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Saturday Art

A 6 week program that is held by the University of Cincinnati Art Education Department during the Spring and Fall semesters, for kids ranging from pre-K to high school. The students are challenged to investigate themes, materials, artists and ideas through critical inquiry and collaboration. The classes are taught by undergraduate and graduate students completing their Art Education Licensure. There are 10 hours of instruction for the students, as well as a show for all their work at the end of the program for their family and friends to see what has been happening throughout the entire program. For more information on Saturday Art, or to sign up for an upcoming session, go to The University of Cincinnati's website. 

Fall 2013: Dreamin' Big

For our class we decided to focus on Olivia Gude’s Post- Modern Principles of Design. These were created to bring modern terms and contemporary practices into the art world, in addition to the traditional elements and principles of design. Olivia identified hybridity, gazing, appropriation, representin’, recontexualization, layering, interaction of text and image, and juxtaposition. For Saturday Art, we decided to solely focus on interaction of text and image, juxtaposition, and layering, as they would be good tools for the students to use in the creation of their books. We 

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decided to make artist books as a way to hold their work from all of the previous weeks into one single object that could easily be interactive with the viewers. We used dreams as a prompt for students to create their books. This was in regards to actual dreams and/ or dreams they have for themselves in the future.

 

Each week we worked on an individual portion of their book and focused on one principle as a tool to do this. We provided them a mix of media with materials ranging from fabric, to paints, to glitter (lots and lots of glitter) and magazines. The books the students created were a manifestation of themselves and their interests. As instructors we supported their ideas and aided them in ways/ techniques to convey their messages and imagination in what they were making.

Spring 2014: Exploring "Art"

Each student chose an artist (from various books) at the beginning of Saturday Art to reference throughout the sessions. Artists ranged from contemporary to a little more traditional, and worked with mediums ranging form drawings to recycled object sculptures. Each week we focused on a different medium (Drawing/ Painting, Ceramics, Sculpture, and Photography). Students were allowed to create whatever they desired within that medium and were encouraged to relate back to the artist they chose the first class session either by simply referencing their color scheme, subject, or medium. When researching their artists, students were encouraged to look into the elements and principles of design (rhythm, value, texture, shape, perspective, repetition, etc.) that the artist focused on to help them with their work. By researching and referencing artists students were able to gain a knowledge and understanding about how artists make work and give them a little history to the art world. Through this class, students have developed skills working with various mediums in order to broaden their perspectives on what is art and art making, as well as to help characterize themselves as artists by seeing what styles and mediums they prefer to work in. Students were able to demonstrate the use of skills and techniques that they have previously learned to formulate new ides and to progress in their work and lives as artists. Students were able to analyze and incorporate the elements and principles of design in art making. The gathering and intake of art knowledge and art history helped the students understand and incorporate the knowledge into their art and working habits as an artist.

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