What’s Your Path? 

Educator: Barbara Covello, Art Teacher

Cultural Partner: Thea Lanzisero, Artist 

School: Wyandanch Memorial High School, Grades 9-12

District: Wyandanch Union Free School District

Summary

An interactive art collaboration exploring ways we can imagine our future through pathways, choices, collaboration and cooperation. Using Fiber Arts students explored small individual weaving projects as well as a group interactive giant weaving that took on a life of its own and became a metaphor for a pathway of interaction, envisioning and goal setting. 

Rationale

What can your future look like? Resilience, focus and balance of individuality and unity, finding a common ground. Many of our students come from challenging lifestyles and it's important that young people learn how to be resilient and overcome obstacles and creative ways regardless of the circumstances. It's important to expose students to new ways of dreaming about their future in a community while expanding ways of exploring/celebrating their world, finding ways to communicate ideas and have follow through to completion

What learning goals/standards did this meet?

Arts:

• Fiber Art, etc can be created to provide visual inspiration and made to endure over time 

• Movement and kinetics through sound 

• Pathways as abstraction, storylines, metaphors, trajectories, maps

• Sound instruments, labyrinths, and active engagement with art products 

CCCR:

• A pathway with stops/places/visuals for reflection 
• Decision making that leads to new gains
• The complexity of decisions (in life and in Art)
• Knowing yourself
• What are your pathways in and out of HS?

CR-S: 

• Meditative practices to reflect deeply on important ideas and issues that they care about
• Participatory engagement around the work as personal expression
• Collaborative practices to make space for many ideas and understanding differences

Outcomes:

Students’ learning has expanded as a result of this project because now they…

KNOW…  the experience of creating an installation artwork and collaborating with a team to meet a deadline and creative agenda, know processes of working with their hands, making small individual projects and experiencing the difference in working with groups collaboratively on a similar project but much larger scale

UNDERSTAND…  how the process of choosing a path can be enhanced with group dynamics, support systems, asking for help and guidance and helping each other to achieve a goal

‍ARE ABLE TO (DO)…discuss and demonstrate concepts in artistic choices and visual art making designed to help them make choices and communicate their desired pathways and future goals