FaceBox Continued, Stage II

Students have been working hard, painting and embellishing the outside of their boxes to represent their outer selves. This includes incorporating found and repurposed objects adhered to the box.

FaceBox

Students are working on a special project in Art class based on the concept of “outsider” or intuitive artists to create unique three-dimensional self-portrait. Since outsider artists tend to use unusual and repurposed materials in their work, students are being challenged to do the same in their pieces. Best of all, these pieces will be part of a special exhibit at Intuit Gallery in June.
We hope that you will be able to join us at the artists’ reception on
June 4^th, 2-5 pm and see the exhibit. 

Please visit the Intuit’s website for more information.

Students created a mask using plaster craft to put on the outside of their box.
Here are some pictures of Stage 1 of the project:

Culture Fest Heritage Quilt

On February 19th we had our annual Culture Fest

to celebrate the diverse Culture of our school.

Students and teachers were invited to design a square to represent their cultural heritage. This quilt represents the diverse culture of CICS Northtown Academy, all sewn together to represent our beautiful community.

 Along side the quilt was this quote from our president:

Field Trip to Intuit

In December, 2010 students participated in a field trip to Intuit to visit their Forget Me Not exhibit.

Exhibit Statement: Since humans began making marks, the portrait has remained a universal subject. Forget Me NOT will focus on our continued fascination with our own image. Featuring 49 artists, showcasing a variety of styles while presenting the unified theme of portraiture.

These 70+ works portray kings, movie stars, presidents, bad boys and good girls -- all reflecting who we are and how others see us.

Intuit Fellowship 2010-11

This year I am participating in an award-winning Teacher Fellowship Program with Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. Intuit defines “intuitive and outsider art” as work of artists who demonstrate little influence from the mainstream art world and who instead are motivated by their unique personal visions. This includes what is known as art brut, non-traditional folk art, self-taught art, and visionary art.

NTA is one of 10 Chicago Public Schools accepted into this program. The program consists of four monthly Saturday training sessions for teachers in the Fall, which are designed to inspire ideas for innovative curricular development based on the characteristics of self-taught art. The training sessions include: lectures, workshops with artists, tours of outsider art collections, and teacher field trips to museums. In addition, Intuit offers supplementary funds for classroom supplies, and access to our Robert A. Roth Study Center – which is full of rare and interesting books to help generate lesson ideas.

Specially designed lesson plans are implemented in the classroom during the Spring, with support and resources from Intuit staffmembers. The program ends with an exhibition of selected student artworks at Intuit. Family members and friends are all invited to attend.