This year’s program ended successfully with a unique variety of lesson plans. Here are some highlights:

ACT Charter

Alex Mendez, Art

Creating healing machines similar to those of Emery Blagdon and use sound art as a vehicle for healing.

Through this lesson, students learned about the life and work of Emery Blagdon (1954-1986, Nebraska). They also looked at Judith Scott, who was known for wrapping objects with yarn. Inspired by both, they created artworks with a sound component, made of wire and tin or yarn, and other easily accessible materials. The project also engaged students in the art making process while addressing social issues, actual problems, and things that are relative to student’s lives. Like Blagdon’s work, the student projects were intended to be healing devices for such issues. In addition, the wooden boards not only focused on the healing element of art, but also on the influence of Math in the designs of Blagdon’s boards.

Emery Blagdon’s “The Healing Machine” Courtesy: Kohler Arts Center

ACT Charter student examples:

Orozco Academy

Grades 4-7

Ed Pino, Art

Alicia Song, Spanish

Lesson plan that uses the art of Martín Ramírez for inspiration

Students made a painting about a memory or imagination based on the art of Martín Ramírez. The teacher introduced the mechanisms of Ramirez’s work, such as, the repeating textures and rhythm, and the central character in a stage like setting. The students were encouraged to reinvent these elements to reflect their personality and interests.

Martin Ramirez, 1895 – 1963, Mexico

Martin Ramirez created nearly 300 drawings of remarkable visual clarity and expressive power within the confines of DeWitt State Hospital in northern California, where he resided the last 15 years of his life. Ramirez has been codified primarily as a “schizophrenic artist”; this project goes beyond the boundaries of Ramirez’s diagnosis of mental illness and considers the artistic quality and merit of his artwork. In this way, Ramirez’s works are understood - and appreciated - for the complex, multilayered drawings that they are. (Source: American Folk Art Museum)

Martin Ramirez's Untitled (Courtyard) Courtesy of The Anthony Petullo Collection of Self-Taught and Outsider Art

Parker Elementary

Eric Hill, Art Instructor

Watercolor “Architectural Symbolizations” as Homage to Someone Dear To You

The lesson helps students understand the sensory elements, organizational principles, and expressive qualities in outsider art, specifically the artist A.G. Rizzoli and his “Architectural Symbolizations” that pay homage to his acquaintances. Students visited Intuit to view the exhibition. In the classroom, they were asked to create a sketch of an “Architectural Symbolization” of someone dear to them (mother, brother, father sister, grandparent, cousin, and so on). They will also analyze and read about the “Architectural Symbolizations” created by A.G. Rizzoli and understand the artworks function in history, society, and everyday life and how it relates to other architectural landmarks in society today.

A.G. Rizzoli's "Mrs. Geo. Powleson Symbolically Portrayed" Courtesy of Ames Gallery

Parker Student Examples:

“Memory Garden: Mosaic Trees -A Reminder and Tribute”

This lesson was created by Teacher Fellowship 2007-08 participants, Maureen Waters (Social Science) and Deborah Sukenic (Art) of Richards Career Academy. They are presently working on the project. Parts of this project will be included in an exhibition in June 2008 for the Teacher Fellowship.

For this lesson, students will be creating a Memorial Garden to commemorate personal, political and/or social changes in their lives. The location of the garden, which will be on the school grounds, is a resurrection of a previous memorial. The original memorial was created several years ago in honor of a teacher who had passed. The students were inspired by a workshop with local artist David Philpot. They also learned about several environment builders and visionary artists. A field trip to Intuit provided more instruction.

Students are working to re-create a permanent and monumental environment. The main objects in the garden will be large mosaic poles in various heights, similar to Philpot’s wooden staffs. Working together, students will embellish the poles using traditional mosaic material (glass, stone, ceramic tile), as well as materials collected by them, that have a personal meaning. The contents of each pole will reflect a social issue and/or commemorate important people. The poles may also serve as a memory of our physical environment, which has been decaying due to pollution and neglect. Students will be involved not only in designing the poles, but in the layout of the garden and installation. Outsider artists presented will include: Fred Smith, Nek Chand, and anonymous Memory Jug artists.

Through our award-winning Teacher Fellowship Program at Intuit, each year we provide in-depth instructional training, supplies, and access to our extensive resource materials to teachers from the Chicago Public Schools. Through lectures, visits with artists, tours of outsider art collections and environments, and access to our Robert A. Roth Study Center, teachers learn how to integrate intuitive and outsider art into their curriculum.

The Teacher Fellowship Program is supported in part by generous grants from the Polk Bros. and Lloyd A. Fry Foundation.