Inspiring creativity
Posted on Thursday, January 25, 2007
Fifth-graders from Greenland Middle School visited Wednesday the Nadine Baum Studios at the Walton Arts Center to partake in the center’s Art in Action program.
The students began in the morning by touring two of the center’s current exhibits, “ From Slavery to Freedom: The Issue of Race in Film” and “ Passionate Observer: Photographs by Eudora Welty, ” before attending workshops on poetry, drama and visual arts.
Poet Clayton Scott taught the workshop on poetry, asking students to write an eight-line poem about their impressions of photos they observed. He encouraging the students to be descriptive so that they “ show ” what happened instead of just telling the reader what happened.
“ Writing correctly can be taught, ” Scott said. “ What cannot be taught is creativity.... It’s up to your heart and soul and mind to think creatively. You must have both, writing correctly and creativity. ”
“ From Slavery to Freedom” features a variety of movie posters of films with African-American characters at various times in history. “ Passionate Observer ” features pictures taken by Welty, a photographer known for her pictures of the South during the 1930 s.
In addition to poetry, students created their own scenes and drawings using two of Welty’s photos for inspiration. The photos featured two black girls holding dolls and black workers taking a break together.
At instructor Kate Frank’s drama workshop, the students created different poses based on their interpretations of the photos.
The idea of Art in Action is that after looking at the exhibits, the students can then participate in a handson experience of creating their own work, according to Patricia Relph, arts learning specialist at the arts center.
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