Deconstructing the Studio Centers

Our students’ last day was yesterday and today I am packing up for summer vacation.  In my choice-based art classroom there are six basic studio centers:  Drawing, 3D Sculpture, Painting, Clay, Fiber Arts, and Digital Arts.  As centers are taken apart, packed in boxes and placed in storage, I reflect on each of the components that enable students to work independently. 

 

Right now, I am in the Drawing Studio Center, which has drawing media, tools, visuals, and books.  Individually marked containers of markers, pencils, color pencils, pastels, charcoal, craypas, crayons, gel pens, stamps and ink pads are reviewed for quality and combined in large boxes.  Paper in various sizes, weights, and colors, always accessible, is stacked for storage.  Another box holds clipboards, for students who like to draw on the rug, and photographic reference books.  New this year is an assortment of graphic novels, which were so popular that they got their own table, along with templates for creating cartoon panels.  I tuck several shallow boxes holding drawing tools and templates are into cabinets.  Signs with visual prompts, vocabulary, directions, and exemplars come off the bulletin boards. This year, M.C. Escher, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Laylah Ali were our featured artists in the drawing center.  It will be fun to select new artists for next year!   Lastly, I place the many objects used for still life and observation drawing into a large box: plastic animals, wooden human figures, realistic plants, shells, and models, all showing loving use over the years.

  

The students who frequent the Drawing Center are an enthusiastic bunch.  They come armed with ideas and reference materials.  Some students create new drawings every week.  Others work on the same drawing over weeks or even months.  The girl in the photograph has pursued stylistic flower drawings for several years.  She worked on this particular drawing periodically throughout her second grade year.  Students at this center are very disciplined and determined, driven by intrinsic motivation to pursue topics of personal relevance.   I am so proud of their accomplishments!

 

Diane Jaquith
Burr Elementary School
Newton, MA
didij@aol.com