Week #10: Field Studies

In the last half of the week this week we discussed field studies that would be great options for high school art classes.  We also covered grant writing, and how grants from the government and large companies can offer funding for these field studies as well as supplies and visiting artists. 

However, our conversation focused mainly on the possibilities of field studies.  Some of the suggestions made for larger field trips in class were for the Greenville Art Museum, Gibbes Museum of Art, the city of Charleston, Brookgreen Gardens, the High Museum of Art, and The Mint Museum.  We also discussed the smaller and more casual trips that could be arranged with AP classes, art clubs, or National Art Honor Society members.  Some of the possibilities we talked about were universities, local artists’ studios or workshops, and local art festivals, among others.

We were prompted to come up with our own destination for a field study, and support its importance to the curriculum.   I personally would love to take a group of students to the Brookgreen Gardens and Atalaya Castle at Huntington Beach State Park.  When I first visited the Gardens I was blown away by the sheer size of the place, the number of sculptures, and the place’s beauty.  As a result, I was very sad to hear that apparently the Gardens and their docents are rather restrictive to school groups and do not allow students to explore the garden freely.  I would try my best to allow a group to explore while taking photographs, sketching, painting, and responding to the works on the grounds – even if it meant having a smaller group.  Brookgreen is an important destination for students because it allows them an opportunity to see more three dimensional artwork than they may ever see in one location again, to witness various artworks face-to-face (a truly invaluable experience), to gather inspiration from fantastic works of art, a beautiful landscape and interesting wildlife, and to see that artwork does not have to exist within the sometimes stuffy and sterile environment of the art gallery.  Experiencing sculpture is very difficult in the classroom because no image or projection can really do justice to a work that you see in-the-round.  Pictures in textbooks, on the internet, and in slideshows cannot give students an accurate sense of form, scale, proportion, or texture.  In addition, the students would be able to explore a variety of the visual arts standards that relate to different sculpture techniques, how the elements and principles relate to these works, how the context (culturally and historically) in which an artwork was produced effects the work, and ways in which the sculptures relate to the rest of the garden and the world at large.  In short, any and all of the standards for high school art education could be covered on a trip to Brookgreen Gardens.

Below are a handful of images of the gardens gathered

from across the internet:

Logistically speaking, I would make the trip a day long excursion – departing at 8:30am and returning at 8:30 pm.  With an approximate travel time of 3 hours (6 hours total) that would leave us with about 6 hours of time at the site.  Remove about an hour and a half for eating a bag lunch and dinner and time to organize the students, and we are left with four and a half hours of “touring” time.  I would also not want to take an extremely large group because it seems that the smaller your group the more freedom you are allowed on the grounds, and the more reasonable it is to keep track of the students.