|
Art À La Carte
By Ellen Kollie
Brainstorming and planning allow for functional art classrooms that please teachers and students alike.
Space for art classrooms is often given little consideration during the programming and planning of new schools. And, as a district's population and programming shifts, art teachers often find themselves in "leftover" spaces not designed as art classrooms. Sometimes, their classroom is simply a cart that's rolled from room to room. They simply make do with what they're given.
What if this weren't the case? What if administrators, planners and architects gave a measure of priority to art classrooms - from location to programming to efficiency? If you said the spaces would probably look a lot different, you're right!
Three art teachers were recently asked what their ideal classroom would look like - if money were no object. Here are their thoughts. Not surprisingly, many of the items on their wish list are reasonable and would create an improved learning environment for both teachers and students.
Big-Ticket Requests
Dan Tennant and M. Elise Craver have 65 years combined experience teaching art in the Bainbridge-Guilford Central School District, Bainbridge, N.Y. With all that experience, they have a long wish list. Tenant admits that, once upon a time, he asked for a professional spray booth, exhausted through the ceiling, to be used for air brushing and mixing photography chemicals. At $45,000, his request was denied. Still, it may merit discussion in a renovation or new construction project.
Craver would like to have an enclosed space for clay work. Her request makes sense because clay is bulky and dirty, and it has a distinct odor. A room enclosed with windows would contain the mess (including tools and glazes) and smell. It would also allow passersby to watch students working at a pottery wheel.
"I teach black and white photography," says Tennant, noting that, because it isn't cost effective and so much photography is now digital, it will probably be discontinued when he retires at the end of this school year. Still, for schools that teach photography, it only makes sense to have the dark room connected to the art room, as opposed to down the hall, for easy accessibility and monitoring students' activities.
Practical Ideas
Speaking of the digital age, Tonia Kauffman, an art teacher at Pequea Valley School District in Pennsylvania, requests space and tools to teach computer-generated graphic arts. "This should be seen more in the art room in today's high-tech society," she points out.
As long as we're talking technology, Craver would like for computer/printer work stations to be situated so that they're away from the dust, paint and clutter of the classroom, yet also in a way that allows her to monitor what students are doing on them.
And Tennant notes that many art teachers keep a boom box handy; after all, music is art and nicely complements the creation of art. Therefore, he recommends an audio system which, he says, also eases discipline problems. "Maybe jacks could be installed so students can listen on headphones to keep the noise level down," he suggests.
To complement the audio system, Tennant would like to have a projection system to easily show slides and videos of art styles and artists. He recommends a screen hung from the ceiling that retracts when not in use. If that's asking too much, Kauffman's request is simpler: more bulletin board space to display portraits of famous artists and examples of their work.
When it comes to storage and work areas, the teachers have four strong recommendations. First, easy-access storage is a must. "Some art materials are very susceptible to sunlight and need to be stored in a closet," says Tennant. He advocates storage for liquids and both heavy and light art materials. Well-thought-out, lockable, storage allows for a neat-looking room and keeps art materials close at hand, as opposed to squirreled in a closet down the hall.
Kauffman agrees, noting that storage is needed for examples that are pulled out yearly and students' works in progress. Like Tennant, she requests that it be easy-access: "No matter what age, a student should feel comfortable retrieving his or her own work."
A second storage and work area idea is for a long counter with multiple sinks and shelving above and below to store paints, brushes, mixing trays and paper towels. Craver notes that this simple set up allows for all wet work to be completed in one place as opposed to cleaning up at the sink and then walking across the room to put away the still-damp supplies.
Storage located near sinks allows for efficiency in clean up, as seen in the art classrooms at Polaris K-12 School. A - Click here for photos
A third idea, also from Craver, is for student work stations. She suggests tables with no drawers that seat four and have pull-away chairs for janitors to clean under.
This set up is preferred to desks because students may put art work in the desks and forget about it or, worse, spit inside the desks. The tables must have an easy-to-clean surface that's stronger than Formica because "Formica tends to chip, and the students try to peel it off," explains Tennant.
Durable surfaces are a must, as seen in the art classrooms at Alpharetta High School.
B - Click here for photos
The last work area idea is for an individual cutting station with a strong surface to avoid cutting on tables or desks. "We do a lot of cutting with knives," Tennant points out. "A cutting station provides a place to safely store knives and protect other surfaces from being cut. It should be well lit so students can see their measurements and not cut their fingers."
Moving on, lighting is not to be overlooked as a practical consideration. First, clerestory lighting allows for plenty of natural light without glare. Second, Kauffman suggests track lighting, for a couple of reasons. First, it allows students to see the difference in their work between natural and artificial light. Second, it can be directed to highlight an example or to allow students to more clearly see what they're working on.
Clerestory windows fill the art classroom with natural light, sans glare, as seen at Las Vegas Day School.
C - Click here for photos
Once a piece of art is completed, it needs to be displayed. Here the teachers also had some viable ideas. A simple suggestion from Kauffman is "More." Specifically, she'd like to have more cork strips in the hall to display art. "We don't have enough strips to hang both artwork and classroom work," she explains, "so I'm always competing with the teacher for display space."
Tennant takes Kauffman's idea a step farther: "We have a problem hanging art on cork strips in the hallway," he explains. "For example, students run their fingers through chalk paintings and ruin them. So, we would like to have student gallery areas, complete with professional lighting. The gallery areas need Plexiglass doors to protect the art on display. Ideally the galleries would be located throughout the school."
Gallery areas allow for displaying student artwork, as seen in the art classrooms at Good Tidings Foundation.
D - Click here for photos
"Since-we're-asking" Wishes
Tennant let his imagination run wild when coming up with ideas for the art classroom. His ideas merit consideration because it's important to never say never when creating a high-quality school. The first is restrooms.
"Sometimes restrooms are locked because they've experienced vandalism," Tennant points out. "Students who ask to use the restroom during class may have to go clear across the school. If we had our own facilities, the students wouldn't be gone as long, and we wouldn't have to worry about them wandering through the school."
Tennant's second imaginative idea relates to food. "Students bring expensive coffee to class," he says. "They like it and want it, so I think it would be nice to have a station in the art room that features a microwave, small fridge and coffee machine. They could have their coffee at a lower price and heat snacks in the microwave." Of course, he continues, this requires a separate table for eating, as you don't want to mix your snack with red paint!
Obviously, if money were no problem, every school district would jump to implement all of these teachers' ideas. Unfortunately, money is always a factor, so administrators, planners and architects must weigh what can be included depending not only on cost, but also space and program considerations. The key to a successful art classroom is to plan for it from the beginning, rather than leaving it as an afterthought.
|
