Jazz up a hallway with a permanent student art gallery!

On The Artful Advocate blog, I shared about the student art gallery in my former school, pictured above.  I'll share a gallery tour in this post, as well, but I also want to point out a few pieces of interest.  For example, these two adorable elephants pictured below were painted more than 10 years apart!  (Sorry about the picture quality in this post; the hallway is narrow and there's a lot of unavoidable reflections on the glass in the frames.)

Let me tell you more about the gallery.  The school building in the tiny district where I taught was brand new in 1999, and for the first time, all K-12 students (between 500-600 kids total) were housed in one building.  A long stretch of bare hallway connects the high school and elementary wings, and I decided it was a perfect place to adorn permanently with student artwork.  With the support of my administration and school board, financial support from the PTSA organization,discounts and donations of mat board and frames from my favorite framer, and help with the installation by my fabulous custodians, the gallery became a reality and several pieces of artwork were added each year. To see the elementary gallery as it looks now, adorned with more than a dozen years of student artwork, watch the video tour below.

A year or two after my gallery began, the high school teacher also began adding artwork at the high school end of the hallway, and you can tour that section of the gallery in this video.

What's really fun is seeing some things that have happened.  For example, there's a few kids who have a piece on both the elementary and the high school end of the gallery, such as the 4th grade painted tissue paper collage below, and the high school acrylic painting underneath, both created by a talented young lady.  This artist, as with many others whose work hangs in the gallery, is now a college graduate! 

And there's these two paintings of trees, painted by talented twin sisters while in 4th grade.  I believe one of the girls has gone on to an art-related career, and a younger sister is also an artist.  We drew trunks that touched the top of the paper, and added branches that also extended to the edges of the paperl  The kids practiced color blending with tempera paint to create these paintings. 

While I was videotaping and photographing the gallery a few days ago, I noted many pieces of artwork are from projects I've never blogged about, so I'll be posting about them in coming posts.  For example, this fan design below was made by a 4th grader.  It was painted with values of India ink with the addition of some charcoal, and coated with Mod Podge.  Most students folded their fans and added cardboard sticks so they could actually be used, but this student chose to simply mount his fan, and was happy to have it selected to add to the gallery.

Perhaps my favorite piece in the gallery, and the story that goes with it, is this 1st grade portrait "of Mary by Karen" below, created before the gallery even existed. (Again, I apologize for image quality.  Along with the reflections on the glass, the artwork has also faded a bit.)  The students did these portraits sitting across from a friend they wanted to draw.  The artwork was done with construction paper and colored  pencils, and honestly, this looked JUST like Mary, bright blue eyes, freckles and all! The drawings had been sent home with the artists.  When Mary and Karen graduated from high school (still best friends), the same year I retired, Karen's mother brought me the artwork and suggested it hang in the gallery.  I framed it, and hung it at the very beginning of the gallery.  I swear, it STILL looks jut like Mary!

In the coming few days, I'll share stories (and lesson instructions) for a few other pieces hanging in the gallery.  Come back to take a look!

My very own art show!

The library in the little community where I taught has a hallway gallery when you enter.  Artists are invited to sign up to exhibit for one month.  For many years, I hung my elementary students' artwork in this gallery for the month of March, to celebrate Youth Art Month, and the teacher who replaced me  has continued this tradition.  The high school art teacher also takes a turn of a month for her student work!  During my final year of teaching, and her first year, she and I did a joint exhibit of our personal work in this gallery; I blogged about that show in a post you can find HERE.   Fast-forward a few years to now, and I'm back exhibiting in the library, this time with just my own artwork, including the paintings above and below.

This past summer, I attended an immersive plein air painting class on the campus of Bennington College, and wrote about it in a blog post HERE.  I recently refined the two paintings directly above that were painted during this time (on the Bennington College library patio, and a statue found in a garden on the grounds of historic Park McCullough House).  I wanted the opportunity to share these paintings, as well as the other work from the summer, and also some acrylic textural paintings I had recently completed.  So I jumped at the chance to show this work for the first time, at this gallery, where my work will be seen by many of my former students!  Here's a few views of most of the gallery, each wall from both directions. First, here's the wall with the oil paintings (and some photos and doodles not visible in these pics).

And here's the other, shorter wall...

I should note that due to the size of the hallway and lighting, I struggled to get decent photos.  I didn't want to use a flash and get glare on the artwork, either.  So these imperfect photos will have to suffice.  Anyhow, here are some close-ups of the work on exhibit. Directly below, four of the oil paintings completed during my Bennington week - trees at dusk outside the painting studio, a brick wall at the faculty village, an interior of the greenhouse at the Park McCullough Historic House, and a campus view. (There's another campus view at the top of this post.) 

Also on display are two recent acrylic textural abstractions.  Directly below is a piece titled 'Elements', and below it is the larger 'Marsh Dreams', which incorporates a lot of fabric collage and beads, as well as the use of various textural acrylic mediums. 

