Michael B. Schwartz "Making Public Places Sacred Spaces"
Community Arts and Education _____________________________________________________________________________________________________
When
teaching I encourage critical, creative and poetic thinking. The arts
develop aesthetic sensibilities, sharpen perception, promote investigation and
reward experimentation. The arts remind us that all things are inter
connected. I believe that the arts must play an active role in our
communities and neighborhoods. The art room is a cultural resource
center, museum and hotbed of civic dialogue.
I encourage
students to think about their classrooms and schools as an integral
component of the community. From this point of view we can examine our
many cultures, physical and social structures from a unique and
exciting vantage point. I utilize a mix of popular education
methodologies, enriched with a commitment to the multiple
intelligence, organically allowing the magic of the arts to enhance
every area of the curriculum with out diminishing the intrinsic or
traditional values a disciplined approach to fine arts teaching offers.
Visual Research Working as a classroom community Talking about and sharing our work
2004-8 Kirkbride Elementary School, Philadelphia, PA 2003,4,7,8 Drexel Elementary School, Tucson, AZ
2007 Philadelphia Freedom School, Philadelphia, PA 2006 Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Association Coalition, Philadelphia, PA 2005 Featherstone Center for the Arts, Martha’s Vineyard, MA 2005 Bok High School, Philadelphia, PA 2005 DE Center for Contemporary Art 2004 Meredeth ES, Philadelphia, PA 2002-4 Butterfield ES, Tucson, AZ 2002 Tucson Southside MS, Tucson, AZ 2000 Urban League HS, Tucson, AZ 1998 Old Pasqua Neighborhood Center, Tucson, AZ 1996-9 Pueblo Gardens ES, Tucson, AZ 1995-6 Richey ES, Tucson, AZ 1998 Miles ES, Tucson, AZ 1993 Heart of the Beast Puppet Theater, Minneapolis, MN 1992 Tucson Arts District Partnership, Tucson, AZ
Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, Tucson
Jewish Community Center, Arizona International College, Third Street
Kids, Tucson Museum of Art School, Roskruge Bilingual Magnet, Mariposa
Co-Op, LAVA Space, Chew Recreation Center, Spring Garden ES, Eagles
Youth Partnership, William Right ES, Tucson Jubilee 2000 Committee,
Attention Transit Advertising , Native Seed Search, Fourth Avenue
Merchants Association, City of Mt. Holly, NJ, West Philadelphia High
School, Lighthouse Youth Center, Oro Valley Arts Council, Volunteer
Center of Southern Arizona, Americorp, Arizona State Museum, Tucson
Electric Power Co., Hillel, Season for Nonviolence, Southern Poverty
Law Center, YWCA, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Pima Arts Council,
City of Tucson, Suntran, Old Pasqua Neighborhood Center, KIDCO, The
American Indian Association, The Tucson Indian Center, Tucson
Children's' Museum, Arts Genesis, Save the Scenic Santa Ritas
Coalition, the Dunbar Spring Neighborhood Association, Women’s
International League for Peace and Justice, University of Arizona, Kennedy
Center’s Imagination Celebration, Prescott College, Arizona Green
Party, Cultural Democracy Magazine, Broadside Magazine, Delaware
Alternative Press, International Council on Adult Education, North
American Alliance for Popular and Adult Education, Newark Arts
Alliance, Alliance for Cultural Democracy, Tucson Arts District
Partnership, Central Arts Collective, Student Environmental Action
Coalition, KXCI Radio 91.3 FM, Center for Biological Diversity
3-5th
Graders students at Miles E.S. researched local architecture, designed
the mural in the classroom and painted the mural in downtown Tucson.
This fantastic example of a consensus based design process was
unfortunately destroyed several years ago.
Designed and painted by children in the KIDCO program. This project was a collaboration between the Old Pascua Neighborhood Center, KIDCO, The American Indian Association,
The Tucson Indian Center and the Tucson Arts Brigade.
This project matched local businesses with students and teachers
from the Tucson Arts Brigade to design and paint a series of benches.
This one is called "Community Works"
2005 Eagles Youth Partnership Mural Project: The Inside Story
These images show you the interior of the mural I created at Richard Wright Elementary School in the spring of 2005. This mural is large, the entire first floor, hallway,gym and half the second floor of the school! It is the entire alphabet from A-Z illustrated on the first floor second floor is devoted to mathematics. It took a crew of three people working for five weeks to make this exciting project a success. The Eagles football team came and helped to paint during a huge community arts day facilitated by the amazing people at the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.
Here are some examples of how we can use murals to teach
The first floor has the entire Alphabet from A-Z illustrated.
