Growing a child's visual world

ArtRandom proposes two trips each to a children’s art program (e.g. in museums, schools, camps, and so forth). During the first visit, visual triptych boards (“Random Views”) will be presented to children. Each child will receive (and keep) his/her/their own spiral notebook that will contain ten examples of Random Views. 

As for the layout of these triptychs, the image on the left presents what one might think of as a traditional piece of art; perhaps a painting or sculpture one might find in a museum.  

The second image is a work of an independent artist, perhaps a street artist, who has taken a similar concept, or motif, and created something out in the world for everyone to see.  

The third is a creative “fill in the blank” for the children.  Completed Random View boards can contain myriad examples of third images:  commercial products, store displays, items one might find in the street, or in the park – anything goes, provided it was inspired in some way by the first two images.

The childrens’ “homework” will be to provide their own third image the incomplete boards in the back of the book. The message? There is no one right answer, there are a million right answers.  We want them to find something that inspires them; that reminds them of one of the other visuals. That connection can be visual, emotional, or something altogether different – perhaps something they cannot articulate precisely. They might find it in the street, in the form of, say, graffiti, or a street performance artist. They may find it in a visual of a sunset, or of a boat on the river; they may find it in a store window, in a piece of clothing, or a piece of candy. The inspiration can come from anywhere.  In terms of physical presentation, they could take a picture on a phone and ask their instructor to print it out. Or they might cut it out of a magazine, photocopy it from a book, or draw something themselves. Anything goes.

In the follow-up class, the children will show the class what they came up with, and explain what the personal connection was for them. The children will undoubtedly enjoy seeing what their classmates came up with, and this should foster positive conversations about different choices and the inspirations around them that they might not noticed before. 

How do we define art?  What makes something a piece of art? What connections are possible in our everyday lives?  Did the creator or performer intend the work to be art?  Does that matter?  Is it okay if we saw it that way? Or we felt it that way? Has the exercise changed the way they see the world around them? Again, there is no one right answer, because there are a million of them.  Because art can be found anywhere.