Children’s Art Week
Children’s Art Week runs from 29 June to 19 July 2021
by Brian Radcliffe
Suitable for Whole School (Sec)
Aims
To explore our understanding of the significance of visual art.
Preparation and materials
- In the ‘Assembly’, Step 3, the story of Bezalel and Oholiab can be found in Exodus 31.1-11 and Exodus 36.1-3a.
- Further information about Children’s Art Week is available at: https://engage.org/happenings/childrens-art-week/
- Optional: you may wish to explore the resources available at: https://www.twinkl.co.uk/event/children-s-art-week-2021
- Note: compliance with Covid restrictions may affect involvement in some activities. Also, please be aware of any students who are visually impaired.
Assembly
- Take a good look around you.
Pause to allow time for thought.
What colours can you see?
Listen to a range of responses, encouraging close observation.
What shapes can you see?
Listen to a range of responses, encouraging close observation.
What can you see that makes you feel happy?
Listen to a range of responses, asking for the reasons behind each response.
What can you see that puzzles you?
Listen to a range of responses, asking for the reasons behind each response.
What can you see that excites you?
Listen to a range of responses, asking for the reasons behind each response.
What can you see that makes you feel calm?
Listen to a range of responses, asking for the reasons behind each response. - We’ve discovered that what we see doesn’t merely convey objective information like colour and shape to us, it also affects how we feel. That’s why visual art is so important in our lives. We are affected in various ways by everything we see around us, often without realizing it. In fact, throughout history, religions, governments, advertisers and individual artists have used visual art deliberately to influence our moods, ideas, beliefs and purchases.
- Near the beginning of the story of God’s relationship with the people of Israel - a story shared by both Jews and Christians - God gives special artistic abilities to two men called Bezalel and Oholiab. Their task is to create a special meeting place where God could live with his people. The design of this Tent of Meeting, or tabernacle, was to be spectacular in colour and craftsmanship. Why? In order to convey the power, splendour and majesty of God himself. Whenever the people looked at the tent, they were to be overwhelmed with wonder at the image of their God.
- Similarly, in the years before the Second World War, the fascist dictators Adolf Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy spent vast sums on powerful styles of architecture to bolster their images as dominant countries.
Today, advertisers entice us with their products by the use of vivid, colourful logos and graphics. They want us to be attracted. Even individual artists have their own motives behind their art. They want to encourage us to see the world in a particular way, often to increase our appreciation of the shapes, colours and relationships that we can so easily take for granted.
Time for reflection
We are in the middle of Children’s Art Week, which actually lasts for three weeks from 29 June to 19 July. There’s a different theme for each week.
- Week 1: the natural world
- Week 2: connecting across generations
- Week 3: literacy and creative writing
The aim of each week is to encourage us to get involved in looking around. We can start right here, in this room, as we did earlier. We can progress to outdoors and look closely at the natural world that we can so easily take for granted. Finally, we can enjoy the work of artists as they offer their own spin on the sights that surround us.
Direct students to areas of the school in which visual art is displayed.
Let’s start with considering objectively the colours and shapes that we see, and then move on to how they make us feel. Maybe by the end of the day, we will have discovered a new depth to our vision.
Now let’s listen to a song called ‘Vincent’ by American singer-songwriter Don McLean. It’s all about the artist Vincent van Gogh and how he perceived the world as vivid, but maybe also a little confusing.
Play the song ‘Vincent’ by Don McLean, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wrNFDxCRzU (3.57 minutes long)
Song/music
‘Vincent’ by Don McLean, available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wrNFDxCRzU (3.57 minutes long)
