art/vision/voice - Maryland Institute College of Art

24 art / vision / voice
[how to measure success in this exercise], and there wasn’t enough
time for a guided reflection at the end of each session. We never really
showed them how proud we were of their efforts and how much
progress they had made. I really think the initial drawing project
was too much like school for the kids. It was something they really
had to work at, was tedious, and just wasn’t fun. Despite our best
efforts we couldn’t overcome the students’ aversion to the original
drawing assignments.
At this time Cindy Lemons and Mary Reynolds were getting feedback
that the youth didn’t like what they were doing at Art Club. An already-low
attendance rate was exacerbated by record-breaking snowstorms.
The third leader heard from Cinder and Mari that the kids were not
happy, but didn’t acknowledge the seriousness of the situation. He felt
things were going well enough—although he was frustrated by the
kids’ spotty attendance.
cindy It was critically important for the cap team to be adaptable.
When Cinder picked up on the fact the kids didn’t like drawing and
were dropping out, she and I talked about it. She was able to say to
the leaders that they had to try something new—and quickly!
cinder I said to the leaders, “Let’s do something else here, or you are
not going to keep these kids.” The third leader clearly had very strong
ideas of how art should be taught. He seemed to be evaluating cap’s
model, which is very different from the one with which, as an artist
and the son of an art teacher, he was most familiar and invested.
His critical thinking was good, and it’s natural to want to go with the
model most comfortable to you. But he seemed to be disappointed
with the perceived lack of discipline by the youth.
As a cap staff supervisor, I don’t like to be heavy handed in my
role; I want to help the college students draw their own conclusions
from their experiences and modify their plans accordingly. But it
got to a point where I had to say to the leaders: “You simply cannot
plan another drawing lesson. The kids are voting with their feet here,
and this project needs to be about them.”
Adding to these complications, mica’s spring break fell during this period
of low attendance, and most of the college students were absent from Banner
for more than a week. The reason for the mica students’ absence was
not fully explained to the youth.