Students As Photographers

I recently read an article about how Photographers today are dying out, and that we should inform the younger generation that if they want to become professional photographers, that they will need another job, and will be unable to make a career out of it. This is probably true today, however I do not think that destroying a child's hopes and dreams early on can do nothing but harm to a student. Children should know the realities at a later age, but should that mean we do not allow them to follow their dreams, especially if that is photography? 

Photography is a very important piece to the Art world, it can be just as expressive as an artists painting. Photography allows people to see into real situations and places around the world, and to share that moment with the artist. 

While indulging in my obsession with Pinterest, I stumbled upon a Scavenger Hunt you could do with your students. Almost all students today have phones with cameras, and having them do this scavenger hunt allows them to finally use their phones for school. Students can then share their images with the class afterwards, showing the differences of how each student chose to approach the assignment. You can see into the lives of the students, what perspective they took, what images they chose to capture, etc. 

Street Spirits!!!

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to go to a workshop about Street Spirits. Street Spirits is a youth driven social action theatre company. They go across North America (primarily in Alberta and BC) performing audience interactive performances that raise awareness about issues in our society, and through interaction with the audience generate solutions. Their shows discuss a variety of topics including alcohol use, family violence, racism, sexual assault, poverty, peer pressure, homophobia, and more. 

This theatre company would be fantastic to bring into your school for a class presentation, school wide assembly or small groups to deal with issues that are arising within your school. It is a great way to provide students with a safe outlet to discuss and deal with serious issues and demonstrates how the arts can be used to help deal with issues that arise in students home lives and at school. 

At a recent visit to the Two Rivers Art Gallery here in Prince George, I was introduced to the artwork of Maureen Faulkner. The exhibit on display was titled "Cake: A Travelers Journey". When you first looked at the images, they did not do much to inspire me. Of course they were very skilled paintings, but I thought 'Well, its just cake. Now all I want it some cake". However once reading the excerpt beside each of her pieces, you realize how much of her life story and the pain she has experienced in her life resides within those images, images of Cake. 

www.princegeorgecitizen.com

Her images of cake describes her struggles with weight throughout her life, and how the cakes she paints all have a piece missing, representing a friend that has passed away. A series that was also in the exhibit was titled 'Rehab Cake Series 7: A week with friends'. The series chronicles her experiences with 7 different friends going through serious health crises. 
This exhibit opened my eyes to how we can not always see what the artist is trying to portray through their artwork. We often have to look beyond into the fine print. 
I enjoyed this exhibit because it depicted how someone dealt with serious situations in their life through a very unique artistic way. 

Promoting Local Artists

I think it is important in the arts to provide as much of a local link as possible. This allows your students to make more of a personal connection to the artwork, as well as to allow those students who have artistic aspirations to realize that if someone from their hometown can do it, they can as well. Often when people incorporate local artists, it is artists who have wrote literature or created physical artwork, but less common are the local musical artists that we can present to our students. As we are lucky enough to teach the 'Beiber Fever' generation, it is important when talking about local artists, or any art in any form, to try to sometimes have younger artists with whom the students can make a connection. 

Cody Karey grew up in Fort St. James (my hometown), and is a terrific example to use with your students. He is a young artist that students can relate to, and sings a cross of pop and classical music (described as the next Josh Groban) that many students in your classroom may enjoy. Here is his new single!