The Meadowbrook Art Department is a favorite of Meadowbrook's students. It is a place where you can find a lot of voices, a lot of music and a lot of smiles. Yet through all the sights and sounds, you'll find beautiful works of art being created by students in first grade through sixth grade.
Every grade works with a variety of mediums from crayons, markers, and pencils to pastels, paints, and charcoal. Every student also creates projects in printmaking, ceramics, and three dimensional sculpture. Art history, our social studies curriculum and multicultural lessons are the common threads which are woven throughout the six year art program. First, second, fourth, and fifth grades meet twice a week for forty-five minute classes. Third and sixth grades meet once a week for an hour and fifteen minutes.
An impressive new art studio together with a new art gallery that is constantly updated with student's work help to encourage and excite the students about their art. In addition, trips to The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Barnes Foundation, and The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts are just some of the wonderful places Meadowbrook students experience.
The art room is a place to feel free, relaxed and experimental. Students are pushed to continue to improve their skills, their knowledge and their love of art. Students are encouraged to work out their artist problems independently. We learn that there is no such thing as making a mistake, rather a "mistake" is a detour which will lead to a new path, a new skill or a new technique with which to complete their work of art.
Philosophy
In a world where art is slowly disappearing from focus, encouragement and exposure to art is vital. Children need to see that the world around them is filled with artistic expression. Initially children learn by stimulus, motivation, and training, but ultimately, children and adults alike only continue to learn through connection, exposure and repetition. Art educations is only truly understood when one can appreciate it in terms of its value to history, science, literature, technology, philosophy and therefore through the entire school curriculum. Once children can see the relationship of art to other aspects of their world, they will be able to see the importance it has in their future lives.
Goals
The art curriculum at the Meadowbrook School is a structured sequential program which is oriented to problem-solving and therefore encourages students to challenge themselves daily. Meadowbrook has established an inviting, exciting, and inspiring environment where students learn to be creative, seek individuality, and express their ideas through their art work with unlimited possibilities. Knowledge and experience which the students acquire in art will stay with and continue to be a part of their lives.