by Mentor Artist Katie Issel Pitre
Greetings and welcome to an update
on the exciting partnership between Davidson Middle School in San Rafael and Youth in Arts!
As part of the new Strategic Vision of Youth in Arts to create model arts education programs K-8th grade, Mentor Artists Sophie Cooper and Katie Issel Pitre have been teaching New Media and Theatre Arts to 180 Davidson middle school students daily.
Beginning in late August Sophie and Katie have been working with 10 classes, grades 6th – 8th to provide arts enrichment for a student population that until this year had not received any elective classes. This year, Principal Bob Marcucci wanted to change this, partnering with Youth in Arts these students are half way through the first year of this pilot program and are getting in the swing of art making.
The project that the students have been working on has been cumulative – we’ve been building skills, teamwork, discussing and activating themes through play writing, college making, reflecting on values, watching many films – critiquing them and learning more about the way to use film to send a message.
In Ms Cooper’s New Media class students worked towards a photography project taking portraits of hands and also of eyes. In Ms. Katie’s Theatre Arts class students composed collaborative poetry using the anaphora “With these hands we can…” and ” People think that I… But if they really knew me…”
If They Knew Me…
Pairing these two projects we used the photography from Ms. Cooper’s class, and recorded the audio from Ms. Katie’s classes and created two differently themed collections of films. One collection pairs the photography of hands with the poetry “With these hands we can…”. The other collection of films pairs photography of the eyes and the poetry “People think that I… but if they really knew me…”.
The final for their first semester was a film screening of both of these film collections. Students observed all of the films, and then reflected on the process, the messages, considered what was missing and then brainstormed about what they want to make their next films about. Some topics that were mentioned were making films about their lives, about kids who choose to be sober, about their friendships, about their immigrations stories, and more.
For students who have never had an arts residency like this Sophie and I are proud of what they were able to accomplish. Their artistry has increased, as has their teamwork, self confidence, perspectives, and
Fir