A R O U N D C A M P U S
Grades Two and Seven Guggenheim Partnerships
Saint David’s special partnership with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and our second graders for a 10-week unit of
art study and practice culminated in December with the boys’ exhibit “Look, Imagine, Create” at the museum. During the
student-led gallery tours for their parents, teachers, and first graders, the boys confidently delivered their talks, sharing what
they had learned about artists’ use of line, shape, color and texture, abstraction, attachment techniques, and materials. Afterward,
all were invited to an exhibit of the boys’ own artwork on display in the museum’s art studios, where the boys revealed their
motivations and the artistic processes they used.
Under the guidance of art teachers Melanie Fidler and Hannah Frassinelli and museum educator Hollie Ecker, the boys spent
their fall art sessions at the Guggenheim where they studied the iconic architecture of the building as well as several modern
masterpieces from the Thannhauser Collection. In the art studios, they created works in various media, including collage,
painting, drawing and construction, inspired by the masterworks they had studied.
For our young boys to begin to develop a strong vocabulary about art, and to have access to experts from a museum like the
Guggenheim in addition to the expertise of their Saint David’s teachers, provides them with a unique opportunity to dive into
their curiosity about art and realize new depths of understanding and creativity.
The Seventh Grade’s partnership with the Guggenheim for
an observational drawing unit began in November. In the
first session, Art Chair Jenna Boccella and teacher Johanna
Mendez introduced the boys to a sculpture by Brancusi.
Afterward, the boys sketched it in the galleries. During this
unit, the boys will study one of the artists in the Thannhauser
Gallery and employ the five component skills of observational
drawing to draw the master artist’s work. The sessions will
culminate with an exhibit at the museum.
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