Program Spotlight
Final Event at Riverdale Neighborhood House
Photo Credit: Katherine Gressel
The once bare after-school activities room at Riverdale Neighborhood House in the Bronx radiates with iridescent paint drip-scapes, Mark Rothko-style sunsets, and leaping cartoon superheroes adorning every available wall. The artists responsible for this work, 3rd-4th grade students in the Arts to Grow after-school visual art class, are deep in discussion. Their instructor, artist Miguel Cossio, asks them to comment on their own work and their peers’, before an audience of parents, after-school staff, and Arts to Grow members. While some of these children had never taken art before, their dialogue more closely resembles a college art critique than a typical elementary school extracurricular activity. “I used the ‘splatting’ technique and the ‘splash’ technique,” says one student when asked how she made her piece. Says another, “I titled my work ‘Dancing in the Stars’ because the colors seem happy and it makes me think of dancing.”
Photo Credit: Katherine Gressel
Before this “gallery tour” segment of the class’s final art show and celebration, students had held hands in a circle, each participant saying one thing he or she had liked about the class—responses had ranged from “we got to paint whatever we wanted and what was on our minds” to “I got better at painting” to “I enjoyed watching everybody express themselves on paper.” The shift in the children’s energy had been apparent as they formed this circle– they had entered the room loud and bouncing with excitement, but this was art time now, and these students were serious artists, with a sense of accomplishment. After the gallery talk, they would take their proud parents up to individual works, discuss the show with their friends over fruit punch and pretzels, pose for pictures, and say final good-byes to their teacher.
The art class, “Painting and Cartooning,” was one of four Arts to Grow programs offered at different sites in New York City and New Jersey in Fall 2008. The program ran onsite at RNH from September 23-November 11, 2008, with the final event from 5-6pm on November 17. In addition to the gallery tour, it featured speeches by the artists, Arts to Grow executive director and founder Mallory King, and RNH partner liaisons, Lidia Beqiraj and Kathy Duffy.
Photo Credit: Katherine Gressel
In the class, students had been introduced to different techniques and styles of creating paintings. They had looked at the work of well-known artists, observed teaching artist demonstrations, and experienced hands-on activities to develop multiple drawing and painting skills. The residency was divided into two segments: In Cartooning, students had worked from a live model and still objects to hone the practice of observational drawing, and then had created their own interpretations, in most cases inventing their own superheroes. In Art of Painting, students were introduced to different approaches to painting by understanding its components: color, line, shape, form, texture and space. They had produced watercolors, collages, and acrylic paintings in a range of different abstract styles.
Like all Arts to Grow teaching artists, Miguel Cossio has an active artistic practice, which informs his teaching practice. Born in Mexico and based in New York, he is an avid traveler and folk art researcher, as well as a visual and performance artist. He has taught with such prestigious arts organizations as Henry Street Settlement, City Lore, and Young Audiences NYC, and his work has been regularly exhibited in galleries and museums in the US, Mexico, and Latin America. Speaking of his experience as an Arts to Grow teacher, Miguel told parents, and guests, “The young people teach me a lot; I wish we had more time together.”
Photo Credit: Katherine Gressel
As in every Arts to Grow program, students in this visual arts residency were expected to master art vocabulary and art critique, and create a portfolio of work towards a final display. The thoughtful and knowledgeable comments of students at the closing event, and the quality and variety of the work, demonstrate that the program had more than fulfilled these goals—and, according to Liandry, one of the participants, it was also “awesome and fun—I loved all of it.”
The Riverdale Neighborhood House Arts program is funded by United Neighborhood Houses (UNH).
Article by Katherine Gressel, Arts to Grow, Program Manager
