arts every day

things like this make me realize... baltimore is amazing. yesterday morning, steph, tara & i went to mount royal for this big "arts every day" website unveiling. (www.artseveryday.org) mt. royal elementary is one of a few baltimore public schools that became an "arts integration" school last year. (and fitting seeing as their school is right smack dab in the middle of the mica campus.) "arts integration" means that teachers and staff make a concious effort to incorporate the arts into every other subject, with the belief that it will strengthen the entire learning experience. the "launch" featured performances by mount royal students ("it's a hard knock life" from annie, "oh the places you will go," and a song called "i'm a leader") interspersed with quick art affirmations from people like the director of the baltimore museum of art, the fine arts coordinator and ceo of baltimore city public schools. the ceo, dr. andres alonso, spoke of wanting to do this in every single classroom. he called them "lessons with connections" and said that "this is what education is supposed to be about. not test prep. but creating culturally competent kids filled with references." the idea is engaging the disengaged learner, activating creativity, and seeing what will come of it.

i love stumbling across solutions like this. because now no one has to struggle to think of a way art can play a larger role in education. no one has to start from scratch. someone has already put time, money, and energy to developing a structure we can all build on.

mica + mt. royal portrait exchange

"there's something thats very intense about the experience of sitting down and having to look at something in the way that you do in order to make a drawing or painting of it. by the time you've done that you feel that you've really understood what you were looking at... and somehow it becomes a method of possessing the experience in a unique way." - robert bechtle

my elements teacher approached me with this idea towards the end of the first semester. she knew i was involved in cap, and just wanted my input and advice on how to move forward with it all. the concept was hinged on a few things. on one side, mica freshman walk right through the mount royal school grounds every day to get from the commons to classes. on the other side, their school is literally right in the middle of our college campus, and the students have no idea. the only time they set foot in a mica building is when they graduate in falvey hall. basically, there is an obvious relationship between the two that is not being realized. and that separation provides an awkward tension, on top of all of the forces of privilege, power, and difference at play. (mica is predominately white. mt. royal is predominately black. mica students pay $40,000 a year to come here. mt. royal students come from households that can't even imagine financially being able to send their kids to college.) this project was an attempt to begin to connect these two worlds. portraiture is personal, so why not?


everyone in our elements class got a mt. royal buddy. (tyree was my buddy. we're posing next to our portraits above.) we spent one day with them at the baltimore museum of art. we rode the bus there together (some of them had never been before...) and some mica mat students took us around in groups and showed us art relating to identity. then the next week we spent another day drawing each other. the students we worked with were eighth graders. we picked that because we knew that they would be a challenge. they have so much apprehension about making art. and they are getting ready to go on to high school. prime time to plant the thought of college in their heads.

i think this idea has tremendous potential. imagine if every incoming freshman has the opportunity to participate in something like this? it would be huge. and i know that this is something katherine will continue to pursue. so who knows what could happen. it will be exciting to see how it all plays out in the next few years.