The students enjoyed tracking how Cai added something new to his practice with every gallery. They liked being given time to observe and report on questions asked.
Reflection (what would you do differently?) Add another activity.
This was my first tour. I was impressed by the group I had–they didn’t ask many questions but were very engaged.
I started the tour from the gallery next to the store showing the recent works of Cai, AI arts, then went to the 1st gallery. They are interested in the Asian culture, so I included Chinese and Japanese culture here and there, and concluded that many of Asian traditions are similar to theirs (students).
I had a trouble having them engaged in conversation, but when they talk, they have very good answers. I wish I know how to stimulate high school students to talk…
Went well. Good participation. Did a “word share” in front of the Hiroshima piece, and talked on more extensive talk on AI.
It went well. The students paid attention to what I told them and also responded to my questions.
What worked well: Setting them into groups, teams, to explain their favorite work of art.
Reflection (What would you do differently?) Show more videos…
Practice and flexibility, it is a tour that will require practice and adjustments to the audience
Touring aid using stencil, coffee grounds, canvas. The demonstration provided insight and helped students look at Cai’s process and determine if Cai followed same or different process when working with glass, wood, canvass.
Used many of the questions per the Tour outline. I cannot think of a different approach to encourage students to explain what they are looking at.
Overall, this was my second time doing School Tours for the Cai Art; I feel the experience will be better after doing more tours.
Using cards with substrate names for search.
For AI section, I tried out asking the students to make a list (or draw) what they might upload into a personal AI program that would provide source material for a future work of art. Not sure how well it worked, but a few students came up with some interesting things. (49ers logo, Real Madrid photo, transportation, flowers, “a world with god living in it.”)
Interesting, brief, discussions about Canvas on the Moon (including good tip from Fran – showed Earth Rise photo from Apollo 8); and mandala/Return to Darkness.
First room was our last stop so watching the two videos at the end worked well to wrap up, especially with the second hour (tired and hungry) group.
Continue to work on the flow; do more pair share.
The gallery attendants enjoy seeing the students and often have suggestions about what we should stop to look at. Sweet.
Did second tour only, starting in Pyramid/Ascending Dragon room. Students enjoyed analyzing the pyramid picture and talked about the different views – arrived at the extraterrestrial theme themselves. Cool. Talked about the polygraph experiment and art piece. In substrate room, the sketch on the wall with the long fuse and tiny person was a hit; close looking rewarded. One student thought the explosion looked like a toasted marshmallow.
Hercules was recognized from the art session upstairs. Nice to see in real size. Canvas on Moon inspired good discussion (2nd graders!). Mandala a thought-provoking hit. In the first section, our last stop, only had time to pass by the window shade piece (new substrate!), which they liked, and briefly the colored Gunpowder Study in the first section.
Would like to try the dragon story somewhere. Didn’t have time for more than one activity (substrate search); work on making more time for another. For me, second hour groups are more squirmy; thinking of doing something physical in the garden before going inside.
An amusing question: What’s the substrate of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?
Went very well. Kids loved activities. Notepad, Drawings.
Not a bloody thing did not go well.
Mandala activity went well. Reading Lunar New Year story also went well. Hunting for Substrates also was successful
Activities were all fine.
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