This week, students enjoyed experimenting with monoprinting techniques using Gelli Plates. Gelli prints are used to make monoprints, which means you are making a single print, instead of multiples like in most printmaking techniques. After you pull the first print from your gelli plate, there will be some paint left on the surface, which can be wiped away or incorporated into your next print. this is where some magical stuff happens! They are so much fun to experiment with! You can use leaves, doilies, bubble wrap, lace, string…just about anything to print with. Before you know it, you have about a thousand prints drying in the art room. We will use the prints students create in several other projects, including origami art books and paper mosaic projects.

What could be better than seeing the Poe Exhibit on Halloween?!! Students enjoyed a Halloween Day field trip to the Frazier Museum to view their artwork and tour the museum. We were enthralled by a special performances, the Western Middle School Photography exhibit and finished the day with a walking tour of Main Street, Louisville.

Visual Art + Design students participated in an in-class workshop with the Speed Art Museum in early October. They were able to interact with real artifacts, and invited to slip on a pair of white gloves, pick up a magnifying glass, and become a real-life Art Detective. For our workshop, students focused on Exhibition Design. They were asked “What does it take to design an exhibition?” Students were able to act as curators, educators, and exhibition designers as they analyzed and explored this collection of artworks. Working in teams, they conceptualized a new exhibition, and presented their ideas to Speed staff.

Art Detectives brings art from the Speed’s education collection into area schools to encourage curiosity and foster meaningful engagement with art. The program aims to develop three main skills:

Observation – Students increase their observation skills by looking closely at original works of art
Collaboration – Students work together in small groups to see what they can deduce about a given object
Problem Solving – Like a detective, students deduce the purpose, material, and creator of a given object

Exhibition Design: What does it take to design an exhibition? Students were invited to act as curators, educators, and exhibition designers as they analyzed and explored this collection of artworks. Working in teams, they conceptualized a new exhibition.

Students that participated in Art Detectives received a Family Voucher, allowing them to visit with their family free of charge on any day the Speed is open.

To start the new school year, students were asked to create works of art inspired by the eerie world of Poe for display on-site and/or on the Frazier Museum website. The fine art included in the Beyond the Raven: The Poe You Don’t Know was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, and was developed through a partnership between the museum’s Education Department and five local schools: DeSales High School, duPont Manual High School, Pleasure Ridge Park High School, Presentation Academy, and and Louisville Creative Arts Academy. More than thirty PRP students were included in this year’s online exhibit, and eight lucky students were selected to be placed on view in the Frazier’s Grand Hall! Click on the link below to see the online exhibit. I couldn’t be more proud of these students for their hard work.

Poe: Beyond the Raven Student Artworks

Congrats to Jasmine Lewis and Mallery Marshall who won top awards tonight at the Kentucky Derby Festival Student Art Contest. Jasmine received First Place (shown left), and Mallery won Second Place (right). Students received a Derby Festival print, t-shirt, certificate, and will included in the Derby Festival Art Exhibition sponsored by the Fillies, Inc. Jasmine was invited to ride the Pegasus float in the annual Derby Pegasus Parade. Artwork will remain on display at the Brown School in Louisville through May 6, 2019.

For more information, click the attached link:

Derby Festival Art Contest 2019

Congratulations to PRP Visual Art + Design students who competed in the 2018 AIGA Louisville “The Show Formerly Known as The Show” Design Awards.

Hayley Linville won the top award in the high school category for her book cover design, “The Secret Life of Mary Cole.” Grace Banta, Hailie Cannon, Skylar Hutchinson, and Molly Minton received Honorable Mentions.

Kudos to PRP Art students recognized at tonight’s regional Scholastic Art Awards. Layla Alkinani & Ki Rohr-Carrasquillo (shown), Paxton Barnard, Jasmine Lewis, Macey Richardson & Emilee Bowling received awards. Congrats!

I’m so proud of PRP Visual Art students Brittney Ison and Sierra Hooper, who were recognized this evening at the Derby Museum. Sierra won the 3-D Art award [high school division] for her clay horse, created with ceramics teacher Tammy Podbelsek. Brittney was honored with an Honorable Mention for her pastel artwork. Artworks will remain on view at the Derby Museum through February 17. Area elementary, middle and high school student artists are honored each year at this event, and I’m always impressed by their amazing work. If you haven’t checked out the Derby Museum lately, it’s a must see.

Congrats to all!

Today was a great day in the art room as I got to sit back and watch my students put their skills to work. Art students enjoyed an all-day, onsite “Art Detectives” workshop on Exhibit Design today, presented by the Speed Museum education team! Students explored artifacts through hands-on activities as they planned, designed and presented their ideas for an exhibit of artworks they carefully selected. Students worked in groups, role playing as curator, educator, development officer and marketing teams. Special thanks to Speed’s Education team for leading our learning today.