Innovative Projects & Activities
suitable for Public School Art Education
generated in the
Spiral Workshop Research Project
<<< Click the Spiral Workshop Theme Curriculum chapters (left) for a selection of Spiral Workshop theme curriculum. Each chapter includes project concept and process explanations, suggestions of artists to teach in conjunction with the project and 100s of examples of student work.
Since 1995 Spiral Workshop has created over 70 theme curricula. Each group intertwines learning in a media such as painting, drawing, Photoshop, sculpture, alternative practices, with investigation of a theme that affects students and their communities.
The last chapter in this section is a list of all Spiral Workshop theme curricula
since 2001.
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<<<POSTED by Popular Demand
de(Generate) Painting
Inspired by the Nazi's 1937 Entarte Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition that stigmatized and mocked expressionist and modernist artists, this curriculum first engaged students in becoming passionate expressionist artists and only then shared with them the history of the Nazi's repression of modern art.
You'll be amazed when you see the amount of art learning and art work generated in this 10 week curriculum. (3 hours per week and a few extra hours if needed on the final Saturday to finish up all the work for the exhibition.) I think this is one of the best Spiral groups ever--for the depth of its exploration of artistic freedom and the suppression of artistic thought and for its carefully sequenced painting curriculum through which students became confident painters who were able to represent "reality" as well as their own ideas and emotions.
I wonder how the U.S. would/could be different today if we art teachers in American schools had devoted a fraction of the time that we have spent teaching formalism (from elements & principles to Picasso) to teaching about the histories of the suppression of modern/contemporary art by government entities?
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<<<<Take a look at the newly posted description and images for the 2010
Spiral Workshop group
Fluidity: Wet Media.
This group did a wonderful job of helping students to reclaim the spontaneous, fluid nature of working wet and it explored issues of the many present and looming world crises related to the availability of water.
This section includes many images of student paintings, including self-portraits, withered flowers, and narratives about personal experiences with fluids. At the end of the chapter, there are 3 presentations and lecture notes about contemporary water issues from the everyday experience of drinking bottled water to water wars in areas where water is scarce.
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July 5, 2010
<<< Check out the material posted in
(Dis)Order: Drawing & Computers
including two great worksheets--Punishment & Apocalypse. These worksheets are an excellent way to get students remembering and discussing significant content that can then become the basis of making art works that are of personal and cultural significance.
(Dis)Order: a Spiral Workshop Theme Curriculum
Disorder? A necessary precondition of creativity, mental health categories for labeling people who don’t “fit,” or the ultimate apocalyptic event we all fear? All of these answers were explored in the Spiral Workshop curriculum, (Dis)Order: Drawing and Digital. The mission of the group was to investigate how notions of what is acceptable order and disorder shape individual and collective life. Stimulating creative disorder and maintaining order—concerns good art teachers bring into tenuous balance.
Working to bring you:
Time Travel: a Spiral Workshop video curriculum
Explore a video curriculum developed by Spiral Workshop! Draw inspiration from contemporary video artists and popular media. View and discuss surrealist animation, found-footage video collage, eent scores, and the retro-future!
OMG
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February 26, 2010
<<<Don't Miss:
PAINTING: SO CUTE & CREEPY
Study the minor aesthetic concept of cute. This chapter contains hundreds of images and project ideas, arranged in Spiral-style theme curriculum.
At Spiral Workshop, the University of Illinois at Chicago Saturday art program, teen artists and emerging teachers work together to
I've been reviewing the Spiral archives and will be adding the documentation of another group at least once a month.
If you are especially interested in getting information on one of the groups listed in the Spiral Theme groups repertoire (see last chapter on the list to the left) leave a comment on this page and I will move it up on the to-do list.
Olivia Gude
Founding Director of Spiral Workshop
