Hot Air Balloons!

This week the Art Explorers class started on their hot air balloon project! This is going to be a sculpture project with several phases, the first of which is using papier-mâché over regular balloons to make a hard surface for the students to paint on. Now… I know what you’re thinking… isn’t the 4 to 6 class a little young to be doing a papier mâché project. No way! This is a great age to integrate soft, flexible sculpture material into a child’s art curriculum. Was it messy… yes. But, the mess will be worth it once our students are finished!

One thing that our instructor did to make sure everything went smoothly in class was to ensure there was an adult at each table. In the picture above you can see our Teaching Intern, Elizabeth, helping prep materials and assisting a student with their project. We also had our new Program Assistant, John, on hand to help! If you would like to see more images of our stellar Art Explorers making some amazing hot air balloons this week, you can do so by visiting our flickr site.

Winter 2013 Classes!

That’s right! We are up and running for the new year. We had our first session of the Winter term on Saturday. There are so many lovely projects already in the works, and we are only just getting started. The Program has 4 classes running, including Art Explorers (4-6), Drawing Studio (7-8), Art + Storytelling: Puppets (9-11), and Creativity Labs: Design Studio. Here is a look at our first day.

Yeah, Saturday… It was awesome! As always, stay tuned for kid art and PNCA Youth Program goodness over the next 8-weeks. Click the jump for more images of our first day! —>

Drawing a Foundation

Drawing is foundational to a fine arts education in our program, and our instructors excel in practicing and teaching drawing as a means of apprehending and representing scenes from observation as well as from imagination. Hayley Barker, Anna Fidler, Harriet Fishman, Nathan Goldstein, Jef Gunn, Kurt Hollomon, Lynn Kitagawa, Paul Missal and Jerry Sumpter make up what sure is one of the finest group of artists and teachers of drawing and painting in the country. Their convictions and expertise have affirmed drawing as a critical perceptual and procedural skill, especially in the age of digital reproduction of art, and informed the launch of our Endorsement program in Drawing earlier this year.

During our ongoing discussions about the place and value of drawing in our program, Nathan Goldstein declared emphatically: “Every work of art is, in a way, an essay. We simply cannot say everything about a subject. What we choose to include and exclude tells the viewer how we understand our world. And how we draw tells the viewer how well we see and understand our world. Rudolf Arnheim, the great psychologist, was correct when he pointed out that ‘an inability to draw is to some extent an inability to see.’ Our ability as teachers of Art should be based on our ability to teach the student how to see, and a large part of seeing has to do with drawing.”

I know our teachers are doing just that. Our participants’ responses and evaluations are overwhelmingly positive. When recently visiting one of our drawing classrooms, a class participant discretely shared with me: “This class was transformative for me. I have studied art for many years, but the instruction here was different than anything I had experienced elsewhere.”

And just to be sure that I am not simply referring to the important skill of naturalistic representation, but to individual perception and creative expression, I quote again Nathan Goldstein: “Drawing also plays a vital role in abstract, and even non-objective imagery. It is no accident that two of the twentieth century’s most gifted artists, Matisse and Picasso, drew so well. They were well trained in drawing and it shows. A knowledge of drawing informs and influences the judgments in even the most abstract works. A well-trained artist can visit an exhibition of abstract and non-objective art and point out those artists who can draw and those who cannot. The works by artists who understand drawing are invariably better.”

When you are considering your personal and artistic growth, accord drawing its appropriate place and remember that you find an outstanding and committed group of artists and educators at PNCA to enrich and deepen your creative path and practice.

References:
Arnheim, Rudolf. Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. 50th ed. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2004. (ISBN 0520243838)
Goldstein, Nathan. The Art of Responsive Drawing. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006. (ISBN 0131945610)
—. Figure Drawing: The Structure, Anatomy, and Expressive Design of Human Form. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010. (ISBN 0136031919)

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Creativity Labs: Design Studio (12-14)

Amy Steel is teaching Creativity Labs: Design Studio for the second time. Amy spent some time talking about the class and what to expect in this iteration.

Can you talk about how you conceived this class and what your students accomplish.
This class was based on a college class I taught a few years ago.  Last year the students did a lot of really fun projects including designing skate decks.  I think the most rewarding project was where we partnered with the humane society and students designed posters for animals that needed homes.

