Happy Hanukkah! the Holiday Season is in full swing and even though we are all busy, it’s great to take a break and check out some of the sights, sounds and offerings of the season all around the city. Here are some of my top picks for this week:

Museum of the City of New York has great exhibits and is free on Sunday mornings before noon.  http://www.nyc-arts.org/organizations/103/museum-of-the-city-of-new-york

Sonatenabend at Juilliard: Musicians from the school’s Collaborative Piano Department perform sonata repertoire in collaboration with student instrumentalists. Thursday.  Free!
http://www.nyc-arts.org/events/6304/sonatenabend

ZigZag Quartet at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center: In addition to performing their own arrangements and works written especially for the quartet, the group’s musical palette is colored with Baroque, jazz and Latin American music. Thursday.  Also Free!
http://www.nyc-arts.org/events/6244/zigzag-quartet

Online Hanukkah guide from the Jewish Museum.  Celebrate with activities, offerings and even online greetings!  Check out the Jewish Museum website for more info! http://www.thejewishmuseum.org/Hanukkah2009

At the Brooklyn Museum participate in “ArtyFacts” for ages 4 through 7, on saturdays or Sundays at 11am and 2pm, just one of the many ongoing events at this family friendly museum!  For the adults there is a fabulous exhibit, “Who Shot rock and Roll”, which I highly recommend!  Check out the website for more! http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/

Closer to home, at Historic Richmondtown there will be candlelight tours which begin this week.  http://www.historicrichmondtown.org/

Peter and The Wolf, Prokofiev’s operetta for children will be performed at the Guggenheim Museum, narrated by Isaac Mizrahi, it promises to be a wonderful event.  For more info on the performances and exhibit currently on view, such as the phenomenal Kandinsky, visit: http://www.guggenheim.org/

Even if all you do is get outside and take in some of the sights and people watch, there is so much to see and do!  Enjoy your weekend in the greatest city in the world!

We learned about three different types of Greek urns. They were called Amphora, Krater and Dinosa. These urns were used as prizes, similar to our modern day trophies. Greece is a country in Europe. Greek people participated in a lot of athletic games. Greece is the birth place of the Olympic games. The Urns were depicted as having images of the sport that the were being rewarded for. For example at a track and field event, the urn would have picture of people running on it. Chariot races would reap a trophy with that image. The urns were carefully and thoughtfully crafted, they were hand made out of terracotta and images were designed also by hand. Post by Class X-03

A mural done by students in Ms. Leston’s class for the Very Special Arts Festival in May 2009 has been selected for the VSA 2010 Murals calendar and will appear as the image for the month of February. The artwork, which is a paper mosaic was created entirely out of small scraps of reclaimed paper, making it not only attractive, but GREEN too! The artwork will travel with the other VSA murals to the Queens Museum of Art where they will all be displayed in January, then on to Albany later in the spring for an exhibit in our state capital. Great work everyone!

The Coral Reef Community Mural, created by K-2 students at the main site has moved on to the District 75 Offices at 400 First Avenue in Manhattan. The artwork, which is a collage of painted, printed, drawn, and /or textured paper, was created entirely of reused, recycled, and rescued materials. The background, for example, was cast-off bulletin board backing “rescued” from the trash – accounting for the rough and jagged edges of the mural. Students learned about the creatures that inhabit the coral reef and composed informative text to accompany the artwork.

Cave Painting Mural

Visit our display outside the main office on Henderson Avenue to see our “cave drawings” inspired by the Stone Age cave paintings of Lascaux, France. Then, visit the first floor gallery to see watercolors inspired by the work of modern artist, Elaine De Kooning, who after visiting Lascaux in 1983, created a series of paintings in her abstract expressionist style. After examining and discussing the elements of both the ancient and the modern, students were asked to draw inspiration from one or both and create their own watercolors. Read their comments to see how they were inspired in their own work.

Check out the new display on the first floor! Students from our upper grades have been studying ancient Egypt and learning about hieroglyphics, cartouches, and friezes. The students have created their own cartouches (name plates) to not only display their names, but have added many symbols used by the ancient scribes to tell about the pharaohs who were their leaders. Next, students created friezes like the ones found in the pyramids. Can you pose like an Egyptian? More to come – next the students look at who in modern times has been influenced by the art of the Ancient Egyptians – artists like Alberto Giacometti and Romero Britto. What does Egyptian art inspire you to create?

Celebrate New York

A mural inspired by images that are iconic New York and creted by students in the main building has been receiving a lot of attention since it debuted at the Very Special Arts Festival in May. “Celebrate New York”, a mixed media collage creeted by Edrisce Dunn, Joseph Sola, Gwendolyn Brown, Edward Owens, Ciavion McCullom. Justin Messado, Adrian Umana and Zion Wade, was chosen by Mayor Bloomberg’s office to be the featured artwork as well as, the cover design for the invitation to the 2009 Mayor’s Awards in Honor of The Americans With Disabilities Act. The event, on August 12, 2009 will take place at Gracie Mansion and will be attended by many prominent figures from across the city, including Superintendent Bonnie Brown and District 75 Arts supervisor Kathy London, and of course, Mayor Bloomberg.
On August 10, 2009, students who had participated in the creation of the mural were invited to visit and tour City Hall. There they learned about the history of our City Hall, and visited rooms reserved for special guests, such as the Governor’s Room, “The Bull Pen” where the mayor and his staffers gather to conduct city business, and Council Chamber, where the legislative branch meets. Students received some momentos of their trip and will each receive a copy of the invitation featuring their wok.

Just added to the blogroll is the Getty Museum for Kids where you can access Getty Games. Here you can find jigsaw puzzles of famous works of art, play concentration and matching games, and even test your skills at being an art detective! Check it out and let me know what you think. Have fun!

Summer is here and we are going greener than ever! We are stepping up our efforts to increase our use of found and reclaimed objects, paper scraps, and recycled materials to create our art. Classes have been challenged to create sculptures out of these and other materials that would have been headed for landfills and recycling plants. Artists have always been concerned with conservation and the environment and have looked for ways to use readily found materials to create art as well as to send messages about how to protect our planet for future generations. Look for our “green” creations and our tips for conserving and creating “green” art!

The 2009 Very Special Arts Festival was held at Columbia University’s Thorndike Hall May 27 -28, 2009. Three classes from our Main Building participated in creating murals to be displayed during the festival. Afterwards, the works of art will travel to Queens, where they will be on display at The Queens Museum of Art. The classes created beautiful murals, each with a different celebratory theme.
Ms. Vivaldi’s students created “Celebrate New York” depicting various New York icons under a sky lit with fireworks. The students learned about what makes something “iconic New York” and then researched and created their iindividual pieces which were assembled to create their mural.
Ms. Gunderson’s students made hand painted papers, and studied creatures found in a garden to create their “Celebrate the Garden” mural, bursting with life and bright color.
Lastls, Ms. Leston’s class created “Celebrate Friendship” a paper mosaic mural, in which they recycled many scraps of colored papers to bring their artwork to life.
A beautiful job by all, which received many compliments from attendees at the Festival!