experiences in public art

Experiential units combine art and public life to meet an early teen’s increasingly complex understanding of our society and culture. We will meet local artists and visit cultural sites in Washington DC as we explore both fine art and street art, museum collections and public spaces. Each unit culminates in a public art show with original work by students.

Ages 12-15

Murals

Murals use the walls of a city to tell a story. When artists design a mural, they need to consider the surface and its features (doorways, windows), as well as the personality of the neighborhood - what it represents, values, and celebrates. They also need to scale their piece to hundreds of times their original drawing, and create it in public! Learn the technique from local mural artists, and design your own.

Street Art

Street art has given a voice to artists who might not have access to typical art materials like canvas and paintbrushes. Using spray cans to showcase their identity and skill, graffiti artists use the city as their canvas, proving that art is all around us, it can come from anywhere, and it is not only for museums. Create your own tag and experiment with styles of lettering. Learn more about artists who use this medium to make a statement.

Textiled Spaces

How does a knit sock change when you can walk through a forest of stockinged foliage? When artists bring textiles into public spaces, we see color in unusual places. Sometimes a coordinated effort by lots of contributors to stitch together a vision makes us look at our surroundings differently. We’ll find ways to bring textiles - fabrics, fibers, stitched together artwork - into our everyday environment to add boldness and beauty into our neighborhood.

Monuments

A monument indicates something important to our culture - a hero, a memory, an event that carries meaning. It reminds us of who we are, or who we want to be. What does it take to design a monument or a memorial? How do we decide what is important and how we show respect? We’ll visit some of the many monuments in Washington DC, and design our own.