BUDDY BENCHES

Fall 2017

THE PROJECT

The goal of this project was to create an engaging and educational art project for 40 4th grade students at Shuler Elementary. The entire project was based around their newly acquired "Buddy Benches" which are benches placed on a school playground where kids who don't have someone to play with can sit and other kids see that they need a playmate and come invite the kid on the bench to join in with a game or activity.

my role

Students listened (very respectfully I might add!) to my presentation about my own art career along with other creative pathways.

After this presentation, we held a great discussion on different and experimental ways of creating art. Through this discussion I taught them about contour and blind contour line drawings.

On the first day we practice this challenging new approach to drawing. On the second day, we drew portraits of each other which required students to embrace trust, empathy and patience. The student then learned about watercolor and were instructed to color their portraits by trying to use a different color in every intricate shape throughout the drawing. To complete the project, the drawings were sent to a vinyl company and installed on benches.