“It appears that cultural organizations, in comparison with other agencies, might be uniquely positioned to act as catalysts for community involvement and as agents for capacity building. Cultural initiatives are inclusive, and have an unsurpassed capacity to open dialogue between people and engage their enthusiasm and commitment to a shared redevelopment process.” -Richard Sandell

On my second day as a Brown School social work practicum student at the Pulitzer, I found myself in the art room at Cole Elementary working with fourth- and fifth-graders to create a light installation piece. This was a decidedly atypical social work task, but I was excited to learn things that I couldn’t necessarily glean from textbooks.

The Cole students were instructed to pour paint in glass ornament balls and swirl the paint around to create marbled patterns. The ornaments were to fill a 6-foot tall clear tube to be displayed in Grand Center. We quickly realized that we’d have to ban the glitter and strongly encourage the “less is more” approach to painting so that the balls would dry in time. Read the rest of this entry »

The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts and the Contemporary Art Museum joined forces to offer Big Brothers Big Sisters matches the opportunity to creatively explore the visual arts. Our Saturday interactive workshop incorporated the Gedi Sibony and Bruce Nauman exhibition at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis as well as the Old Masters works from the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

After travelling through the galleries at the Pulitzer and the Contemporary to explore the concepts of light, framing, and portrait, the participants made masterpieces of their own. Each big and little sister/brother pair received a Polaroid camera and created 10 self-portrait photographs. Nicholas Regnier’s Self portrait with a Portrait on an Easel from the Pulitzer and Bruce Nauman’s Self Portrait as a Fountain from the Contemporary were especially inspirational for this project. Then participants used colored paper, markers, and even pretzels to create a frame for their art. A second project (inspired by Bruce Nauman’s use of wordplay) used pretzels to create an edible work of art of words and sentences.

We had a blast with this incredibly creative group. Thanks to all of the matches who came and spent their Saturday with us!

After working on the Community Light Project with the students from the schools in the Grand Center neighborhood and seeing their amazing drum performances with Craig Woodson, I am even more convinced that greater access to arts education is necessary for our city schools.

Because of budget cuts and the No Child Left Behind act that required more stringent adherence to testing for reading and math, art education has become a low priority for many school systems, especially in low-income and urban areas. This is truly unfortunate because art education has wide-ranging benefits besides simply gaining mastery of an art form. Research has shown that children who receive quality art education have increased verbal, reading, and math test scores. They also score higher on SAT’s and other standardized tests. Art education improves focus, motivation, social development, self-confidence, perseverance, and stress reduction. Although the Pulitzer took an approach that was less education focused and more centered around experience and engagement, we still saw the profound effects of art on children’s lives. Cole Elementary students’ intense motivation and focus as they performed their xylophone piece was a perfect example. And if you were watching the boys from Loyola, their dancing drum routine oozed with self-confidence and self-expression. Research also shows that art education improves school community and teacher innovation. In the case of the Community Light Project, the schools benefited not only a strengthening of community internally, but also strengthening of external relationships to institutions like the Pulitzer and the Symphony that can further support the cultural enrichment of their students.

Ultimately, art education has the ability to reduce the drop out rates and close the achievement gap in our school system, as well as create citizens who have an appreciation for art, culture, and aesthetics. As I learn more about art education, and especially how institutions like the Pulitzer can engage schools and students, I will post blog entries. If you have examples of how art education has shaped a school or a student that you know, or if you have insight into how institutions like the Pulitzer can engage students in art, feel free to pass along the info! Leave a comment below. Thanks!