K.I.D.S. Art Education Program: RHI After School Update: Class 4 of 10

K.I.D.S. Art Education

Kentler International Drawing Space is a non profit arts organization located in Red Hook, Brooklyn.

The K.I.D.S. Art Education program brings innovative art-making experiences to students, teachers, and families in and around Red Hook. With our diverse community in mind, Kentler is committed to using contemporary art as a platform for inquiry, exploration, and empowerment. All programs are based on Kentler's exhibitions of drawings and works on paper.

Our programming includes School, After-School, Residency, and Drawing Together family weekend workshops.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

RHI After School Update: Class 4 of 10

Our latest session of RHI After School classes is in full swing. With the help of Kentler Teaching Artist Meghan Keane and RHI tutors, Ricky and Destiny, students have been focusing on their goal for this session: "get better at drawing" but specifically "learn to draw people"!

This week students and advisers did musical chairs observational drawing. Students looked across the desk at their neighbor, observing specific facial features, and practiced drawing different parts on cardboard pieces. They switched seats every two minutes in time to music, listening to a local string quartet's new Phillip Glass recording (Brooklyn Rider).

At the end, look what sort of playful, constructed, triangular portraits they created:

RHI middle school group hard at work.

Left: a collaborative portrait playing with textured, perforated cardboard.

Left: trying out what happens when a nose goes across multiple pieces. Right: using dark shapes to create contrast between the neck and the background.