Mini IB art course

its happening agian this summer.....

What happens when you try to compress an IB art program into 2 intense weeks? Well, we've had a go at it and it was an amazing experience for all, myself included. Maybe it helps that we had only 8 students, all very willing and interested, and the freedom to devote ourselves to art and only art for 12 consecutive days ( and we worked 6 hours a day in the studios every day, with no weekends off!). I thought Id share it with you anyway as a possible scaled down model for structuring the course:

The first week was a bit like year 1 in fast forward, introduction to techniques and materials, field trips, studio visits, visiting artists, master classes and lots of teacher guided assignments.

The students experimented with printmaking and embossing from drawings of roots they had collected, they made a sgraffito mural based on studies of animals in the natural history museum, assembled sculptural reliefs from recycled materials in a master class, visited the studio of Pisan painter Bartolini, drew from medieval architecture in the Camposanto, and worked with viewpoints and composing with negative space.

That was the first 8 days.

In the second week we introduced the idea of the “personal project”, designed to get them thinking independently, trusting their own ideas and finding creative solutions to problems. Some students chose to evolve the personal project from the work we had already done, a natural progression of ideas. Several were inspired by the artists they had met and made work in response to those encounters. Each made highly personal, different and original pieces. Year 2 in 4 days? sort of..

The last day was spent curating and hanging an exhibition.

This was a really important part of the experience. Students got to make curatorial decisions, practice selecting and making connections between the pieces, and devise visually and conceptually satisfying methods of display. We invited the local community and some of the artists to come to our show and celebrated with a vernissage!

The students were beaming with pride, reminding me how important it is to show your work and receive affirmation. I think these students will return to their respective schools well prepared for the rest of their IB art experience, with confidence and enthusiasm.

If you are interested in this summer IB art course for your students, visit La Vigna Art Studios or see it on OSC.