Blending art, environment & education

My Artist in Residence projects center around the very large theme and Eco Art a la Carte’s mission: to blend art, environment, and education. Winter residencies in new Hampshire are usually focused on repurposing materials, while Fall, Spring, and Summer residencies mostly involve outdoors projects that have students/community members exploring their local natural world.

In my residencies, we work with different materials, creating various products such as sculptures, murals, drawings, paintings, etc. In the process of making these artworks, we explore the relationship between people and local environment, the shared habitats for local animals, the growing beauty of local plants and trees. The experience helps students to understand, respect, and engage in the place in which they live.

Some examples of how that could unfold:

• Students focus on the concept of waste, recycling, reusing, and work to repurpose discarded materials to create an artwork with a local landscape image, a “go green” type message or both.
• Students examine the ingredients in their local landscape and use natural materials to create a three dimensional interior artwork.
• Students consider how small animals live in their local landscape and use natural materials to create habitat artworks along/creating a trail either a temporary interior trail or an ephemeral trail outside.
• Students focus in on one specific life form, such as birds or butterflies, and design artworks and/or a structure or space that will provide a habitat for that life form.

As a Teaching Artist, I am so very interested in how the artistic process connects with the educational process. Every school or community site is  an opportunity to invent new strategies and concepts. I work with individual schools to develop artist in residence projects that meet school needs, accomplish artistic goals, and incorporate NH State Curriculum Frameworks.

Sample Artist in Residence Projects:

Art Trailworks

Moving through Local Landscape and telling the story of place

Students create a nature trail, constructing a series of sculptures made from natural materials and which are based on local landscape keywords. Students research and develop a web of connected stories resulting in story signs, drawings, and construct an overall map for an interior location that displays the concept and learning.

Link to Gallery: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecoartalacarte/sets/72157614548733710/

Recycled Gardens

Reflecting Place responsibly: bringing landscape inside

Students create a series of mural panels depicting the local landscape using repurposed materials. Students are asked to bring in specific types of recyclables and work with materials to repurpose them for art making. Students work in teams to develop recycling stories to accompany panels. A school-wide campaign component includes creating flyers, web page, posters, video, or other mode of communicating the concept to the student body.   

Link to gallery:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecoartalacarte/sets/72157627210336515/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecoartalacarte/sets/72157614551074526/       

Nature Notes

Observing, Recording, Sharing the Local Landscape

Students create nature notebooks, and use drawing, painting, collage, digital photography while they explore the natural world.

More details? Email me: cynthia@ecoartalacarte.com