And there's a selection of 8 of my photos.  Choosing just 8 was an insane challenge, but I only had 8 frames and I wasn't ready to buy more or cut more mats...

I am also displaying my doodles, many of which you saw in my prior post.

There's a small oil painting that I did looking out at the lake from our 'camp', where we spend much of our summer and fall.  I keep changing this painting - unfortunately the light was different each time I worked on it plein air, so I gave up and just had fun with it at home in the studio.  Not terrific, but better than it was!

 And a stand of bright flowers painted on the Bennington campus

 And that's the entire show, pretty much!  Thanks for stopping in for a look!

The hallway gallery; how it was created!

Tempera elephant, 18"x 24" - grade 1

I wrote about this butterfly project, on 12"x 18" paper, here and here.  The original inspiration for the project came from Art Project Girl.

 My tiny rural school district built a new K-12 school about 15 years ago.  Before then, we had been in three impractical old buildings in three towns, each several miles (and an exit on the highway) apart.  It was wonderful bringing the whole district together in one building.  When we moved in, I noticed a long stretch of hallway.  A main atrium leads from the front of the building to the doors to the central library.  Then, a long hallway stretches left to the elementary end of the building, and right to the secondary.  The hallway travels along the back of the auditorium and gymnasium, which means that one side of the hallway has no doorways, no windows; nothing.  On the other side of the hall, there's a couple of doors to the nurse's office, and again, a long stretch of unbroken wall. I thought it would be great to create a growing permanent gallery of student artwork along this otherwise drab hall. In this post, I'll tell you how I made that happen, and talk a little about the artwork in the gallery.

Andy Warhol tempera cat, 9"x 12" - grade 3

Tempera cityscape; color mixing exercise 14"x 16" - grade 4

 All photos in this post are from the elementary wing of this gallery.  (It took a few years before the high school art teacher decided to participate in this idea.)  Due to the narrowness of the hall, the height of the artwork, my (lack of) height, and poor lighting, the photos are not great quality.  There's reflections of the glass from the hall light, the color balance is often wacky, and because of my height, some of the pics were taken at an angle.  I was only able to get pictures of of about 2/3 the elementary artwork, and I did not get photos of the high school part of the gallery.  Currently, there are about 60 elementary pieces, and about 20 secondary works, including photography.  I tried to crop, edit, and color balance the photos to a point, but they are definitely not up to my usual photos standards.  But I think they will do for this post!  Anyhow, here's how the gallery came to exist, in case this is something you want to do in a neglected hallway in your school.

Oriental fan design with ink and Mod Podge - grade 6

 Above, 18"x 24" teddy bear paintings - grade 2.  Our 2nd grade takes an annual field trip crossing Lake Champlain on a ferry, to go to the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory.  We always built teddy bear chairs in grade 2, for their bears to relax in!  I have posted about making these teddy bear chairs, here and here. 

 In the beginning, acting in partnership with the PTSA, my students created artwork for the annual PTSA fundraiser.  The PTSA did all the paperwork and organization of the fundraiser; I was just responsible for having every student grades K-6 create a suitable work of art.  In return, the PTSA agreed to give me a sum of money each year, to subsidize having 3 pieces of student art professionally matted and framed. Meanwhile, I made the selection of student art from work that I saved throughout the year.  I saved about a dozen pieces, and then brought in a few other staff 'critics' to help make decisions about the selections.  This kept me from 'playing favorites'.  They did not see the student names when picking artwork.

Black glue and chalk pastels, 12"x 18", after Peter Max - grade 5

Marker 'shoescape' with contour line shoes, 18"x 24" - grade 5

 One basic rule: I would never select the same child's artwork twice.  All students whose work was selected for the gallery were given a letter to take home, asking permission for their artwork to be permanently installed in the gallery.  I gave each student a certificate, and also took a photo of each child with his/her artwork, and printed it and put it in a small frame for a keepsake gift.  After a couple of years, I began to be more thoughtful about the media for the pieces selected, being aware of fading.  In the beginning, I hung a beautiful construction paper mola, and a Picasso 'fractured face' with markers, and both have faded significantly.  A couple of lovely still life paintings in watercolor are also quite faded.  Tempera and acrylic seem to hold up well.  We generally select work that is colorful, since the hallway is rather lifeless otherwise.  Thus, you won't see subtle charcoal drawings here.  Also, if we were debating a final selection, then we would look at the names of artists represented, and try to select students that did not usually get recognition otherwise.  Several talented special education students have lovely pieces hanging on the gallery wall.

Patterned cat, oil pastels on tempera, 18"x 24"  - grade 5

Glue and pastel chalks on black paper, 12"x 18" - grade

 Over the years, I wanted to add more artwork each year, so I was frugal about how I used the money.  I bought a good mat cutter and started cutting all the mats myself.  For smaller mats, I could use mat board 'cutouts' given to me by my framer.  I think you will find that most framers will willingly donate mat board scraps to art teachers! 

Painted tissue paper collage, a la Eric Carle, 12"x 18" - grade 4

Sharpie on foil dragon - grade 3; read about how we did the project here. Original inspiration for the use of materials came from a post by Sharpie Woman, here.

