Rosemont Family Day 2018

This year's Rosemont Family Day was super fun!  We had a scavenger hunt, two artist-led activities, a live DJ, and cool treats from Steel City Pops. We also enjoyed a wonderful performance by the Rosemont Dance Companies, which included current GROW students as well as a GROW graduate.  Thanks to everyone who joined us!

At artist Mylan Nguyen's table, visitors made personal talismans on small porcelain discs that they could wear on a chain or string necklace.

Mylan and her sister

At artist Jessica Trevizo's table, visitors made their very own screenprint that they could fill in with color after the paint dried.

Rosemont Royals Dance Company

Rosemont Repertory Dance Company

Braunwyn, a 4th-grade GROW student, and Ms. Lawson

Old and New Tour, Part Two

After discussing prehistoric pieces in the old part of the tour, we walked downstairs and viewed artworks by Theaster Gates in the new part of the tour.  The first artwork we looked at was made in 2016, so it is considered contemporary art (art made in the last 50 years).  First, we sat in the middle of the room and described the work of art below, guessing which materials the artist used: wood...brick...metal?

Dirty Red by Theaster Gates

We took a closer look and found new details. What do you notice in the close-up photo below?

Dirty Red (detail) by Theaster Gates

Theaster Gates used decommissioned fire hoses to make Dirty Red.  Some of the hoses he used appear faded, some have holes and rips, some are blank while others have writing, and some look they have dirt or smoke residue.  Gates is recognized as an artist who uses nontraditional materials in his art, particularly items that aren't given much value or are even considered trash, as is the case with these retired fire hoses.

Theaster Gates

In Dirty Red - along with many of his artworks - Gates thinks about his identity as an African American artist, and about the history of African Americans in the United States. With Dirty Red, Theaster Gates specifically refers to an important event in the civil rights movement, when the police sprayed peaceful protesters with fire hoses in Birmingham, Alabama.  Gates uses fire hoses in his artworks to honor the protesters who put themselves in personal and physical danger to fight for equal rights during the civil rights movement.

Next, we visited the artwork below and again thought about the materials Gates might have used to create it.  Gates grew up in Chicago (where he continues to live and work) with eight older sisters.  His mother was a schoolteacher, and his father was a roofer.  Gates's father retired at the age of 80 and gave his son his roofing tools.  Gates wanted to do something special to show his respect for his father's work, so he asked his father if he would make artworks together with him using the roofing tools.  The artwork below was made with rubber (the background) and tar (the dark spots).

Squirt by Theaster Gates

To finish the tour, the students wrote down something they learned from someone important in their lives - their mother, father, sibling, grandparent, etc. Below are some examples:

How to bake - from a brother and a grandma
How to cook - from a granny, a grandma, a mom, and a dad
How to play video games - from a dad
How to crochet - from a grandma
How to tie shoes - from two moms and a grandma
How to be an athlete - from a dad
How to play soccer - from a coach
How to braid hair - from a mom
How to solve a Rubik's Cube - from a brother
My manners - from a mom
"How to make her dishes that all our family loves" - from a grandmother
"To be myself, to not change who I am" - from both parents 

Old and New Tour, Part One

We visited artworks both Old and New during our final tour of the year.

Visit 4 Vocabulary:

prehistoric / prehistórico

ancestor / el antepasado

symmetrical / simétrico

history / la historia

contemporary / contemporáneo

2nd grade

5th grade

We first explored the prehistoric stone pieces in the First Sculpture: Handaxe to Figure Stone exhibition.  First, students sketched a handaxe. Then, they became curators as they studied groups of objects and determined reasons why they were placed together.  Our student curators decided some reasons they were grouped together were because of common shapes, sizes, and textures.  Some of these objects were also symmetrical.  Below is an example from each of the different groups. 

Artist Unknown, "Big Boy" handaxe, Biddenham, England, ca. 300,000 years of age

Artist Unknown, Handaxe, Niger, ca. 800,000-300,000 years of age

Artist Unknown, Neanderthal figure stone, Fontmaure, France, ca. 150,000-50,000 years of age 

Artist Unknown, Spheroid, North Africa, ca. 500,000-300,000 years of age (left)
Artist Unknown, Spheroid, North Africa, ca. 800,000-300,000 years of age (right) 

2nd grade

2nd grade

2nd grade

3rd grade

3rd grade

3rd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

4th grade

4th grade

5th grade

5th grade

5th grade

5th grade

We learned a little about how our ancestors used handaxes and collected figure stones - stones that resemble a human, animal, or other recognizable shape.  Looking at the figure stones below, students imagined that they lived hundreds of thousands of years ago and pointed to the figure stone that they would choose to collect.

2nd grade

3rd grade

3rd grade

We finished by looking at the oldest piece in the exhibition.  The Makapansgat Pebble is circa 2.5 million years of age, and is the earliest known example of a human ancestor recognizing and collecting an object that strongly resembles a human face.

Makapansgat Pebble, Makapansgat, South Africa, ca. 2.5 million years of age

2nd grade

3rd grade

5th grade