What tools will you be using in the class? 
We used hand techniques like drawing, painting, cutting, and pasting.  We also used the computer lab.  The students learned basic photoshop techniques to create wall paper and poster designs. 

Why do you like working with this age group?
This age group knows that they are interested in art and they sign up for this class because its something they are passionate and enthusiastic about.  Someone in the class last year had met the artist Shepard Fairy which was one of the artists we were learning about in class and was able to to share that story with the class.   Its really exciting when students connect what they are learning to their personal lives.  Its exciting to discuss notions of design with youth.   From billboards to candy wrappers design is something that teens encounter everyday its and I enjoy having thoughtful discussions with teens about how they might look at everyday objects more critically or from an artistic point of view.   

What are some of your favorite projects from past offerings of the class?
The students made Adopt an Animal posters from the Oregon Humane Society website for animals that needed a home.   This was based on Shepard Fairy’s adopt a dog series.   We actually partnered with the humane society to do this.  I think it was rewarding for the students to engage a meaningful project that was for a social cause.  We also designed skateboard decks which was a fun hands on project for the students.  

Creativity Labs: Design Studio (12-14) starts January 26. To learn more about this class and our entire Winter Schedule visit Ce-Reggie.

Online Portfolio Class

Online Portfolio has become one of our most popular weekend workshops. Emphasizing quality content in a condensed time frame allows students to make big steps forward in creating their site. We spent a bit of time chatting with instructor Sarah Moon about the class.

Can you talk about how you conceived this class and what your students accomplish.

I developed the digital portfolio class after teaching PNCA’s Web Design Tools course. I had a number of students who enrolled in that course because they needed a personal website, but had little interest in learning web design as a profession. They simply needed to have a professional web presence. It seemed silly to me that people were taking an intense, eight-week course just to create a simple site for themselves.

So, I created the online portfolio class to serve the needs of people who want to create a high-quality, easy-to-maintain website for themselves without having to learn the ins and outs of web languages like HTML and CSS.

This course, like the Web Tools class, is a bit different than most web classes in that we also focus on creating and structuring quality content. This includes writing a strong, distinctive “about” statement, selecting quality work and considering dynamic content such as a blog or newsfeed. We also talk about using your online portfolio as a nexus for your online presence.

Why is a digital portfolio important?
A digital portfolio is critical for anyone who wants a professional web presence. I love social media, but it is absolutely not a replacement for an online space which you control. With a professional site, you control the look, the content and the presentation. More importantly, you own your content. There are numerous stories of businesses utilizing Facebook, for example, for their primarily web presence only to have their page taken down because they’re unknowingly violated the company’s ever-changing terms of service. When that happens, the online relationship with customers or clients is eliminated and it’s tough to rebuild after that.

There’s also something intangible that goes along with having a professional-looking online portfolio or website. If you’re a visual artist, it encourages you to consistently document and archive your work and can help you feel more like a “real” artist or designer. I’ve had students say at the end of my digital portfolio class, “I had no idea I’d produced so much work!”

Additionally, these days most professional contacts (galleries, clients, even graduate schools) expect to see a web presence. They want to take your business card and look at your portfolio on their own time, rather than sit with you and go through a printed portfolio.

Why do you use Squarespace for the class?
I used to use Wordpress for this course, but I discovered that since many people come into the course with zero technical skills, they struggled with the interface and we spent more time than I’d like just getting comfortable with the platform. Frankly, I want my portfolio students to be spending the bulk of their time creating an attractive site with quality content—not fighting a technology learning curve.

As a result, I spent a lot of time researching and testing a slew of content management systems and was incredibly impressed with Squarespace. Squarespace puts content first, which is critical for someone in the arts, design or other creative fields, because ultimately, it’s all about the content.

Not only can a student create an attractive, functional website with no coding knowledge, they have access to 24/7 technical support for the same cost as a no-frills Wordpress webhosting package. They’ve recently released a new version of the platform featuring what’s called “Layout Engine” and I’m excited to see what my students will create with such a robust design platform. Squarespace really is one of the best-kept secrets in web creation.

