at incorporating more art into my English classroom.

  3. Art is all around us. I think that one of our important jobs in the classroom is helping our students disassociate art with downtown museums, dusty archives, and ivory towers, and instead help them to read the architectural stories in our cities and see the poetry-disguised-as-music that plays through everyone’s earbuds. In this way, our explorations of art in the classroom don’t have to be separate units of study but should be used to explore more deeply the cultures, values, and belief systems of all of the places we learn about.

  4. In our middle school-specific break out group today, we discussed art we see everyday such as architecture and bridges and came up with “function” as an overarching question for our activity. With art comes issues of form as well as function. There is an art to the process creating and collaborating. We mentioned the art of using materials you have, being open to edit ones work, and the discipline of constant revaluation and revisions. And the art of making it work with your lessons’ goals.

  5. I took part in the Middle School workshop with Varley (and her lovely student from Stanford) – topic being art, engineering and architecture. Middle School students are totally interested in art, be it making posters, IMovie, cooking, models, drawing of many kinds. They do like to do projects!
    Today’s activity has us making bridges with straws – an activity that students would enjoy. It was a great idea to encourage research and interaction.
    Art is indeed all around and students are aware, even as they compare scarves. We are surrounded by the arts….it enables one to connect with history as well as all parts of the world. In literature, I show pictures of the clothing and furniture of the period via artstor.com (get connected free. at WERC). And music – what an amazing talk by Juan Castillon! His music and religious information about Islam is something that we should take advantage of due to the climate of today.

  6. Art manifests itself in our daily lives via the advertising, architecture, design, fashion, landscape, public art, and music we see as we pass through our day. Art is everywhere.

    I share with you 2 documents.
    1. a list of essential questions for art which were produced by the National Art Education Association: https://docs.google.com/document/d/184sC8bbAjZYEq9-M2fA4Wei1lrOI6lNNWbUJ7JAWG9s/edit?usp=sharing
    2. National Core Arts Standards doc. Its long, but you may find some info that could help you. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PKFwGHo6woHTjt-Jsn4I6VHQIlHFSJxSFW2yIs-EYPhH3oz38vAtCOrlyvs2cX6gwuzulHEUbtiM4YUp/view?usp=sharing

    I enjoyed being in this class! It was action packed, super informative, and delicious. Working with everyone in the class was a privilege. You were great to talk to and hear your thoughts and stories. I hope to work with you again.
    I also thank the staff who ran a fantastic week for us. You made our week memorable. I look forward to using the knowledge I gained and resources in my classroom.

  7. A request: we discussed a map that shows migration patterns around the world. Does anyone have the link for that map? Thanks!

  8. Throughout our presentations, we heard that art should invoke emotion, from Rasa-s to religious devotion. We also learned VTS that through observation, questions, and inferences, we can begin to discuss art even if we do not know much about the form or its significance. Then, we met so many passionate educators, practitioners who were able to present deep cultural and historical contexts about the art they studied. I hope that I can do the same for my students. I feel that art is in the everyday and that each of us respond differently to what we experience whether it be the trees outside my window, a spoon, political posters, or art in a museum. It’s our challenge to have students see and appreciate the art that is around their everyday life as well as broaden their perspectives and make connections to new types of art.

    Thank you for such a great week! I really enjoyed meeting you all and feel that our students are in such good hands. I hope we can somehow continue our little community either through future prof development meetings or perhaps visiting a museum exhibit or concert together? If anyone has suggestions on how to help make this happen, let’s make it happen! Enjoy the rest of summer 🙂

  9. Day 5 Friday
    How is art manifested in everyday life? Please post any final comments you have or resources to share.
    Art is Present everywhere. We may not categorize it as Art because we have become so accustomed to it’s presence as a integral part of our everyday lives, however, we encounter it in its many manifestations daily. Art is in media, magazines, product packaging, clothing, architecture, to name a few instances. In a world where we are in constant movement and people travel from place to place often to places where the language is different we still manage to communicate via Art and other visual media that helps us transcend language and text. In addition Art is our constant companion in the form of music. Not a day goes by in which most people listen to some form of music. The students I work with listen to music incessantly and often they are crossing boundaries by listening to music that may have originated in some other country, culture, or language group. Art is truly manifested in everyday life and it is a wonderful part of our daily experience.

  10. Good day on Friday. I was with the Elementary group. Our focus was how to teach global history through the performing arts. At first we talked about issues of Black History month and what things are being taught in schools. We also discussed how important it is to dig deeper into cultures to help understand the differences and similarities from within the culture. For instance, one of the questions posed was, Do you know the difference between Spanish, Latino & Hispanic? Eventually as we worked our way towards dance wee talked about how some cultures disguised their beliefs traditions within the dance art form in order to hide and/or preserve it for future generations.

