Manitou School Students Complete 5th "Minimester" at the HVCCA

The Manitou School, located in Cold Spring, New York, recently completed its Spring “minimester” at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. The minimester project emphasizes visual learning. Students study the arts through focused observation and Socratic reasoning, unpacking questions in a logical way leading to individualized insights. Having successfully worked together for the last four years, the museum, in collaboration with the school, created an art curriculum based on the 2017 exhibition ‘Between I & Thou’. Because the Artist in Residence program is ongoing throughout 2017-2018, students had the opportunity to work directly with the two Spring resident artists, Elisa Pritzker, originally from Argentina, and Jinsu Han from Korea. In addition, one of the artists featured in the exhibition, Orly Cogan, a fiber artist and mother of one of the students, participated.

At the session with HVCCA artist-in-residence Elisa Pritzker, the students learned about the ability of an artist to call attention to world events. Pritzker’s exhibition, ‘Selknam: Spirit, Ceremony, Selves’, focuses on the now extinct Selknam tribe of Tierra del Fuego. The students listened to a creation myth, had a Q&A with Pritzker about the Selknam and her artwork, and then completed an art project. Taking inspiration from Pritzker’s art, the students painted rocks with minimalist colors and used traditional Selknam patterns to create their own rock formations. After exposure to the mythology and tradition of the Selknam people, the students acquired a deeper knowledge that influenced their personal artwork. Each student chose different sized rocks to be painted and then added on materials such as sticks, shells, etc. to embellish them. By not being able to use modern materials such as glue or tape, the students were able to create art in the style of the Selknam.

Ms. Pritzker writes, on working with the students, "With my heart open, full attention and with a total will to enjoy the moment, I shared my Selknam Installation at HVCCA with two amazing groups of kids. There is no better way to share my art than with honesty. They had great questions and comments that I fondly value. These young kids left a deep impression on me, and I hope I left a deep impression on them that they can treasure in the present and remember over the course of their lives."

By having hands-on experience working with Pritzker, the Manitou students had a special opportunity to directly understand her work. With artist Jinsu Han, the students considered memory associated with personal objects, vessels of memory they brought from home that could contain fluids, colored waters to match their personal auras. With robotics they were shown how puncturing the surface of the fluid creates ripples, a metaphor for event and memory and the way movement and time change all reality.

They also worked with the artwork of Todd Murphy, an environmentalist, and Peter Bynum, an artist using glass, light, sound and acrylic paint.

The Manitou students learned about the art exhibits, wrote about their own memories, made special cloth ‘grandpa memory and gift pockets,’ cupcakes, and collages.

Students learned about the creative process, were exposed to varied art disciplines-- fiber art, robotics, collage, conceptual, multimedia and environmental works-- and then created their own. Due to the intensity of the series, students actively continued exploring the varied art types upon their return home, installing works on their ceiling and walls.

At the culmination of the series, students led docent-style tours for their families and proudly shared their art works, featured in a student exhibition at HVCCA.

The Manitou School was founded in 2014 and is focused on bi-lingual proficiency and progressive learning. The HVCCA continues to offer minimesters to school groups. The exhibit Between I & Thou is up through December 2018; Elisa Pritzker’s “Selknam: Spirit, Ceremony, Selves” through September 2017.