 Then, suddenly, several years ago, after a dispute, the PTSA disbanded. (This should serve as a reminder to you all how quickly a disparaging remark made on Facebook will get back to the person being criticized.  That's what started the crumbling of an active PTSA.  Think before you post!)  I found myself without funding, couldn't legally hold a fund drive myself, and frankly didn't have the time to handle it all anyhow.  

 Above, two 18"x 24" "Jazz" paintings in tempera, with CD's - grade 2

Victorian architecture, enlarged detail; tempera, I believe 16"x 18", perhaps? - grade 3

 So I went to my lovely framer, who also framed work for a couple of other area art teachers.  As I said, she had always donated mat board scraps to me; now, she offered to donate some frames, too!  Often, someone will bring something to a framer already in a frame, that they want to replace.  The customer doesn't want the old frame back.  Maybe there's a nick in the wood, or the color is wrong, or the corner needs re-gluing.  The framer can't sell that old frame.  If you form a good relationship with a framer, this is a great way to find frames for student artwork.  Three years after I retired, there's still a box with a few frames left to be used, in my old classroom storage room.  The framer even gave me a couple of large frames that I was able to use for my personal artwork, with her permission!  I would order some large mat board from my annual budget, and use the mat board cutouts from the framer for smaller pieces.

Fauve elephant, tempera, with tissue collage frame, 16" x 20" - grade 3 (click here for details)

At this point, my selection process had to change a bit.  In the beginning, the framer made the frames to fit the artwork, always using the same frame style.  Now, I had frames in a variety of shapes, styles and materials, and I had to select artwork that would fit the frames I had available.  The gallery grew by as many as 6 or 7 pieces of art a year, and by this time, the high school teacher had gotten involved, and we worked together to prepare the work to hang.

 Above, 12"x 18" goldfish bowls a la Matisse, by grade 2 are a collage mix of watercolor, wallpaper, painted paper, and tempera.  Read about the project here and about the still life used for this, here.  The same still life setup was used for the 4th grade 18"x24" tempera painting below.  Read about this project here and here.

 The custodial staff has been responsible for actually installing the artwork.  In the beginning, I would get upset because it wasn't hung exactly at the height I intended, or the distance apart, but I learned to temper my annoyance and remember that nobody noticed those things except me.  The artwork was hung, and that was the important thing.  And then, over the years, the custodian hanging the work learned to come to me, and together we would mark off the wall to show exactly which piece went where.  I love coming into the school now and seeing the gallery, and knowing that kids can walk down the hall, point to a framed work of art, and say "I did that!  I'm an artist!"

The 9"x12" piece above, by a 4th grade girl, was a design for a greeting card for a fundraiser project by request of a local charitable organization.  The lettering wasn't up to the necessary standard so it wasn't ultimately selected, but I loved the idea.  The 12"x18" tempera painting below was by her 4th grade sister the following year.  They moved away, left these pieces behind, and I found frames to fit them both.  Maybe they will return some day!

 Here's a few more pieces -

 Above left is a 12"x18" name reflection in metallic and black tempera, grade 5, and two small chalk on wet bogus paper abstractions, with  Mod Podge glaze, by grade 2.

Below, the 12"x 18" tempera mask on the left is by a 3rd grader.  The 1st grade portrait on the right was made of Mary, by Karen, by direct observation, when they were in 1st grade, before the new school had been built.  They both graduated from high school a few years ago, and Mary's mother, a former school board member, and her father, school groundskeeper, gave the piece back to me to frame and add to the gallery.  I believe you still could pick Mary's freckled face out of a crowd based on this lovely portrait. 

 And yes, of course the hallway wouldn't be complete without a few framed 'toothpaste batik' works of art, by grade 5, below.  I have posted about this project several times, so just search 'toothpaste batik' in the search bar on the right, or click on 'toothpaste batik' from the label cloud at the bottom of the blog  Too many links to include here!

 And yes, a few more before I sign off...  

The first two, below, were tempera, 18" square, by grade 2.  We looked at Laurel Burch's series of celestial images, and created decorative suns and moons.  I'm smitten by these pieces, I admit.

 And of course, like everyone else, I've done this project below, too; my original motivation came not from a fellow blogger, but much before the internet existed: from an art ed text I found dated from the50's or early 60's, I believe. - 18"x 24" tempera, grade 3

 And these 4th grade trees are 12"x 18" tempera, a limited color project.  Two colors to use together for sky, two for ground, two for tree.

 I don't usually select Kindergarten pieces because I'm not sure they understand, but I was smitten by this piece and I had a frame that fit it perfectly.  Tempera, maybe 10"x14"?  It's an odd size.

 And finally, this moody painting done with tempera, painted over a textured surface created by drawing with Elmer's Glue-All, and sprinkling sand into the wet glue.  I posted about this here and here.You will find a better photo of the unframed piece there.  The original idea for the technique was found here.  Gotta give credit where credit is due!