Art & Culture Live!: Community Collaborations - Muddying the Waters
Muddying the Waters featured Carl Schick demonstrating the art of pottery to students at Medford Public School (Medford, MN). Following the presentation, students created clay or pottery pieces of art. The works (or photos thereof) were displayed in the school media center, a local bank, the Owatonna Public Library, and on the bookmobile.
Event Dates and Locations:
March 19, 2010 – Schick gave demonstrations at Medford Public School (Medford, MN)
March 19-May 24, 2010 – Students created their own clay art and it was placed on display (Steele County, MN)
Partner Organization(s): Owatonna Public Library
Partner Organization(s) Contribution/Role in the Program: The Library provided assistance with program development, space for display, and additional purchase of library materials on clay and related works.
Program Outputs: Outputs are things you can count such as attendance, number of new participants, and the number of attendees who had never been at a similar event, and so on.
The school programs were attended by 450 students from grades K-6, 14 from grades 7-8 and 30 from grades 9-12 for a total of 494 students. The displays were viewed by approximately 2,375 at the Library and 500 at the media center.
Measurable Outcomes may be collected by survey, anecdotal responses, post-test; End user change in Behavior, Attitude, Skills, Knowledge, Condition and/or Status
From grades 1-3, 97% of 105 surveyed students enjoyed see how pottery was made and 93% would like to learn more after having seen the artist. Surveys from 111 students in grades 4-5 showed they liked best: tools and techniques (44%), the process as a whole (28%), watching the potter work (12%), the finished pots (8%), touching the clay (3%), and the learning experience as whole (3%). The 46 students in grades 7-12 felt that the program made them want to: make pottery (39%), take a class or lesson (39%), and try a specific technique (15%). 7% of students in grades 7-12 remarked on being surprised by their own interest after the program. A focus group of kindergartners revealed they were able to accurately recount the details of the program and that they all would like to take an art class. A focus group of grades 1-2 had all members state that they would like to learn to make pottery and take an art class at school. All also expressed the desire to have a potter come to their school all. The grades 3-5 focus group expressed the desire to have another artist come to their school and specifically named a painter, sketch artist, muralist, sculptor, cartoonist, glassblower, graffiti artist, and a stained glass artist. A focus group for grades 9-12 expressed a desire to have an intensive art elective offered at school and was able to cite barriers to this. Overall, the project exceeded initial planned outcomes both in terms of learning objectives and in motivating students to learn more about fine arts.