Puffin West continues to work with The Wexner Center for the Arts‘ outreach programming to K-12 educators throughout central Ohio by offering them three opportunities to expand their classrooms to encompass the Wex’s galleries, stages, and screens as they enrich their curricula through all that the contemporary arts at the WEX can offer. These three programs, Pages, WorldView: Cultural Intersections in Contemporary Art, and Art in Action compliment core curriculum values in language arts, social studies, science, foreign languages, math, history and of course, in the arts.
PAGES
Pages supports literacy and writing skills through the exploration of contemporary visual art, film and the performing arts. Students work with professional writers, educators and artist as they keep a journal in response to their arts experiences on site at the WEX. Each participant has an opportunity to publish their writing in a final anthology which is publish and distributed at the end of the year.
WORLDVIEW: CULTURAL INTERSECTONS IN CONTEMPARY ART
Every thinking mind needs a worldview! Designed for high school students, WorldView builds on cross-cultural understanding, perspectives and influences that many contemporary artists utilize in their work. Featured artists’ works that are discussed allows for conversations about culture, politics, social and economic issues that are highly appropriate to teens in the process of exploring their own identities and place in the world.
ART IN ACTION
This yearlong educator focused program helps teachers to integrate social justice lessons across the curriculum, through the arts. Beginning with rigorous professional development for teachers, Art in Action sets the foundation for school-driven, trans-disciplinary lesson planning. Participants choose either to respond to an issue by the works of a contemporary artist or to explore an issue or problem of particular concern to their group or school, such as bullying.
Photos courtesy of the Wexner Center for the Arts
