Masks and Monologues 2004

MASKS AND MONOLOGUES EXHIBITION AT ROCKWELL MUSEUM OF WESTERN ART CELEBRATES THE ART OF TEACHING

February 18, 2004

Students everywhere probably realize that teachers study too. What they may not understand is how teachers' learning inspires them to try new approaches in the classroom. The Rockwell Museum of Western Art will show the connection between teacher education and student experiences in a special exhibition called Masks and Monologues: The Art of Teaching. The exhibition runs from March 29 through April 18, 2004, during the museum's regular hours: 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., seven days a week. General admission to the museum is $6.50; the reduced rate for seniors is $5.50, and young people 17 and under are admitted free of charge.

The exhibition features work created by Southern Tier art teachers during a summer mask-making and monologue-writing workshop at the Rockwell Museum of Western Art. The teachers made masks to personify earth, air, fire or water and wrote short statements or monologues to accompany their art. Images of nature from the museum's collection served as inspiration for their projects.

Following up on the teachers' creative activities, the museum's education staff asked them to develop mask-making projects for their own students. The resulting student art is also a part of the exhibition.

"Masks and Monologues demonstrates the art of teaching," says Gigi Alvare, Director of Education for the museum. "Teaching art is a creative process that requires being able to inspire and communicate the sequence of steps required to achieve an artistic end and at the same time to allow the student freedom within the assignment for individual process and expression." Masks and Monologues illustrates this concept by exhibiting teacher and student art side-by-side, along with an explanation of the lesson plan that each teacher created to inspire students.

Jim Duffy, an art teacher at Corning's East High School, was one of those who participated in the museum's summer workshop and took the project back to his students. "I like to work with masks as a subject, and the clay and paper mache process we used at the museum worked very well," says Duffy. "After the museum workshop, I wanted my students to do even more. I didn't want to limit their creativity, though. So we looked at all kinds of images, from different nationalities to movies and cartoons. They could choose any culture to represent - even their own. One student chose ancient Egypt. One mask was African. One was even based on American football. They made some very unique masks this time."

Alvare chose masks as a subject for the workshop and exhibition because they are a universal art form. The ancient Greeks created masks. So did Japanese, African, European and Native American artists. Because masks transcend time and culture, they offer many possibilities for integrating art education with other curricula.

The Rockwell Museum of Western Art owns one of the largest and finest collections of Western American art in the United States. The museum is an outstanding educational resource for teachers and students. Summer workshops for teachers are designed to further the integration of arts in education. Programs for students are created in cooperation with grade level educators to align with curriculum and meet New York State Learning Standards.

The Rockwell Museum of Western Art is located in downtown Corning, New York, just off historic Market Street. Visitors are welcome seven days a week, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Further information is available by calling (607) 937-5386.