Clinton Middle School Visits the Craft in America Center

Fifteen students arrived at the Center with their teacher, Ms. Pinkney, for a special tour of the exhibition Teachers: Highlights from the Episode. Previously, the students had the privilege of participating in a workshop led by TEACHERS episode artist Therman Statom in their own classroom. Today it was their turn to come and explore Therman’s work on display as well as the other artists in the exhibition.

It is always an exciting task to get young teens to talk to adults in a classroom setting, so we had two activities planned to help the students think critically about the exhibition as well as get their bodies moving.

The first activity followed the Visual Thinking Strategy often used with Common Core standards. Each student was assigned an art term or theme and the student would have to describe something from the exhibition that correlated with their term. This allowed  every student to speak his or her opinion on the art work on display.

The second activity came as a welcomed art project involving the  students to become part of a human loom. Every student participated in creating a weft and warp in their collaborative woven textile. The students used their hands to hold and guide the yarn. They were so excited that they braided the ends and took it back to their classroom.