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Solebury High School, New Hope, Pennsylvania
New Hope-Solebury High School in New Hope,
Pennsylvania, is a small school with a population of 450
student. Betsy is the only art teacher, but because the
art program is growing, the Middle School Art teacher began to
teach two entry level Art 1 classes this year. All
students begin art by taking Art 1, a full year prerequisite
survey course exploring the many facets of techniques, materials
and mediums. Students then may register for AP Prep 1, AP Prep 2
(where the focus is based upon developing a portfolio ready
breadth section). In senior year, students who have taken
Art 1 and at least one year of AP Prep may register for the AP
Portfolio (they may also elect to take drawing,
2d/3d design). In addition, Betsy teaches Ceramics 1 &
2, and Yearbook Design. All courses, with the exception of
Ceramics, are full year courses, which meet 5 days a week for 42
minutes. The AP Prep & AP Portfolio classes are
taught in the same period.
Betsy is both an instructor and a
facilitator. She arranges the environment to support
student choice of materials and subject matter, although she
drives students towards instructor driven context in AP Prep 1
& 2. Throughout all levels of instruction, she
encourages students to find their individual voice through
experimentation, research and interpretation. By senior
year, students who have had this background are
prepared to launch independently into the development of a body
of work exploring a central idea. (See one student's
concentration)
She received her BA in studio art at the
University of Maryland in the mid-70's, and her M.A.T. at
the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in the late 90's. She
has been teaching for 8 years.
"Picasso Masks"
Betsy
introduced the lesson by giving a PowerPoint presentation on the
work of Picasso and the giant puppets of Peter Schumann's
Bread & Puppet Theater. Art 1 students worked in pairs
to blend these two resources into making giant
"Picasso" masks, each a minimum of 3 feet tall or
wide. Students researched the works of Picasso,
picked one and created a mask inspired by the selected artwork
using cardboard, tape, hot glue, newspaper, papier
maché and paint. Once the mask was constructed, students
went back to research and then a second work by
Picasso as a reference to guide them in designing a color palette.
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