an art curriculum

Here is the proposal, come out of discussions with Buffy (in particular), Vic, and Stephanie. First of all, the cycle of applied art classes is two years long, and would repeat the second time around (but more challenging and in greater depth) and for students who stay at TAS for more than two years. For instance, this year we are offering:

Cycle I- basic drawing (fall), watercolor/ink (winter), and clay modeling (spring).

In addition, every year each term will feature a week long workshop emphasizing a set of related skills focused on a large project:

tile making (fall), instrument making (winter), and bookmaking (spring)

This is the core of the proposed art curriculum. There is also a cycle of music classes, which will be repeated every year:

music history (fall), rhythm (winter), and songwriting (spring)

Of course, there are other important (and even required) courses as well, such as:

metal working, photography, aesthetics, music lessons, film, filmmaking, anatomical drawing (proposed), and writing workshops

Notice that the spring term has a quite integrated experience planned, as a student might opt to take classes in songwriting, poetry writing, as well as the book construction workshop. This is ideal. Too much integration might seem monotonous to our students, but I like how this works out.

An important aspect of the art program will be field trips and brief, in school workshops. For example, twice a month, perhaps instead of the "presentations" period, or student government, or in a teacher's absence, the whole school would participate in a drawing or sound workshop. A nice example of this is to have the students pair up, and then quickly sketch their partner's face without looking down at the paper. They would share their experiences of both drawing and being drawn. Here is a proposed sequence for each of these workshops:

first, a brief, guided meditation
then, several rapid iterations of the exercise
then, the sharing of the experience
then, a sustained attempt at the exercise (to build concentration and stamina)
finally, a closing meditation and an evaluation of the workshop

For this coming school year (2009-10) there are three major and interesting exhibitions to attend. In NYC, at the Morgan Library is a presentation of their large William Blake holdings.
At the Philadelphia Museum is a retrospective of the Russian Modernist Gorky. Most importantly, at the Guggenheim, is the first Kandinsky Retrospective in many years.

Please read this carefully. Also, scroll down for a primitive table of the curriculum cycle.