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Round Valley Arts Curriculum

I. ARTISTIC PERCEPTION AND RESPONSE

Students become more aware of the expressive properties of artworks and other objects in their environment. As their own experiences with media increase, and as they look at an created by themselves and others, including professional artists, they see, write, and talk about:

1.      various characteristics of line, shapes, colors, texture and space in art and in the environment.

2.      design principles: repetition and rhythm.

3.      relationships among objects: overlapping, size differences, placement in a picture.

4.      expressive characteristics such as calm and active.

5.      interactions of art, music, drama, and dance based on grade level themes.

Additional awareness develops through experiences, such as:

1.      undirected drawing and painting.

2.      drawing and painting details of nature, out of doors.

3.      creating artworks through cooperative learning groups.

Students will be exposed to these terms:

 
II. CREATIVE EXPRESSION

Students communicate observations, feelings, ideas, and experiences about things in their own world. They explore different sources for artmaking: observation, imagination, personal experience, and the work of artists. They learn to manage themselves and media in independent art-making activities.

 
III. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT

Students will continue to learn that artworks are historical documents.  They focus on the art of their community, visit an art museum or gallery, and learn how people use art in their homes as part of family ceremonies, traditions, celebrations, and in workplaces.  Through looking at art and then reading, listening, talking, and writing, they:

1.      are introduced to art as a profession, part of everyday life, and as recreation,

2.      discover ways people in Mendocino County are involved in visual arts, including artists, patrons, and curators,

3.      are introduced to Realism and compare it to fantasy in art, including illustrations in core literature,

4.      become acquainted with the lives and works of these artists, or others who demonstrate the above themes.

Joan Miró (1893-1983) was born in Spain and studied art there before he went to Paris where, in 1925 he took part in the First Surrealist Exhibition.  He was, with Salvador Dali, recognized as a leading Spanish surrealist.  Although his work is abstract, it is not completely nonobjective.  He distorts and exaggerates his colorful forms to achieve an effect of humorous fantasy.

Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) born in New York City; he moved to suburban Mamaroneck when he was nine.  He left his school to study at the National Academy of Design's Art School.  At 16 he transferred to the Art Students League to learn, as he put it, "to paint storytelling pictures."  At the young age of 22 he sold his first five covers to the Saturday Evening Post.  Over the next forty years he averaged approximately ten covers a year for the Saturday Evening Post. Ten years after his death Rockwell remains the quintessential illustrator of small-town America.

Alexander Calder (1898-1976) was an American sculptor and designer, probably best known for his mobiles.  He was born in Philadelphia and studied at the Stevens Institute and the Art Students League in New York.  He went to Paris in 1926, returning frequently until 1934, and became a member of the Abstraction-Creation group there.  His first one-man show was held in New York in 1928, and he exhibited his first mobiles and abstraction constructions in the early thirties.  He was involved in stage design in the thirties and forties, and was himself the subject of three films.  His work has been exhibited worldwide, and is in major museums and collections throughout Europe and the United States.

Frieda Kahlo (1907-1954) was a Mexican painter who, along with Rivera, Siqueiros and others, helped to create a new Mexican art that drew upon native traditions.  Seriously hurt in a bus accident at 18, Frieda often painted Iying down. Her portraits and other paintings tell visual stories of pain, torment, nature, and human emotions.

IV. AESTHETIC VALUING

Students reflect on experiences of seeing and making art.  Referring to properties and/or subject matter seen in artworks, they talk with artists, families, and friends and write about:

1.      (Knowledge) Name the colors (shapes, sizes) in this artwork.

2.      (Comprehension) What shapes, texture, subjects do you see?

3.      (Application) What colors (shapes, etc.) in this artwork make you happy or sad?

4.      (Analysis) How would you make this artwork?

5.      (Synthesis) What would be a good title for this artwork? Why?

6.      (Evaluation) Will people like this in one hundred years? Why?

V. CONNECTIONS, RELATIONS, APPLICATIONS

Understanding relationships between the arts and with disciplines outside of the arts.

Students can connect, relate, and apply various types of arts knowledge and skills within the art form, across the arts disciplines (dance, music, theatre and visual arts), and with disciplines outside of the arts.