Engaging Our Collective Creativity Through Installation Art
By:  Mary Lemson-Burke

Project at a Glance :

Drawing and Painting 2 students will research and dig deep into the connections between creativity/imagination and engagement of the Coopersville High School student body to each other through enjoyment, fun, and creation (public art). They will identify the areas where imagination, creativity and fun can be infused into the high school experience. Additionally, this project will align to a variety of of National Art Standards. This unit will be approximately 6 weeks long. ​
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Driving Question:

How can we (Drawing and Painting 2 class) inspire the CHS student body to engage with their individual creativity and imagination through art installations?             

Standards:

•  NVAS Anchor Standard 6: Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work
• NVAS Anchor Standard 5: Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation. 
• NVAS Anchor Standard 4: Select, analyze, and interpret artistic work for presentation.

• NVAS Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work. 

Team / Culture Building:

• Hopes, Fears, & Norms
• Values Cards​ ​

• Collaboration Tower
• Creative Types ​

Entry Event:

• Meeting 1:(If good weather) Take students to the nature area/pond on campus. Tell them to just sit. Do nothing but sit. With 20 min left of class, have students record their thoughts. 
• Meeting 2: Blowing bubbles outside for 10 minutes to begin class, then journal thoughts about the activity.
• Meeting Three: Values Cards
• Meeting Four: Creative Types and Hopes, Fears, and Norms​

Stakeholders:

• Coopersville High School (CHS) student body
• CHS staff/administration
• CHS Parents
• Coopersville Arts Council

Empathy Building:

• Create a StakeHolders Map​​​

• Empathy Map
• Artifact Analysis- taking a close look at the physical environment of CHS.
• Mood Board- what is the overall feeling that will be experienced by the addition of the public art/experience.

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Need to Know - looking at the DQ through a KWL lens
• Think like a Child- rewording the DQ into other language to pinpoint the needs. 
• Outside Inspiration reaching out to arts organizations (Coopersville Arts Council) to gain a better understanding of public art/events and the impact of them.
• Create a Pains &Gains Map ​
• Brainstorming activity answering the question:  What is Art to Me?
  

Incubation:

• Idea Quota- to help students create a bank of ideas/topics to make artwork from. ​

• I like, I wish, What if?
• How Would ____ Solve This?
• Love Letter/Break up Letter​

Checking in:

• Check in pre/post work day/studio day.
• Have students share out their ideas/work to begin a class period. 
• Personal check in with students.
• Turn and Talk to fellow classmates
• Exit Ticket- Pear Deck?
• Formative assessments- using walk arounds and post it notes. 
• Check In, Check Out Circles

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Solution Building:

• Students will be asked to refine all of their solutions into a project planning sheet/action plan for execution.
• Narrowing down of ideas to the best possible solutions using the
  Gallery Walk and Dot Voting protocols.
• Getting feedback from authentic audience. 

Critique and Revision: 

• Using the feedback provided by the authentic audience (ACT, student council, GVSU Art professor) they will narrow down their idea to the one to move forward with. 
  
• Critique and revision will be provided throughout the execution of the final installation including peer feedback, teacher feedback, and authentic audience. ​

Authentic Audience:

• CHS Student Body
  
• CHS Staff
  
• CHS Administratioin

Final Presentation:

• Create engaging art installations that ask the authentic audience to interact with it in some way. These will be installed and hung for a minimum of three weeks.
  
• The artists will be in charge of collecting feedback from their peers and execute the art installation/experience. Their voice and choice will be embedded in the entire process.​

Click here for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:

• The authentic audience will provide immediate feedback by active interaction and engagement with the art installations/experiences. 
• Use a Google Form for providing feedback.
• End of project reflection time for artists.

Click here for the teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:

​Mary Lemson-Burke teaches Visual Art at Coopersville High School.

     "PBL & Design Thinking are such an integral part of how an artist thinks! It provides my students a system to utilize to idea generate. To understand that not all ideas just pop out of nowhere. There is a way to think and collaborate to create unique, authentic solutions to problems."