June, 2017

We were fortunate enough to receive a grant which provided funding to send our students in grades pre-k through six to the Burchfield Penney Art Center for one or two visits per grade level. The students enjoyed their time at the Art Center, viewing the exhibitions and having studio experiences in some cases.

Here is a snippet of the verbal language students used when reading this painting by Charles Burchfield:

Zoeliz- The flowers look like angry faces.
Jadai- And this one has sharp teeth!
Nitza- The trees have zigzags. 
Jadai- I see a dinosaur's face.
Zoeliz- I think that part is where a dinosaur stomped. The trees look like the entryway to a castle. 
Valentino- That looks like a haunted house. 
Zoeliz- One thing I like about art is other people can see other things and you can talk about it. 

You can see how the children are influenced by story workshop. They are creative and imaginative. This painting is a painting of flowers, of a scene in nature. But our students turn it into a story with rich details. They feel the mood of the painting, an impending storm, but they interpret it through their own drama, in this case, dinosaurs, spooky castles and haunted houses.


The following are some of the pieces they viewed while touring the museum.