Online Portfolio runs January 11-13. To learn more about this class and our entire Winter Schedule visit Ce-Reggie.

The Best of 2012

This last year has been an exceptional one for the Youth Program. There have been kid art exhibitions, Fall Festivals, giant crayons, murals, and so much art making it almost boggles the mind. To mark yet another great year in the history of our Youth Program, we have created an album of sorts to look back on all that our instructors and students have accomplished over the last 12 months. Here’s a look at a few moments from the past year that we love.

Pretty great, yeah! If you would like to see more moments from 2012, visit our Best of 2012 set on our flickr site! Well… the last years has been super… but I have a feeling 2013 will be even better!

Youth Program Fall Festival - This Saturday!

Woohoo! It’s almost here! Our Youth Program Fall Festival is this Saturday, the 17th, and we couldn’t be more excited! We hosted something similar to this last March in celebration of our Portland Perspectives Exhibition, and we hope to make these types of events a regular thing.

DATE: Saturday, November 17th, 2012
TIME: 11:30am – 1:30pm
LOCATION: PNCA Commons,
1241 NW Johnson St.

Remember! This is a free event that you can share with your friends and family. Enjoy refreshments and a complimentary catered lunch generously provided by Noodles & Company. Plus you can participate in so many fun activities this Saturday, including:

Making larger than life drawings!
Hand crafting your own holiday cards and stickers!
Drawing pictures with your family!
Screen Printing a t-shirt!
Face Painting!

Again, we hope you choose to join us for this fun, family friendly event. It is going to be fantastic! See you there!

Web Design Tools Class

This week wraps up our Fall quarter’s weekly classes. We have had a great term which included introducing new digital classes like Marketing: Digital Strategies and web design workshops with David Lowe-Rogstad. This is the third year of Web Design Tools which explores various content management systems, strategies for designing a website and examines the process for determining best-practice web solutions. I wanted to share some of the work from Web Design Tools, which is very impressive.

• Shark and Olive
• Backwood Company
• Supply & Work
• Pickle and Schmoo

Did you know…

Children draw a certain way at a certain age for a reason. It’s true. The stages of how a child’s drawing skills develop as they grow older is really interesting. Several great minds over the years have done research on this sort of thing; i.e. people like Viktor Lowenfeld and Betty Edwards. Our Program educators look to these models quite a bit in order to structure projects for our students. This is also one of the first things we teach Program Interns when they participate in our Youth Program Teaching Internship. Here are two of the earlier stages via Viktor Lowenfeld for you (using artwork from PNCA’s Youth Program, of course).

The Preschematic Stage (ages 3 – 4): Children consciously attempt to draw the human form. Children also start incorporating symbols and telling stories with their drawings.

The Schematic Stage (Age 6): Children figure out a definite way of portraying an object/person/animal/etc. This ‘schema’ represents the child’s knowledge of the subject. During this stage children also start to understand there is definite order to spacial relationships.

Pretty cool, right! (I’m kinda a geek about this stuff.) Anyway, we’ll be sharing interesting art education theory via this blog from time to time so that you can better understand the roots of our curriculum! See if you can spot the Preschematic and Schematic stages in some of our most recent Flickr uploads.

Youth Program Fall Festival

To honor our students and celebrate their achievement this term the PNCA Youth Program will be hosting a Fall Festival! What is a Fall Festival? A party; complete with art, food, and good vibes. Here are some details for you:

DATE: Saturday, November 17th, 2012
TIME: 11:30am – 1:30pm
LOCATION: PNCA Commons,
1241 NW Johnson St.

Join us as we conclude our Fall Term with a bang! Just in time for the start of the winter holiday season, our Fall Festival provides a variety of free art-based activities for children and families. Enjoy refreshments and a free catered lunch generously provided by Noodles & Company. There will be a variety of free activities, including:

Making larger than life drawings!
Hand crafting your own holiday cards and stickers!
Drawing pictures with your family!
Screen Printing a t-shirt!
Face Painting!

This is sure to be great fun for the whole family! If you would like to RSVP via Facebook you can do so by visiting our events page. Please share this super opportunity with your friends and family! We hope to see you and your children there!