Youths explore Dearborn to see murals of various vintages as well as work on own fresco painting.
DEARBORN -- Students at Dearborn schools are getting a chance
to learn about the art that exists right in their community -- and see
some created -- through a series of field trips focusing on murals.
The trips, which began last week and will continue into November,
take elementary, middle school and high school students to three
Dearborn sites with murals of various vintages.
Some of the art is around schoolchildren every day. Bryant Library
and Salina Intermediate School, for example, have murals commissioned
in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration, one of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs to put the nation back to
work.
Local artist Robert Schefman created a mural in 1997 at 19th
District Court. After seeing Schefman's mural, students visit the
Padzieski Gallery in the Ford Performing & Community Arts Center in
Dearborn.
Artist Radfan Alqirsh is creating a mural based on the themes of the
gallery's current exhibit, "Journeys and Distances." It commemorates
the recent opening of the Arab-American National Museum in Dearborn.
Alqirsh's mural depicts the experiences of Arab-American immigrants.
Seeing the mural gave Moin Patel, a fourth-grader at Maples
Elementary, a chance to tell his classmates how it feels to be an
immigrant. Moin's family moved to Dearborn from India, and the mural
expressed many of his own feelings about being a newcomer.
"It makes me feel that I am not the only one here that's from a different country," Moin said.
It's the first time he was really able to express his feelings to his classmates, he added.
"I feel I could tell them what I think and feel good I could tell them about it," he said.
That's one of the ideas behind the mural, said Julie Moreno,
coordinator for the Padzieski gallery. "It's about the universal
experience of an immigrant, taking what you have known and trying to
amalgamate into a new civilization," she said.
The purpose of touring the murals around town is to raise student
awareness of the high-quality public art in Dearborn, at its schools
and other public places.
"We want the students to realize art is for everyone," Moreno said.
"Everyone sees something different in it -- there's always little
stories within the main story."
The art tours go beyond looking at murals and talking with an
artist. Students also worked on a small fresco, a painting made on
fresh damp plaster.
It ties in with the "around the world" theme that art teacher Susan
Briggs is using with her fourth-graders this year. The children learn
about art from a different part of the world and make something
similar, experiencing the technique or project in context.
"We have a very strong curriculum aligned with the state and
national benchmarks for art education -- in some cases even stronger,"
Briggs said. "In fourth grade, we do a lot of hands-on and art
history."
Students are encouraged to discuss what they think is happening in each mural, and what it represents.
Beyond art classes, visual thinking is on the MEAP test as part of
reading comprehension. In addition, Moreno said, art education can be
helpful in math class because as students recognize patterns in art,
they can more easily pick up on patterns in numbers.
"(Art education) is important because it creates good
problem-solving skills," Moreno said. "As artists, you need to be able
to work with what you're given, and be able to think on your feet."
Wendy Sample, an art resource teacher leader in Dearborn, organized
the field trips with Moreno and found funding for them. The Dearborn
Trolley offers reduced-price transportation, and the Dearborn Kiwanis
Club picks up the tab. Volunteers from Starbucks act as docents at each
site, as part of the company's community service program.
Also in October, Sample was host to visiting artists from Mexico.
The artists, who work in fiber and create weavings, demonstrated their
craft at the schools and talked to students. Briggs said it gave
children another opportunity to interact with someone from another
culture and learn more about the world.
Amy Kuras is a Metro Detroit freelance writer.
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