For the next stop of our tour, we imagined that we are archaeologists living in the year 4000. Our team just discovered this sculpture, and through close examination we have determined it was a machine that was used in the year 2017.
Voltri VI by David Smith
With that in mind, students wrote a story about their discovery, considering the following:
What type of
work did this machine do?
Did it have
moving parts? Which parts? How did they move?
How did the
machine operate – what did it use for fuel?
Did someone manually operate
it? If so, who?
Draw a picture
of the machine at work.
Name the
machine.
2nd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
4th grade
5th grade
5th grade
5th grade
Then students shared their stories and drawings with a partner. Our archaeological findings included an ant transporter, a Bober-shplat (giant's roller skate), a chocolate cutter, a Farmolater (plow), a Chopper 4000 (for chopping lettuce in restaurants), and The Lane (for making lanes to plant seeds). One student was inspired to write a poem about the discovery:
3rd grade
3rd grade
5th grade
The artist who made this sculpture, David Smith, was invited to make one or two sculptures for a festival in Italy. Instead, he made 27! He used a
former steel factory in Italy for his studio. In the
factory, he found a cart for moving hot steel.He attached a
steel wedge to one end that props up the long handle of the cart.Then, he welded two large plates of steel
to the base.
2nd grade
2nd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
4th grade
4th grade
5th grade
5th grade
Students concluded this stop by drawing a small symbol for this sculpture where they felt it should be placed on their natural to manmade spectrum. They also added a word to their textwork, describing something that they saw, heard, thought, or felt at that moment.
And here we are at the final GROW tours of the 2016-17 year! Visit 3 (2nd grade) / Visit 4 (3rd-5th grades) Vocabulary: natural / natural
manmade / artificial
concentric / concéntrico
weld / soldar
carve / esculpir
First, we discussed the meanings of natural and manmade. We drew a spectrum in our journals and labeled one end with the word natural and the other end with manmade, adding a few examples of objects (a tree, a pen) where we felt they should be placed on the spectrum. On another sheet in our journal, we wrote down one word - this could be something that the students saw, heard, thought, or felt at that moment.
2nd grade
3rd grade
4th grade
We began with a sculpture by Richard Long. Students described the sculpture, noting that it has three concentric circles. When we were sitting around the sculpture, we were passive viewers. To become active viewers, we walked all the way around it and talked about how that changed our viewing experience. The artist Richard Longloves to go on nature walks outside. His
walks can take place over one day, or several weeks! He had the idea to present a nature walk as a work of art – an active work of art. During his walks, he arranges stones that he finds into sculptures that often take the form of straight lines, circles, and spirals. With this sculpture, titled Midsummer Circles, Richard Long brings the outdoors in.
2nd grade
2nd grade
2nd grade
2nd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
4th grade
4th grade
4th grade
5th grade
5th grade
5th grade
Sometimes, Richard Long creates what he calls textworks - works of art made with words. In his textworks, Long records sights, sounds, smells, and other words that describe his journey. Without realizing it, the students had already started their own textwork when they wrote down one word that expressed something they saw, heard, thought, or felt at the beginning of the tour. We continued to write down one word at each stop during our tour to compose our textworks.
3rd grade
4th grade
Before we moved on to our next sculpture, students drew a symbol to represent Midsummer Circles in their natural to manmade spectrum. Where would you place this work of art?
Keep these things in mind as you prepare for your visit:
Admission is FREE for Rosemont students and their families.
FREE bus transportation is available to families who RSVP by May 5 to Mrs. Cianciulli or Mrs. Lawson, or email cborsh@nashersculpturecenter.org.
Meet at the lower Rosemont parking lot to ride the bus to the Nasher no later than 11:30am on May 13.
If you'd rather ride the DART train, get off at the Pearl or St. Paul station and walk two blocks north to the Nasher at 2001 Flora Street. Click here for DART schedules.
Or take the D-Link bus for free. Click here for D-Link schedules.
Click here for driving directions if you plan to drive.
View a map of nearby parking below.
We hope to see you next month! And stay tuned for blog posts about the last GROW tour of 2016-17, coming soon.
After walking through Richard Serra's steel sculpture My Curves Are Not Mad, we went into the special exhibition Richard Serra: Prints. First, we sat in the middle of the room and looked all around us. Everyone was invited to share one word that describes the artworks, with the challenge of not repeating what was already said by a classmate. What words come to mind as you look at the artworks in the background of these photographs?
2nd grade
3rd grade
4th grade
5th grade
Next, students selected their favorite work of art and sketched it.
2nd grade
2nd grade
2nd grade
2nd grade
2nd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
4th grade
4th grade
5th grade
Next, students were challenged to transform their sketches into something else. Did the shape remind them of an animal, plant, place, object, or something else? Afterward, they shared their drawings with a partner.
2nd grade
2nd grade
2nd grade
2nd grade
2nd grade
2nd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
3rd grade
4th grade
4th grade
4th grade
4th grade
5th grade
5th grade
5th grade
To complete our Shapes Tour, we talked about the artist Richard Serra. Richard Serra is best known for making large-scale sculptures likeMy Curves Are Not Mad. What many people don't realize is that he has been making prints almost as long as he has been making sculptures. In the exhibition Richard Serra: Prints, we saw several ways that Serra experimented with different materials, different sizes, and different processes of making prints. To make his prints, he works with the Los Angeles-based print workshop and studio, Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited). Watch a time-lapse video of a Richard Serra print being made by Gemini G.E.L. in 2012 below:
Different artists follow different steps to make their artworks. This is called the creative process. Richard Serra begins by making a model made of wood or metal. Sometimes, Serra draws his sculptures after they are completed. He says this helps him to re-see the finished sculpture. He might stand next to the sculpture or sketch it from high above in a cherry picker. Some of the prints in the exhibition were made from drawings of his sculptures.
We finished the tour by looking at a few prints in the exhibit along with photographs of the sculptures that inspired them.
