In late October, interested second graders gathered in the Rosemont library after school for the GROW audition. The students answered questions about themselves, drew, and wrote short essays about a work of art from the Nasher's collection. Afterward, staff from Rosemont and the Nasher selected the newest class of GROW participants.
At the beginning of November, the second graders had their pre-visit in Mrs. Cianciulli's art room. They saw pictures of the Nasher Sculpture Center and Mr. and Mrs. Nasher. They talked about the different kinds of things they might see and do during their GROW visits, and compared and contrasted two different works of art from the Nasher collection. At the end, students decorated canvas bags that hold the journals they'll use during their Museum visits.
The second graders came to the Nasher Sculpture Center for their first visit on the Friday before Thanksgiving. During a tour titled Sticks & Stones, the students explored the art of Giuseppe Penone, an Italian sculptor whose art is temporarily on view in the exhibition Giuseppe Penone: Being the River, Repeating the Forest.
The students learned that Penone grew up in Turin, Italy, a village surrounded by forest. Penone explores his relationship as an artist with nature in his sculptures. We started at this sculpture, titled Spazio di Luce (Space of Light). The students had many observations and questions to share about this sculpture made of bronze and gold leaf, which Penone created using a tree that had already fallen and been cut into sections.
We also viewed this drawing titled 5 propogazione - maggio 2011 (5 Propagations - May 2011). Penone made drawings starting with his fingerprints in the middle. He then traced the fingerprints with concentric circles that get bigger and bigger. The students astutely noticed that these drawings resembled a tree's rings, which tell us the age of a tree. They created drawings in their journals, starting with their own unique fingerprint, surrounded by a circle for every year of their age.
We had a great visit with the second grade students and look forward to seeing them again in the spring. Stay tuned to read about the third and fourth graders' first Nasher visit later this week!
