Art and ecology.

When I was in Mexico City this past summer, I noticed four small children playing in a corner of Alameda Park, Mexico's version of Central Park in New York City. Two boys and two girls, all around four or five years old, had found a large square of thin, clear plastic and were experimenting with it over a hot air grate in the sidewalk. As I watched, they discovered that, if each one held down one corner of the plastic, the hot air would inflate it like a balloon. With much laughter and cooperation, they discovered they could tie the corners of the plastic to the grate to make an inflated tent in which they could play.

Though their parents were vendors at a nearby food stall, they offered no assistance or advice to the children. It was such a joy to watch these children completely engaged in discovery and creativity, using just a discarded piece of plastic and physical conditions they found in their environment. Surely these are the kinds of conditions and experiences we would like to provide in our artrooms, with or without recycled materials.

I suspect that I am the only teacher at my school who regularly checks the wastepaper basket and recycling bins in our workroom for reusable materials. As the oldest of six children, I grew up with a definite need to make things last. Part of my motivation is simply my desire to not waste anything; another is the challenge to come up with creative or novel uses of materials. Some teachers must have noticed my scrounging, though, because I often find leftover construction paper in my mailbox and the office saves me useful items like the paper tubes used to hold laminating film, empty copy paper boxes and lids, and used copy paper.

Since such habits are common to art teachers, throughout our features this month, you will find suggestions for inventive uses of materials such as Sheetrock, shoes, yarn cones, bowling pins, paper straws, and other found objects. Yet issues about art and ecology include conceptual ideas as well as the creative reuse of materials. An essential question about art and ecology can be as simple as: How is ecology expressed in art?

Inquiry Questions

* How can we involve kids in the art of their community that has a tie to the environment?

* How do artists and educators understand contemporary ecological art?

* How has your community addressed ecological issues, traditionally and in recent times?

* How do artists identify and act to resolve local and global ecological issues through their artwork?

* How does the process of contemporary ecological art-making differ from the process of traditional studio art?

* What ecological issues are important in your community?

* How are human-designed spaces part of an ecological system?

* How can teachers work collaboratively to conduct inquiry about contemporary ecological art?

* How can we help make one-time visits or brief art experiences relevant in some kind of on-going way for students?

* What approaches do you use to teach about life-centered issues and ecological art?

* How can technology be used to conduct inquiry about art and ecology?

What else can you do to encourage your students to reflect upon and react to ecological issues? Become aware of ecological issues or concerns in your community and ask your students to respond to them through art. Have students conduct research online to discover and possibly communicate with contemporary artists who focus on ecological issues. Find out what reusable resources are in your community and challenge students to use them to make meaningful ecological art. And help them to find the joy of discovery along the way.

Nancy Walkup, Editor