By Heather Myrick, Events Manager
This summer, one of P.S. ARTS’ visual arts classrooms was in need of some organization and inspiration! Art supplies and projects from years past had piled up (tough to get rid of kids’ art projects!), so every corner of Ms. Tamie’s classroom was in need of some TLC. The art room needed some fresh examples of visual art fundamentals and students needed a place they could gather to hear and see Ms. Tamie’s instruction.
Taking all of this into consideration, our programs team spent two whole days cleaning and organizing so the room could be ready to spark students’ creativity during the school year. Here is what it looked like at the beginning:
After seeing what materials the room currently had and was still in need of, Senior Education & Programs Manager Elda Pineda created a vision board on how she envisioned Ms. Tamie’s classroom to look once the makeover was complete. She wanted a fun yet functional space that would serve as a source of inspiration for the students. The color scheme she chose was based on the P.S. ARTS logo!
In addition to the bright and fun colors that were brought into the space, Elda brought function into the room using the ideas presented in The Qualities of Quality: Understanding Excellence in Arts Education by Steve Seidel, Shari Tishman, Ellen Winner, Lois Hetland, and Patricia Palmer. The research in this study explains that the physical space within which kids learn is one of the four core components of student success, along with pedagogy, student learning, and community dynamics. The study offers ideas for exemplar physical spaces such as labeling posters, student-curated displays, and infusing the space with the personality of the Teaching Artists. The P.S. ARTS Teaching Artists were given an overview of these concepts at our recent Faculty Professional Development.
After two days of unearthing and uncovering, our programs team created a new art room masterpiece. Bright and fresh art examples went up on the wall; two new rugs and a slipped covered chair went in the center of the room for the kids to gather, and tables were covered in anticipation of the year’s art lessons. The room is both fun and functional and serves to foster student learning, exploration, and creativity.
It was a trying and tiring project, but the result was well worth it!
If you are ever interested in touring a P.S. ARTS classroom and seeing our arts education programs in action, let us know! We welcome visitors. Email our office at info@psarts.org.
