Tyler Green Modern Art Notes

This is the last week of MAN’s third DonorsChoose.org fundraising drive. Each year MAN raises money for public school teachers who need some help keeping art in their classrooms. This year you’ve given $1,072 $1,082 and have helped out 711 kids. Please take a look at our projects page, read about the projects teachers have put together and then please help them out!

As a result of an unusually busy December news cycle, I’ve posted much less about MAN’s annual DonorsChoose.org fundraising drive this year than I have in previous years. Still, MAN readers have given $500 $850 $950 to the projects I’ve promoted here, money that has helped 525 students have art as part of their education. All of the projects on MAN’s project page help put art education in public schools. Most of them support America’s poorest schools.

We’re pretty close to fulfilling the two projects on our donor page, so I’ll add more throughout the day. Here’s one of the projects up now:

“I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone, because I am the person I know best,” Frida Kahlo said. Self-portraits are a cornerstone for many artists and one of the hardest things to draw. To ease my 8th graders fears, students will combine their image with a creature, a surrealist style. My students are exceptional!! They come from a violent, gang ridden inner city area in California, yet they seem to look beyond that environment. We are a public school with approximately 2,000 students, therefore, it is very crowded and tensions seem high often. Yet, my students come to my advanced art class eager to learn and try new things.

Click here to see this project and click here to see MAN’s project/giving page. Thanks for your support!!

P.S. I’m having a hard time sending ‘thank yous’ to donors this year because DonorsChoose doesn’t seem to be letting me see your email addresses. (It’s also possible I’m tech-stupid, but I really can’t find…) I’m terribly sorry about that and I’m trying to find something I can do about it. As an aside, a special thanks to the anonymous donor who gave in honor of David Wojnarowicz.

Thanks to the donors who have helped MAN’s 2010 DonorsChoose.org drive so far this December. You’ve contributed almost $400 and have helped make art education accessible to 525 students. Here’s our next project:

First of all I am “wishing” for a DVD that will expose my students to the work of artist Alberto Giacometti. They will be able to see first hand right in our classroom the types of art he created while learning about his life and career as an artist. Next, I would love for them to have the opportunity to create their own sculptures inspired by his work. This will allow them to work beyond pencil and paper to create a 3 dimensional piece of art work. This is an opportunity my students do not usually have due to budget constraints…

Please click here to help support this specific project and click here to see MAN’s 2010 giving page!

Oodles of research reveals just how important arts education is when it comes to developing young minds. According to Americans for the Arts, young people who participate in the arts are many times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, to be elected to class office within their schools, and are more likely to participate in a math and science fair. My mother was an art educator, so I’m particularly disappointed in how a lack of prioritization, the so-called No Child Left Behind law and other factors have driven the arts out of public schools.

Over the last three years I’ve spotlighted dozens of school-based arts projects here on MAN. You’ve donated over $6,600 to help thousands of students have art as a part of their elementary, middle school and high school education.  The DonorsChoose.org concept is simple: When school teachers have programs they want to implement that go beyond what their (typically disadvantaged) schools will support, they post ‘proposals’ to the DonorsChoose.org website and ask microphilanthropists for a few hundred dollars in direct project support.

Between now and Jan. 3 I’ll be posting on arts-related projects from DonorsChoose. Most of them will require less than $500 to fully fund. DonorsChoose accepts microphilanthropic gifts of $10 and up. Please support worthy projects either as individuals or as a group. I’ll list donors early in January. If you put a little at-your-office group together — say the ‘Walker Art Center curatorial department’ — email me so that I know to list you as such. I’ve started a web page where you can see a list of proposals, where you can donate and where you can track our progress.

This year’s first project comes from Brooklyn:

I am the art teacher for grades pre-k through the fifth grade in a high-need urban school. I work with students that have learning disabilities, children who come from homes where English is not the primary language, as well as gifted students.

Our school has a diverse ethnic population, with many students who come from homes where English is not the primary language. In addition to this we have collaborative team teaching classes on each grade where students with special needs are in the same class as general education students along with two teachers.

We take pride in the fact that despite so many budget cuts, the arts have remained a priority in our school. We strive to find ways to improve our arts program, help it grow and look for creative ways to fund it.

My Project: As so many of us recognize, the arts provide many special learning opportunities. For our many students who are struggling in other areas and/or do not speak English, the art room provides them with a place where they can succeed and feel good about themselves. The arts also provide enrichment, encourages collaboration and critical thinking.

The art history books, prints and slides I am requesting will provide me with the resources I need to enhance my current art program and meet the many needs of my students. It is my goal to bring my students an awareness and appreciation of art history while making connections to other subject areas.

Your donation will provide me with the materials needed to help our English as a second language learners develop language, motivate our struggling students, offer enrichment, build self-esteem and inspire all our students to be life-long learners!

Click here to give! (And please tell a friend via Facebook or Twitter!)