Elementary school art celebrates diversity, togetherness
Apr. 13—ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It brought them together at a time when the pandemic was keeping people apart.
Vibrant collages of student-drawn portraits sit outside of Marie M. Hughes Elementary School on the West Side of Albuquerque. While the banners now welcome students who are coming back onto campus for in-person learning, they were created when classes were virtual.
"What I thought was, 'Well, if we can't be together, let's make a bunch of faces and put them all together,' " said Andy Young, a first grade teacher.
His students drew individual pictures digitally that he combined into cohesive pieces of art.
There are fun ones like 6-year-old Olivia Baum's avocado face, and others are tributes to favorite colors and former friends.
"My friend from preschool loved the color blue," Baum said, pointing to the aqua locks on her portrait.
Similarly, Lancelin Walker, 7, used her favorite color palette of yellows and reds.
"She's happy!" Walker said, describing her portrait.
Young used the project to augment his math and social studies lessons as well as some English work.
For example, the class sold hoodies, pillows and other merchandise with the artwork printed on it to raise funds for the project and they tracked the donations as part of a math assignment.
"I do big art projects with my students every year that integrate a lot of curriculum and it will culminate in some type of big art project, which was a challenge this year because we were separated from each other," Young said.
He also focused on diversity, telling his students to make sure their artwork reflected the different kinds of hair people have or different skin tones.
"It gave us an opportunity to talk about that. If we're going to show people let's talk about the diversity of people," Young said.
The teacher started incorporating the project into lessons around the winter holidays and wrapped up about a month ago.
Another goal was to show students that art can send a message.
"For a first grader, art is about representation. It's about ... can you draw something accurately?" Young said. "The idea that art can deliver a message, that it can do something for the community, that it can be embedded in experience is a really new idea for kids this age."
The message from the banners outside of Marie M. Hughes Elementary is clear: "It's about celebrating togetherness," Young said.
