Paterson Students Attend Field Trip at William Paterson University

Above:  Paterson students stand in front of exhibition title with Dodge Grant Program Director Dr. An, PIR Triada Samaras, NRC teacher Janette Selino and WPU Galleries Director Kristen Evangelista

Above:  Paterson Students visit WPU's Ben Shahn Building

On December 3 and 4, 2018, as part of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation's Art Integration grant, students from New Roberto Clemente School and Don Bosco Technical Academy in Paterson, NJ, went on a field trip to William Paterson University.  The main purpose of this field trip was to visit the International Exhibition of Posters entitled:  Women's Rights are Human Rights: International Posters on Gender-based Inequality, Violence, and Discrimination. 

Their first stop of this trip was WPU's Power Art Center where students learned about large-scale art production.  Thanks to WPU MFA students Feride Comen and Sarah Schwindt and WPU Galleries Director Kristen Evangelista, they visited the "robots", virtual reality room, 3-D printer room, painting and ceramics studio and viewed many WPU art student works in the halls.

Above left : Paterson students tour the sculpture  and ceramics

facilities with WPU MFA student Feride Comen and NRC Technology Teacher Janette Selino  

After the Power Arts Building tour, students traveled to the Ben Shahn Gallery where "Women's Rights are Human Rights" is on exhibition.  Kristen Evangelista taught the students many facts about the posters done by both male and female artists, and gave them opportunities to inquire as well as voice their opinions on them.

 Above:  Paterson student reads the "Women's Rights are Human Rights" exhibition text.

Video below of Don Bosco student speaking at the Women's Rights exhibition.

Above from left to right:  Dr. Heejung An, Arts Integration Coordinator, Ms Aramayo NRC Art Teacher, Kristen Evangelista WPU Galleries Director

Above:  Ms. Kamiski, Don Bosco Art Teacher, Ms. Simmen, Don Bosco Civics Teacher

     Next the Paterson middle school students  middle school students worked with Deborah Guzman Meyer to create miniature shrines for civic, political, and religious leaders that were important to them personally. Entitled "Social Justice Shrines", these mixed media artworks celebrate important leaders such as the Dali Lama, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and others. This project enabled students to reflect on social justice after viewing the women’s 

rights poster exhibit. She was assisted by Ben Shawn Gallery Manager Emily Johnson and WPU art student Angel Fosuhene.  

Above WPU PIR's Triada Samaras (left) and Robin O'Brien (right)

This project exemplifies arts Integration, which is defined as an interdisciplinary teaching practice through which non-arts and arts content is taught and assessed equitably in order to deepen students' understanding of both. Next on the tour Paterson students visited the WPU art faculty exhibition where several large scale sculptures in the exhibit captivated this young audience.

Above WPU Arts Integration PIR Triada Samaras experiments with augmented reality technology with the students

Above Paterson students enjoy experiencing with this large-scale sculpture

For lunch Paterson students enjoyed visiting the WPU Student Center and walking around the WPU campus.

After lunch, WPU Admissions staff spoke to the students about college admissions and related topics

 

Teachers from both NRC and B will continue this field trip learning back at their respective schools.  For example, NRC Technology Teacher Janette Selino will have her student learn to format a thank you letter to WPU summarizing five new things they learned on the field trip that they did not know before.  Art Teacher Patty Kaminski will continue the art production of the Social Justice Shrines back in her classroom then create a school-wide art exhibit to expose the entire school population to this new information.