Fall 2016 School Programs: Gallery Visits

It's finally fall, and our K.I.D.S. School Programs are up and running!

This season, we're working from "Language Landscape," an inspiring exhibition of drawings, prints and sculptures by Iranian-American artist Golnar Adili. Golnar was raised in Iran and her father became a political refugee early in her life. He and his family kept in touch through letters. When he passed away in 2002, Golnar discovered he had reproduced, saved and archived every piece of correspondence he sent or received while in exile. This archive became a launching pad for her sensitive, beautiful multimedia exhibition. The work plays with text (Farsi) and repetition, and examines themes like distance, longing and loss.

In the back gallery space, Teaching Artist Ruth gave a tour of the installation, including a large center sculpture that depicts samples of the artist's father's handwriting. She showed students a sample of the Persian alphabet and asked them to compare the shapes of the letters with those of the Roman alphabet. Students then created their own unique writing styles based on the differences they observed -- they used loops, dips, and zigzags to write abstract messages on transparent tissue paper. The objective was to disguise their private messages through the isolation and abstraction of text, similar to Golnar's work.

In the front space, students observed silkscreen prints of repeated verbs taken from well-known Persian poetry. They then discussed the term, "landscape" and how it relates to the work on view. Each student received a small sketchbook of tracing paper, where they drew images on successive sheets to form layered landscapes of shapes, lines and text. Younger students made collages to recreate the layering technique and added 3D objects to mimic sculptural elements in the show.

One Monday, Ms. Helen's first grade class from BNS received a VERY special visitor -- Golnar dropped by to meet the young artists and talk more about her work! She described her father's escape on horseback, her connection to the letters, and read aloud some passages in Farsi.

HUGE thanks to Golnar for the visit, to our terrific teaching artists, and to all the teachers and students who have participated so far! We look forward to the Post Visits starting in just a few weeks -- stay tuned!