The Duniway Art Show

Last week, I had the extreme pleasure of attending the Duniway Student Art Show! I love the theme they chose this year, it kind of sounds familiar...

This year, the Duniway art committee has made some great additions - they've switched to using a digital projector and laptop to show art history slide shows, they've created an amazing new website, and they managed to extend the art show to three days instead of just one!

I love the beautiful subtlety of the watercolor haiku lesson (above) and the sumi-e ink painting lesson (below).

The majority of these lesson plans were written by the fantastic, incredible, brilliant Michelle Smit (pictured below with her favorites - the "Picassos"). Michelle and I worked together on the art program for years, and she is continuing to carry the torch and doing a great job along with the rest of the art committee. I'm so proud of them!

My favorites are the abstracts, for sure.



But I also love the more realistic pieces like these self-portrait value studies:

This is just a small selection, I really had to restrain myself to not make this post too long, but I could go on forever! Below are some of the nifty ceramic animals made by 2nd graders:

On April 1 of this year, the Duniway Art Program was presented with a Creative Ticket School of Excellence Award by the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education and the Oregon Alliance for Arts Education. I am so proud and so honored to have played a part in this great achievement.
I know that a lot of people come across this blog while searching for children's art lesson plans, so if that's what you are looking for, I strongly encourage you to visit the new website, www.duniwayart.org. You'll find everything you could possibly want for grades K - 5 - painting, printmaking, ceramics, wire sculpture, sand painting, outdoor art with natural objects, collage, mandalas (yeah!), pop art, wood sculpture, still life, surrealism, impressionist landscapes, and much more, all interwoven with art history and muliculturalism. The lesson plans are all on there as PDF downloads with sample images of finished projects.

These lessons were all specifically designed to be taught by parent volunteers who don't necessarily have any art or teaching experience. It has worked incredibly well at Duniway. So get out there and start bringing art education back to the elementary schools - here's proof that it is possible!