For several years now, Reynolds art
teacher Emily Beach-Munday has overseen the creation of an art installation in
an interior courtyard at Reynolds each year.
This year’s had a Chinese theme.
“It all started in December,”
Beach-Munday said. “Art 1 students created Chinese paper cuttings (Jianzhi)
while listening to traditional Chinese music. Mrs. Alexander stepped in during
one class to see what was going on as the music echoed down the hallway. When
she came in, she saw students diligently working away. Students researched and
created their own designs, some from the Chinese zodiac and some used symbolic
images and characters. Some students were having so much fun, they created
multiple paper cuttings. These went up on the windows surrounding the
courtyard.
“Down
the hallway, Mrs. Robin Myers had her interior design students learning about
the cultural decorative traditions associated with the lunar New Year. They
created lanterns that were hung in both of the school’s courtyards. Door
coverings with Chinese characters were placed on and around the courtyard
doors, a common practice in China to celebrate the New Year.
“Meanwhile,
3-D Design students came up with the vision of a dragon, nearly 18 feet long.
They worked as a group to turn discarded packing materials into a magnificent
red dragon. Naira Zoe Raike, a German exchange student working on the project
in the picture above, said, "I never knew when Chinese New Year was,
and I thought it was interesting learning more about it."
“They
later assembled it and hoisted it up into the air in the courtyard. It was
really quite impressive to see the class work so well together and accomplish
the construction and hanging of the dragon. This year we are implementing TAB
(Teaching for Artistic Behavior) strategies into our visual arts classes and
really letting the students take the reins and be responsible for the problem
solving that artists use every day.”
Student
Ayanna Hopper said "I think the dragon looks amazing. For us to all be
working on different parts, it came out very well. I'm very proud of the
class!"
Corrie
Beck said "I think it is super cool that we built this out of that we've
got in the studio. That made me happy! I was also pleased seeing it all come
together.”
You will
find a story about one of the other courtyard projects at Pegasus
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