    At the end of the day I spoke with Juan about the mapping tool he showed us earlier in the week. I was interested is using that. He gave me a quick rehash. He told me that you need to download an “engine” within Google. However, when I came home to spend more time with it I discovered that it didn’t work and that Google doesn’t support this engine anymore. I’m not sure how he was even using it now unless it’s something that he download a while ago. Anyway, I kept working at it and found a path to a tutorial that walks you through the steps you’ll need if you might want to use this.
    Here’s the link: https://techcrunch.com/2013/03/27/google-launches-maps-engine-lite-makes-it-easy-to-create-advanced-custom-maps/

    I did this Saturday morning. I did not have to download anything. I created my own map. Hope this helps you out. Thanks for a great week and a restful summer.
    Joe

  11. I was exhausted and exhilarated by the week. Certain things stuck out in my mind, Theater of the Oppressed, the visits to Penn and PMA, and the wonderful speakers. The thing I like most though, was sharing with like minded fellow teachers. The dialog and discussion was invaluable. I feel an urgency about the world and feel there needs to be more understanding of various cultures. I truly enjoy watching how others present their topics. I also enjoyed the hands on project with cuneiform and Varley’s Bridge work shop.
    How is art manifested in life, as an art teacher, I wake up every day and ask myself that? I think in the world we have today, it teaches compassion and appreciation for the human condition.

  12. Before this program, I had hardly considered so carefully the emotionally provocative qualities of art. And never associated specific tones with times of the day. However, I have thought of music for the seasons, particularly fall and winter. Fall reminds me of a crescendoing drumroll and winter the abrupt silence that follows. So much of life is so beautifully moving. Juan’s performance epitomized this on many levels. Ineffable.
    It sneaks up and surprises…transforms.
    I think the intentional art of the artist and serendipitous art of the daily are in a chicken and egg dance.
    I once heard that an emotional spike is what makes a memory indelible. Harnessing, regularly, the art of life to educate would be a coup. But I still have to put in the 99% perspiration.

    This program is a good start.

    Thanks to you all.

  13. Hello!
    It was such a pleasure meeting and learning with you all! I felt that this week was a joy, especially since I was able to connect with so many incredible educators! Art manifests itself everywhere: clothing, food, architecture, material culture, music, film… We were exposed to a wide spectrum of resources that we could use to infuse the arts in our classes. I loved the K Pop talk and can see using this as a way to connect students to the music of Korea as we chart the impact and movement globally. There is a beautiful film series by Yann Arthus Bertrand that captures the beauty of humans from a plane. His photographs and films show the art of humans from an aerial perspective. Here is a link to his work. http://www.yannarthusbertrand.org/en/films-tv
    Through this medium, everyday life is art such as Indian women lining up jars of dye in a rural area. Beautiful footage. I hope to explore many of the resources you all have posted in the coming weeks. Thank you for sharing your ideas. Keep in touch!

  14. I once again want to say thanks to the Summer Arts Seminar organization and wonderful leaders and speakers! Today was a wonderful day to feel the connection of art and emotions. When I am asked about the need of a God all I can say is that emotions become religious feelings. The lesson by Mr. Juan Castillon was a wonderful experience that connected also with the session about Indian music- art needs to express compassion and beauty. i loved the way day and night, the hours of the day, and human bio rhymths were all connected in the speech. Last but not least, I loved the session led by Mr. Jonathan Melendez-Delgado about the identity of black Latinos. Puerto Ricans, New Yorkricans, African Latino, Black Hispanic, Taino, Boriqua, Spanish… American hyphen …. what ????? I will certainly use in my classes the wonderful connection between Flamenco and Indian dance that Mr. Jonathan presented in the Elementary School session.
    As a final comment, I would like to share a resource web site I use to create awareness about refugees in the US.
    https://nscphila.org/our-work/special-initiatives/%C2%A1bienvenidos-unaccompanied-childrens-project

  15. I am honored and grateful to have been part of such an incredible opportunity. It broadened my understanding of our world, our shared styles/designs/heritage, and challenged me to intentionally see the art in everything.
    I especially benefitted from the Theatre of the Oppressed, Twelve Gates Gallery, and Penn Museum visits. I am excited to implement this understanding and these resources in my classroom.
    While the focus of this week was more on the Middle East and Southeast Asia, one music video I use in the classroom to show the diversity in what it means to be “Latin American” is by the reggaeton band “Calle 13.” I hope you all enjoy and can use it as well.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkFJE8ZdeG8
    The lyrics in English can be found here: http://www.visuramagazine.com/latinoamerica-by-calle-13-english-lyrics
    Best wishes to you all!

  16. Art is expressed in everyday ways, such as when you whistle a tune or doodle in your notebook. It can take on deeper significance when expressing a statement or a political or religious sentiment. As humans, we can’t help but communicate our creativity and emotions and thoughts through art.

    I was reminded this week and impressed again by the beauty of what I might usually consider utilitarian object, such as a rug or a building or clothing. Something that has a pragmatic purpose such as a song to help you through a mundane activity may carry the rich history of a Gospel tune.

    As one is exposed to various art forms, I think it is good to seek meaning behind it. What does ____ represent about the person or culture? What message is being imparted? What is the context of that message? I think it is good to ask questions and seek to appreciate as well as even evaluate art.

    Resource: An excellent free classical music recital series takes place at the Curtis Institute of Music most days of the week during the school year: http://www.curtis.edu.

  17. I just found this resource, and thought it may help with lesson planning. It is the Turkish Cultural Foundation website. I has many examples of music and well and culinary, textiles, carpets, even bird houses in Turkey.
    http://www.turkishculture.org/