Art Literacy
In year 2000, an art-loving parent (Brenda Dengo) of a St. Ignatius student decided that the school should have an “Art Literacy” program. She designed a program in which one artist would be presented in each classroom every month. The students would learn about the life and work of a great artist as well as engage in an art project. Within a two-hour time frame, students would view a slide show, listen to a short lecture and then participate in a hands-on art activity that pays tribute to the artist of the month.
The first year as a test with Brenda presenting five different artists to only a few classrooms. The program was an immediate success. The following year she recruited an enthusiastic team of volunteers to expand the program to every grade (K-8) and also added two more presentations. In three years, the St. Ignatius Art Literacy program has presented over 18 different artists to the student body. Unfortunately, Brenda had to leave the St. Ignatius community, but she created a solid foundation for a sustainable program. The art lit program continues to grow in small ways each year to continually help enhance the art education of the students of St. Ignatius School.
Team Art Lit
“St. Ignatius Art Literacy Program” seemed too much a mouthful, so in 2003 it was renamed “Team Art Lit.” Team Art Lit (TAL) has about 10 volunteers, each contributing energy, enthusiasm and new ideas to help keep the program alive and well. In fact, a logo was designed and printed on bright purple tee shirts and as soon as students see them, they know some class will be getting art lit that day! The team decided that seven artists per year was too much for the holiday months, so presentations were cut back to six. The yearly criteria for a TAL presentation is that of the six artists at least one must be a woman and one must be a culture such as ancient Greece, Egypt, etc.
The Program
TAL is headed by a “manager” who with the rest of the team accomplish a variety of operations from creating the slide presentation to assembling the project materials. The team meets once a month for about two hours beginning in September. The team manager shows a digital slide presentation and distributes information about the artist. With St. Ignatius fortunate to have a computer-lamp projector, TAL has upgraded from foggy, deteriorating film slides to sharp, crisp, digital images. After discussing the artist and work, the team then creates the intended classroom project, not only for the pleasure of it, but to make sure it works and turns out correctly!
“Art Lit Time” at St. Ignatius is highly respected by the teachers and totally loved by the students. Presentation times are usually scheduled out for the entire year. TAL has an “art cart” which rolls into each classroom with books, supplies, laptop, projector, etc. After the presentation, TAL collects the student artwork, puts it in their personal portfolios and returns it at the end-of-year “Portfolio Party.” The portfolio party is the final art literacy session which involves reviewing the artists for the year and encouraging dialog from everyone on who was or was not their favorite artist. Then they vote on their favorite artist to receive the “Student Choice Award.” The winner gets a spot on the Student Gallery Board. TAL has designed a Jeopardy-style game that focuses on the art from the year and after a round or two, the students receive their artwork to take home. The portfolio returns to storage and is re-used each year until the student leaves the school. If they started in kindergarten, when they graduate, the portfolio cover should contain almost fifty names of artists studied while at St. Ignatius!
TEAM ART LIT “ARTIST-IN-A-BAG”
Several art programs and institutions have and sometimes lend out what is commonly known as “Art-in-a-Box.” The box contains a variety of information from slides, video, books, projects, etc. on one particular subject. If TAL were to have a “mission statement” it would revolve around creating a resource center for St. Ignatius teachers and the future of the art literacy program. TAL has begun an in-house version slightly modified called the “artist-in-a-bag” system. TAL already has over a dozen artists with a substantial collection in their bag which includes some or all of the following:
a Microsoft Power Point presentation of the artist with as many images as possible of their work, an accompanying slide guide which includes the life and history of the artist, list of pertinent vocabulary words, crossword/word search/kriss kross puzzles generated from vocabulary words, take-home hand out for student, variety of posters for bulletin boards (large hallway board and classroom mini-bulletin board) such as a portrait of the artist, images of artwork, quotes by the artist, newspaper articles, etc., video cassette, list of reference books available in school library, list of project(s) to choose from in the style of the artist, and a cd with all TAL computer generated files.
Besides collecting for its own reference center, TAL also uses other sources that provide free materials for art education, such as the Multnomah County Library and the National Gallery of Art Lending Program.
Additionally, TAL keeps hallway traffic focused on art literacy with two large bulletin boards. One is used to introduce the artist of the month using items from “the bag” and the other is entitled “Student Gallery.” The board is used to showcase student-created art for that month.
