Over the weekend I got to work at a school in Detroit with students with Autism. I spent an hour working with a group of kids as they created snowflakes with paper scissors and glue. Towards the end I worked with one of the teachers as she explained how sever or mild their form of Autism is. After learning a little bit more about the children I have decided to start out working with only one student, Denee. Denee loves art, but her parents are not very supportive of her, and other then the attention she gets during class time, she doesn't get any help when she gets home from school. Denee was very shy when she was around her fellow peers and I think it would work best if we worked one on one during the week. That way she isnt intimidated by large groups and can really expand her art ability.
I am going to be going to Detroit twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays to work with her teaching her different forms of art. I plan on working with her for an hour or more every time I come to visit. My hope is if we start with an art form that she is comfortable with, she will slowly step out of her comfort zone and learn new techniques. My hope is that by the end of the school year she will be willing to work with a camera as a form of artwork taking photographs.
This Wednesday I am going to start with collage. I have a bunch of construction paper, as well as a few differnt textured papers and string to let her work with. I havent decided yet if I will give her direction for the first project. I might just come with a couple ideas incase she doesn't know what to create. But I would like to see if their is a certain subject she is drawn to creating already.
Brianne,
ReplyDeleteThis all sounds great. I'm so happy that you got connected with Denee. Something I've done with people who are shy or scared is to do a collage together. One puts something down and the other puts something down in response and then the other etc etc. I think texture is important so you can bring in common things too like cotton balls, aluminum foil that can be flat or rolled up into snake like forms or balls, buttons, ribbons, yarn. Keep a lookout for other things around you that can be collage materials. You can work on a stiff surface like railroad board/poster board, which you can get at most supermarkets. Put the materials out so they can all be easily seen and look attractive. I'm eager to hear how it goes. Did you get permission to take pictures of her? You will probably have to do that with her parents and if they are not supportive that may be a problem, so I would talk about that immediately to Cassandra and see how she says to approach it.
Janie