collaborative artmaking

The community is something that I will want to incorporate more into my classroom because looking back on what I did as a student, there was very little community collaborations in my art curriculum. We had a very supportive community as far as the arts, and we were right by the art center of Des Moines, but I never felt like we did much within the community. My artwork was enjoyed by the community when I helped build and paint set pieces for our musical. I do remember doing collaborative art project within our classroom. One in particular was life size plaster figures that represented high school students. My group kept on fight though and my teacher wanted me to be the peacemaker. That was interesting.

There are many benefits to collaborative artmaking. New ideas get tossed around, people have to cooperate with each and listen, they have to work as a team. It is just never fun when you are suppose to work as a team and one of the members does not hold up on their part. I like the part in the RWR that said people are willing to accept a decision and make better decisions for the good of everybody if they participate in the decision making process. That is very true and an excellent and applicable lesson to teach students in the art room how to make decisions that are for the good of the whole ( or in this case for good of the project). It gets kids thinking beyond what they like and can see art as a bigger idea.

I think when I teach a lesson that incorporates collaborative artmaking I will have an element of the project that the student will be responsible for making their own unique piece and then figure out how to incorporate it into the bigger puzzle. Its fun to see your own piece participate in something bigger and grander than what you could have imagined.