Summer Camps...time to prepare!

So, even though school is out for MNPS students, I am preparing to teach a variety of summer art camps. A local museum and botanical garden, Cheekwood, is celebrating it's 50th anniversary in a big way. Working in conjunction with the Frist Center and the Nashville Symphony, a large Chihuly exhibition is being held at both Cheekwood and the Frist, while the Nashville Symphony performed Bluebeard's Castle using sets designed and created by Chihuly. I got to see the symphony, and it was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! Chihuly is one of my favorite artists, and I, of course an so excited to use this opportunity in my summer camps. I am teaching 6 different camps at Cheekwood, which means that my students can have some hands "off" (after all, we can't touch the art) experience with Chihuly. I am also teaching at Art-al-Sol, a 2 week long summer art camp provided by MNPS. There are 2 sessions, each a week long for students 8-13 years old. Of course, I am planning Art-al-Sol around Chihuly, and found an amazing wealth of lessons online to incoporate in the camp. I found a couple of great lessons at http://www.dickblick.com/ including this one using dura-lar, hot water and Vitrea 160 paint. http://cdn.dickblick.com/lessonplans/classroom-chihuly/classroom-chihuly-chihuly.pdf


This one is so easy! I cut three organic shapes out of the dura-lar, one large and two small. Then, I bent and curled the plastic into very organic shapes, and dunked it into boiling water, which caused the plastic to retain the shape I had bent it into. After drying off the plastic, I painted it with the vitrea 160, a glass paint that can be baked onto glass ware for a permanent finish. With the dura-lar however, you cannot bake it, just let it dry. I can't wait until the kids try it!

Volunteer Villages update...3rd edition...

Well, my students have raised almost $500 so far.... and we are still going strong. I put a basket of the pins and magnets on the counter in the office, and that has really helped out. We are still going to be selling them over the summer, we need more to help out all of our families.

Volunteer Villages update 2

So far, my students have created 1669 houses, of which I have coated about 700 in resin. Thank goodness for parents who are willing to help! We have also raised about $100 so far, which was at a yard sale in my neighborhood, and I have orders coming in like mad. The magnet houses are selling much better than the pins, just in case anyone was wondering.

On a side note, I officially graduated with my Masters today! Yay!!!!!!!!!

Volunteer Villages update

So my classes have been very busy creating houses. Only three days into the project, and we have over 500 houses from just my classes. There is another art teacher at my school who is also making the houses, and I have no idea what his numbers are. Of the 500, 200 have been coated with resin, and some of them have their pin backs glued on. The houses are soooooo cute, and the kids are having so much fun with them. This project is amazing!

Nashville needs our help!

In case you haven't seen the news lately, Nashville has been hit with a major flood. Some houses were completely submerged in the flood waters. Opryland Hotel and Opry Mills, both a large source of revenue for Nashville will be closed for 3-6 months. My school, Lakeview Design Center was very lucky, no flooding and only a few roof leaks here and there. Unfortunately, we have had some of our families and teachers that have lost homes or have other damage from the flood as well as lost jobs as their place of work was destroyed or damaged. My art classes are going to try to help out with the remaining time we have in school. We are going to be joining the efforts of http://www.volunteervillages.org/, a website designed by Anne Ayers and Ellen McMillan, FL teachers who have created the concept of Haiti Houses (http://www.haitihouses.org/) in order to raise money for the Haiti disaster. Students create house pins out of mat board and sell them for $5 each. They have raised over $187,000 plus for Haiti. Anne and Ellen were contacted by Tina Atkinson, a fellow MNPS art teacher, and they graciously agreed to not only design a website for the Nashville flood, but also send 500 houses made by their students. My students will be creating house pins and selling them, with the goal of using the money to help out our families and teachers as well as other flood victims. Even if you are not located in the Nashville area, please consider joining in the effort. It's a great project to teach character, and community service. Check out the website http://www.volunteervillages.org/ for info on how to help.