Back to grants list     Part I. Applicant and Project Information   Title of project: Visiting Artist Master Class with Donna Marder Project manager: Jenn Levatino School: High School Curriculum: Art   Part II: Grant proposal   Summary: Artist and community member, Donna Marder has been a long-time friend of the arts in Winchester Public Schools. I have shared her work with teachers and students over the two decades I have worked in this district. I met Donna my first year at WHS and upon seeing her work I was completely impressed and inspired by the experimentation, exploration of materials, risk taking, identity, mystery and surprise woven into her mixed media sewn sculptures. These characteristics are exactly what WPS Art Educators aim to instill in the practice of each young artist who makes their way through our WPS K-12 Art Department curriculum. My hope is that this journey ends with students taking Senior Honors Art at WHS. Although this is not the path for every young artist, I would like to celebrate the culmination of this art education by offering a “master class” with Donna Marder for this year’s SHA group. The Senior Honors Art curriculum has been scaffolded to support students as they design and develop a “body of work” culminating in their May thesis exhibition which is open to the public. Throughout the year, students develop ideas, explore materials and their meaning, share and receive feedback in small peer groups, curate small exhibits and edit artists’ statements. To be able to share their process with another artist- a professional artist that understands child development and art education- would be very exciting and extremely empowering to these SHA artists; some of whom are on their way to art schools in the fall. Donna lives right around the corner from McCall Middle School. Her home is like a small museum filled with examples of her own oeuvre. What an amazing opportunity to have students visit this local artist’s home and see first-hand their studio, get a sense of their practice, hear their story and have the opportunity to ask questions. A site visit like this makes this aspect of our culture all the more tangible- all the more obtainable. What makes this truly valuable is the sustained studio visits following the site visit. During this four-day period, the dialog between artists will generate a collaborative working environment. Donna will be asking questions about the students’ practice and their stories. Donna will be working right alongside our students on a collaborative project that will be born out of artists learning about each other’s practice. This will be supported by dialog and portfolio reviews, and completed through collaborative problem solving. The result will become a community piece presented to WHS. The week-long collaboration will involve creating, presenting, responding and connecting and will strengthen the bridge between the school studio and members of the Winchester community. Please click link to see Donna Marder's work: https://www.mobilia-gallery.com/artists/donna-rhae-marder/   Part III: Grant Amount Supplies: $671.00 Equipment: $440.00 Personnel: $1,000.00   Total costs: $2,111.00 Back to grants list