Scotland Elementary School Students “Learn to Look” at Artist, Henri Matisse

This year, all students in grades K–5 at Scotland Elementary School will study the artist Henri Matisse.  For most school art projects, each grade studies different styles and artists, but each spring, the entire student body learns about one artist and completes a related project.  As a part of this artist study, parent volunteers took part in a school program called, “Learning to Look.”  This program is a partnership between school art instructor, Jen Zeyer, and parents to create an exciting program through a new artist. 

The goal of the program is, “To promote dialogue of works of art, to stimulate observation, speculation, possibility, and connection to the artwork.”  Scotland School parents, Kristin Boylan and Lisa Bogan-Reohr, in consultation with Mrs. Zeyer, have been organizing the program for the past three years. Ms. Boylan explained why she enjoys organizing the program, “The program is important not only because the students learn to connect to the artwork, but also because they use their critical thinking skills and draw from prior knowledge.  I love to see their faces light up when they are introduced to the artwork.”

Two parents from each class volunteered to lead a discussion based on Matisse reproduction art pieces.  This year, Mrs. Zeyer invited Ellen Williams, Education Coordinator for the Katonah Museum of Art, to lead a training session to help parents feel more comfortable leading the discussion.  Through specific questioning techniques parents learned how to lead an open discussion to help students gain a better understanding of the artist, and create meaning and understanding about the artwork they were seeing.  The discussion included highlighting key elements of Matisse’s art, such as the use of pattern, color, and composition.  Parents were also given extensive background information on Matisse’s life and specific art pieces that they could draw on during the discussion.

In each discussion, students were exposed to a full range of Matisse’s work from his early paintings to his later work with paper cutouts.  Parents chose which pieces to discuss.  With the kindergartners, the painting “Red Fish” was a big hit.  They enjoyed making the connection to their own pet fish and responded to the bright colors.  All grades seemed to like, “Purple Robe,” which uses bold patterns and colors that seem unharmonious, but combine to create a uniform composition.  Most discussions concluded by looking at Matisse’s paper cutouts.  Students enjoyed guessing what the picture represented, and quite often, they were right! 

In the next stage of studying the artist, the students will use inspiration from Matisse's artwork to create their own masterpieces during class time with Mrs. Zeyer.  Each grade level will create a different project highlighting some of the techniques Matisse used in one of his paintings or paper cutouts they studied.  

Scotland parent, Dominique Bauthier, led discussions in three separate classes, “One of the biggest kicks I get out of the program is to see how differently students react to the same works. Sometimes a child will have an observation, something that I never even considered, and it will be spot on. It makes you realize how valuable discussion can be because we all have different perceptions.  I think the kids enjoyed the freedom to look at the work and feel quite "grown-up" being asked to have an opinion and express what they see.”  The week of discussions was a big success and proved that good art is accessible to all ages.