 Now in its 44th year, Learning Through Art (LTA), the pioneering arts education program of the Guggenheim Museum, presents A Year with Children 2015, an exhibition organized by the Sackler Center for Arts Education at the Guggenheim Museum, on view May 1–June 17, 2015. The annual presentation showcases select artworks by students in grades two through six from ten public schools who participated in LTA during the 2014–15 school year, representing each of New York City’s five boroughs. More than one hundred creative and imaginative works, including collages, drawings, found objects, kinetic sculptures, installations, prints, and paintings, will be on display during the six-week exhibition.
Program Overview
A Year with Children is an annual exhibition that presents art by students participating in the Learning Through Art (LTA) program of the Guggenheim Museum. LTA places professional teaching artists in New York City public elementary schools where they collaborate with classroom teachers to develop art projects that teach students creative skills and techniques while exploring ideas and themes related to the school curriculum. The program encourages curiosity, critical thinking, and ongoing collaborative investigation. Additionally, LTA immerses students in the artistic process, encouraging them to view themselves as artists. Each student is given a sketchbook and an artist’s apron. Throughout the program, teaching artists model practices and explorations similar to those that they use to spark their own creativity. Students’ investigations are also inspired by the exhibitions they visit at the Guggenheim during the school year. When viewing art, students participate in inquiry-based discussions that encourage careful observation and interpretation.
LTA was founded in 1970 by Natalie Kovner Lieberman in response to the elimination of art and music programs in New York City public schools. Since its inception, LTA has served nearly 150,000 children and their families, primarily in New York City public schools.
2014–15 School Year
Nearly 1,500 students in grades two through six at 10 public schools participated in 20-week projects led by 12 LTA teaching artists, who reached 55 classes during the 2014–15 school year. The participating schools are: in Manhattan, PS 28 (Washington Heights), and PS 42 (Chinatown); in the Bronx, PS 86 (Kingsbridge); in Staten Island, PS 48 (Grasmere); in Queens, PS 88 (Ridgewood), PS 144 (Forest Hills), and PS 317 (Rockaway Park); and, in Brooklyn, PS 8 (Brooklyn Heights), PS 9 (Prospect Heights), and PS 676 (Red Hook).
Exhibition Overview
In this year’s LTA program, students investigated culture, identity, nature, space, and the passage of time. While engaged with these themes, students explored a variety of materials, as reflected in the works on view in A Year with Children 2015. For example, hanging assemblages of found objects, drawings, and paintings created by the second graders of PS 317 in Rockaway Park will be on display, as will three-dimensional creatures imagined by the fourth graders at Chinatown’s PS 42. Models for a new school designed by the students of PS 9 in Brooklyn consider the growing community and challenge the idea of traditional space.
A Year with Children 2015 is organized by the Education Department at the Guggenheim Museum: Greer Kudon, Associate Director; Lindsay Smilow, Associate Manager; and Emmy Goldin, Education Associate.
A second-grade teacher at PS 317 said, “LTA has allowed our students an opportunity to see the world from a different perspective—that of an artist. By working collaboratively, students have practiced cooperation and decision-making skills that will serve them well in future endeavors.”
Selected Highlights
PS 86, Bronx, Sixth Grade
Teaching artist: Jeff Hopkins
PS 86 sixth graders repurposed old, discarded books to create a collaborative installation. By manipulating, deconstructing, and rebuilding books through painting, cutting, and folding techniques, the work conveys the students’ feelings about texts they’ve read, the freedom of information, and the power of words. Throughout the school year, the student artists also explored drawing techniques using the app Paper, created by FiftyThree. Such use of technology for the first time in a residency allowed the artists to explore the differences between digital and analog drawing. An interactive kiosk displaying the app will be on view within the exhibition.
PS 88, Queens, Fifth Grade
Teaching artist: Joanna Warren
The student artists of PS 88 studied the daily routine of the Japanese conceptual artist On Kawara (1933–2014) to better understand his seemingly simple works of art on view within the exhibition On Kawara—Silence. As a group the fifth graders explored a variety of techniques—painting, drawing, and mixed-media sculpture—to create a three-part composition documenting their past, present, and future.
PS 48, Staten Island, Fourth Grade
Teaching artist: Rose Nestler
Fourth graders in Gasmere studied kinetic energy and the intricacies of moving sculptures from the museum’s exhibition ZERO: Countdown to Tomorrow, 1950s–60s, and confronted the question of “What moves us?” through their artwork. Combining 3-D design principles (balance, texture, form and space) with scientific concepts (mechanical, gravitational, electrical and magnetic energies), student artists created diagrams and step-by-step instructions for their sculptures, and together built automatas, a handmade kinetic toy.
For more information about Learning Through Art, please visit guggenheim.org/lta.
Artwork by Dayzin Legare, fourth grade, PS 676 Brooklyn. Teaching artist: Joey Weiss. Classroom teacher: Kamelia Albasheir. Photo: Kristopher McKay
#Guggenheim Museum
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