High school lessons on a VERY small budget
Isha30
I have an extreamly small budget this year and teach about 250 students.
I am looking for lessons that do not require too many materials. If
anybody has any ideas I would be grateful. If you do not wish to respond
publicly my address is Ish...@aol.com.
Margaret A. Day
You can do very creative and successful art lessons on a very small
budget. I have a healthy budget, but find some of the best lessons cost
next to nothing.
1. Use trash for assemblages. Torn, curled, cut cardboad-various
surfaces, and textures. Add sand, shells, stones, leaves, feathers, etc.
for surface color and texture. Start looking the garbage and you will be
amazed at what great art stuff gets thrown away!
2. Paper Mache is great and nearly free! Use the paper pulp or strip
method and any glue source you can afford and you can make animals,
gargoyles, masks, containers, figures, relief images, etc. You can paint
them, or use collage to cover them.
3. Plain cardboard - any kind - is great for low relief panels, free
standing sculpture, etc.
4. My students love to use scraps of colored or black mat board to
design panels. Use an x-acto knife to cut through the colored surface
and peel away to reveal the lighter board below. Really amazing designs
can result. We have also used these peeled boards to make rubbings from
using crayons and sometimes using watercolor over them.
5. Andy Goldsworthy is a British artist who uses natural objects from
the environment to create absolutely spectacular environmental art. I
show examples of his work to my students and we will go out and find
branches, or rocks, or leaves, or weeds, etc. and make environmental art
from these sources. It's a great way to teach aesthetics. I usually
document the student with their art 'piece' by photographing them, since
the pieces are left in the environment.
6. For a great basket project, students can gather their own vines and
do basket weaving using found materials.
7. I have had advanced students do spectacular wall pieces and
freestanding sculptures using branches that they bind together and then
use other materials draped or tied, or woven around them.
These are just a few ideas..I hope something in there is useful! Maybe
it will spark more ideas in you or your students! Good Luck!!
(PS- some VERY famous artists used brown paper bags as drawing surfaces!
not to mention what Schwitters, Picasso and Braque did with scraps of
various papers in collages!!!!)
Marge
MGerrish
Isha,
Money is always a problem! Marge's ideas are excellent. I suggest:
Transform plastic soda bottles into birdhouses. Remodel and Paint them to
represent famous architectural designs or works of art
Yarn, glue and cardboard can make great masks or aboriginal inspired
relief designs (good for printmaking, too)
Monoprints made from objects glued to cardboard (roll on or brush on cheap
paint, print onto newspaper or other free material)
Go to hardware store, beg for plexiglas scraps (good for monoprinting
(reusible, too), faux stained glass, mobiles)
Gather those old wire hangers (sculpture, mobiles, or cut them up and
combine with wood scraps for model making)
Take a walk outside and gather discarded items. Bring them back and set
up an exhibit of the found art objects, complete with curatorial comments
and "histories".
Buy a roll of heavy duty aluminum foil (fold up a larger piece into a
manageable size, use dull pencil or capped ball point pen to "carve"
impressions into soft metal surface. Rub waxy shoe polish or something
like it into impressions. Buff softly, mount on cheap material and frame
with construction paper or wood scraps).
And hey, ....... good luck!
Michael Gerrish, Artist
The Newgrange School
Trenton, NJ 08610
"Where Learning Brings Sucess"