Learning: Buckingham Browne and Nichols
2001 | Cambridge, Massachusetts
PROJECT PARTNERS:
Five students from Buckingham Browne and Nichols Lower School, grades pre–kindergarten through six, were asked to contribute equally to the creation of this project. Each of the five students were asked to generate two questions about learning, either prompts on topics they wanted to answer, or questions about the concept of “learning” that they were curious about.
The two questions from each of the participants were combined into a list of ten questions, and the students were then interviewed using their combined prompts as a questionnaire. By combining everyone’s questions, the participants democratically defined the parameters of the dialogue. All of the students had equal freedom to answer the questions of their own creation as broadly or specifically as they wished.
Each participant was photographed, and later invited to the Community Room at Buckingham Browne and Nichols and further integrated into the art making process. The participants, their classmates, and some faculty sketched projections of the students from clear polyester drawings made from the photographs, illuminated on an overhead projector. Concurrent to small groups of students tracing the projections, each worked on play or worksheets to exercise their critical thinking skills and highlight the experience as a whole.
The final products of the process were four paintings of the interviewees, each with a large quotation, and their transcribed interview mounted on the painting. The works were initially installed temporarily at Buckingham Browne and Nichols Lower School, and after a short time, one of the works was installed permanently at the school. This project aimed to empower students by beautifying their school with artworks that featured images of themselves and their voices, and that they were directly involved in creating.
