Arts Integration: Paterson School 12 Visits William Paterson University

On April 29, 2019, third graders from School #12, of the Paterson school district, went on a field trip to William Paterson University. They visited the Ben Shahn Gallery at WP and learned about the life and art of Cuban born painter Rafael Soriano (1920 -2015): LINK

The students discussed his early work, which consisted of geometric abstractions, or paintings featuring rectangles, triangles, squares, and circles. Then, they examined his different representations of the human head, which featured organic or natural shapes and luminous colors of red, orange, blue, purple. The students shared their reactions to the paintings’ imagery and colors and talked about how colors evoke different emotions.

The students also participated in a workshop conducted by teaching artist Deborah Guzman Meyer. They created a project which explored emotions evoked by different colors, while making portrait silhouettes of their inner selves. Students also learned about the “resists” technique, using oil-pastels and water color paints to create their artwork. The color psychology chart they learned about can be found at LINK

After lunch, the students visited the WP greenhouse and athletic field to get some exercise. What a great way to end the field trip!