Education
More Art forges a powerful link between local communities and innovative contemporary artists.
By moving beyond the boundaries of traditional art venues, More Art is able to bring innovative and dynamic projects to a larger public audience. We are dedicated to showing communities how broad access to art can improve their overall quality of life.
Art Creates Community at the LAB School
More Art has begun a new collaboration with the LAB Middle School this year. Every Tuesday, More Art organizes an after-school program with the school, located on 17th Street in Chelsea, intended to introduce students to contemporary art.
• Don Gibson introduced basic techniques in film theory and production; students had to complete a short narrative video from synopsis to editing.
• Carlos Lérias Simoes used the literary work of Jorge Luis Borges to create “The Re-invention of Tloen”, making use of surrealist writing techniques, drawing, animation and image mapping.
• This academic year’s work will be completed with a research project led by Ofri Cnaani. Students will research the history of Chelsea, and then record interviews with retired residents who used to work in the neighborhood’s factories and shops. This endeavor will be part of Cnaani’s upcoming project with More Art, Five Ghosts Answer Ten Questions, opening in the fall.
We also organize thematic saturday workshops for students to explore different art traditions. So far this year students have visited the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens and learned how to fabricate instruments and play percussions in a workshop led by Eleanor Dubinsky and Bashiri Johnson. This April, they will visit the Japanse Institute and learn the basics of Japanese calligraphy with Shodo master Masako Inkyo.
Abraham Lincoln: Educational Project
This educational Project is an integral component of Abraham Lincoln: War Projection, a public art installation realized in collaboration with Krzysztof Wodiczko. We have been working with a middle-school educator to create a study guide specifically designed for 7th and 8th grade students, comprised of several lessons focusing on diverse aspects of the project.
The lessons are multi-disciplinary, and each one focuses on a specific topic, such as the personality of Abraham Lincoln, the history of Union Square, or the concept of monument, providing educators with targeted interactive material to enrich existing curriculum. The guide is meant to be flexible, allowing teachers to make choices appropriate for their class and their students. Each lesson is framed in the context of a particular discipline such as visual art, drama, history or English, and is annotated to note CCLS standards alignment, making the guide useful and relevant across subject areas.
Art Creates Community
ACC is an initiative designed to help Chelsea galleries reach out to the local community.
We encourage artists to involve local teenagers in the planning and realization of creative projects — projects that become art, in and of themselves. These collaborations last for a full year.
It’s evident that partnering with artists — rather than simply being “taught” by them —provides a uniquely empowering experience for the participants. The artists leading these projects employ a variety of media to show students the diversity of expression available to contemporary creatives.
In the fall, the Clinton Middle School kids began collaborating with a group of promising young artists from the School of Visual Arts, in New York. In January 2010, middle school kids from Clinton and high school kids from Liberty High teamed up to collaborate with a group of established professional artists.
The Chelsea Project
The Chelsea Project is a series of public installations in Chelsea designed to enliven the area, and inspire its residents. These installations were inspired by the history, and present and future prospects of the Chelsea area, from its complex and heterogeneous architectural history, to its diverse social and economic realities.
The aim of the Chelsea Project is to foster a connection between the Chelsea art gallery district, and neighboring residential communities. Our hope is to stimulate positive creative energy in the area, and help residents see often-overlooked aspects of their neighborhood in a fresh new way.
Voices from the Past
Voices from the Past is a series of projects designed to affirm the voices of local seniors, and treat their experiences as a precious asset to both present and future generations.
Each project offers an individual artist the opportunity to develop profound, long-term relationships with the seniors sharing their stories, and to serve an active part of the project through all creative stages.
Workshops
Our workshops are a key step in More Art’s to mission to create a link between artists and the community at large.
Workshops provide local residents with an invaluable opportunity to learn about art, and create their own forms of expression. We introduce students and parents from Chelsea’s public schools to artists who either work, or show their art in Chelsea.
These projects make traditional art venues accessible to the public — venues that have remained largely mysterious to participants until now. The process of mutual discovery is an enriching experience for the students and their families, as well as for the artists working alongside them.
