This past month, Art in Action was thrilled to be back again at Humber Summit! Teachers chose from art inspired by First Nation Greatness, artists that act as Agents of Change to bring awareness to environmental concerns including endangered species, celebrate Pride or Black Excellence.
Take a look at a few examples of the exceptional work done by exceptional students at Humber Summit. Art in Action was so happy to be working with such dedicated staff and students who at every turn were willing to lend a hand!
Art in Action was an engaging, educational and unique art experience for Class 61. Sara enthusiastically demonstrated her expertise, patience and passion for critical world issues. We learned about two Canadian artists and their efforts to protect endangered species. The end products spoke for themselves; every student felt a sense of accomplishment and happiness in their masterpiece. We look forward to working with Art in Action again in the near future!
– Dimitra Lefkimmiatis
Ms. Lefkimmiatis’s class looked at endangered species. Many animals across the world fall on the Endangered Species List. One of the many species that fall on this list is the Tiger, which has been listed as endangered since 1975. Many artists have seen the dangers to animals and their near extinction and have taken action. Tamara Philips, a Canadian artist donated proceeds towards Tigers after making a painting inspired by them and Robert Bateman is another Canadian artist, known worldwide for his conservation efforts for animals and is part of an activist group named Artists for conservation. Their efforts and the efforts of many others have inspired change worldwide.
By following along with a step-by-step drawing exercise and using a variety of art materials including chalk pastels, permanent markers and acrylic paint. Just like each tiger that has its own unique stripe pattern on its skin as well as its fur, Grade 6 students at Humber Summit did an amazing job creating their own unique tiger eye.
Claude Monet was born in Paris, France in 1840. Monet was a founder of Impressionist Painting. In 1892, Claude Monet moved to a house in Giverny, France. It had a garden, pond, orchards and a bridge that would serve as a source of great inspiration for the artist – one that he painted many times and would become his most famous work, The Water Lilies which will be our art example for this bridge project: Water Lilies and Japanese Bridge (1899).
Student’s examined the work Show me the Monet, a Banksy re-imagining of Claude Monet’s Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies featuring traffic cones and discarded shopping carts. Banksy is the pseudonym or nickname of a street artist known for his controversial and often politically themed, stencilled pieces of art. In Banksy’s version of Monet’s famous series of water lilies paintings, adapted by Banksy to include drifting trash and debris.
This piece was evidently designed to bring awareness to the social issue of dumping waste into water. Banksy’s piece has disrupted Monet’s calming scene, intending to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and contemplate environmental problems. The universal use of the shopping cart as a symbol of consumerism on websites such as Amazon, the painting could also be a critique of capitalism as a whole. Banksy could be stating that over consumerism has led to environmental problems like pollution of local ponds.
Students at Humber Summit create something beautiful to bring awareness to environmental concerns and here we see them “in action” using oil pastel resist techniques, watercolour techniques and applying chalk pastels.
Recently my grade 7 students had an opportunity to work with an Art in Action instructor to create waterfall paintings celebrating Pride. Our classroom became an art studio with all the needed supplies at our fingertips. Our instructor was an expert who taught the students new techniques and painting methods that allowed all students to create their masterpieces. Every student was successful and felt proud of their work. I would highly recommend this program and hope that we have the opportunity to host these instructors in our classrooms again.
– Nitsa Derry
Humber Summit students learned the original pride flag designed by Gilbert Baker had 8 colours: hot pink, red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise, indigo, and violet. Each colour on the flag has a meaning: red means life, orange means healing, yellow means sunlight, green means nature, blue/indigo means harmony and violet means spirit, originally pink meant love, and turquoise represented art. The first version of the pride flag was flown on the parade in San Francisco in 1978. However, pride had been celebrated for around 10 years before that, the first instance largely credited to the stonewall riots.
The stonewall riots were a series of riots that took place over six days in June of 1969 and were the result of a police raid, and the subsequent arrests made on a gay club called the Stonewall Inn. These riots were largely instigated by Marsha P. Johnson and Slyvia Rivera, two transgender activists who were very active in the community. Students learned that while Pride is now a Celebration of Acceptance, it began as a Civil Rights Movement and that change starts from a single drop of water.
“How many years has it taken people to realize that we are all brothers and sisters and human beings in the human race?”
-Marsha P Johnson
Thank you Humber Summit – Art in Action can’t wait to visit you again soon!