Art Alive!

The Lower School hosted some famous (and colorful) visitors on May 27. A few were old-timers like Michelangelo Buonarroti, Leonardo da Vinci, and Rembrandt van Rijn. More modern characters visited, too—Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, and Andy Warhol, to name a few. How did these creative folks find their way to Principia? They came for Art Alive, a living, breathing museum created by the fifth grade in what art teacher Louise Elmgren-Carlson called “a beautiful finish to their Lower School experience.”

The concept of a “talking museum” wasn’t new to the School. A similar project had been done before with sixth-graders. Elmgren-Carlson decided to dust off the idea when assistant teacher Sherry Myles mentioned the project as a highlight of her daughter’s Lower School years. “I wanted students to understand that art is not only a noun (an object); it’s a verb (the creative process),” Elmgren-Carlson explained. “Art is not far away and long ago—a picture framed in gold hanging in a quiet gallery.” Instead, it’s alive!

Elmgren-Carlson collaborated with fifth grade teachers Heather Schier and Sherry Myles to help each student select an artist, research his or her life and work, prepare a presentation, and create a replica of one of the artist’s great works. Once the writing, drawing, color mixing, and painting were completed, each student was outfitted with a costume to take on the persona of the artist or a character from the artwork.

When visitors arrived at the museum, each character delivered a short presentation about his or her artist and the work on display. A few artists occasionally stepped out of character to perform chamber music on the piano or flute while the guests milled about and chatted about art, creating an authentic museum experience.

Along with the fun of the event, Elmgren-Carlson was enthusiastic about the learning results. She shared, “The students learned that art comes alive through the observer, just as the listener creates the musical experience. I think they also felt very validated as artists themselves.”

Her hope is that the children will see art (and art museums) with new eyes. In the future, when they visit a museum perhaps they’ll say something like, “I wonder if I’ll see anything by ‘my artist’ here. I know a lot about Claude Monet. We go way back.” All the way back to fifth grade.