Public Art ~ Inspiring Inquiry
(Fun & learning with Geese in the City, Still Life, and Recycles)
Over the past school year, Edmonton’s social media pages have lit up with fabulous pictures of local school children exploring the city’s public art. They’re taking part in some off-site educational programs like City Hall School, EJ (Edmonton Journal) School, Ice School, and Jube (Jubilee Auditorium) School.
These and 11 other Edmonton sites are coordinated by Inquiring Minds, an organization that offers an innovative approach to informal learning in “intriguing and enriching sites such as museums, fire halls, civic venues and nature preserves invite classes of children to use their site as a classroom for an entire week. Students and teachers use this ‘classroom’ to engage in learner-led, hands-on, inquiry-based learning and exploration through tours, journaling, and a host of creative activities.” The program was developed in Calgary about 20 years ago and has been adopted by educators around the world.
Sandy Van Riper works with Inquiring Minds as an Experience Facilitator for the EJ School, and is an enthusiastic proponent of out of the box learning. “Our site school programs give students and teachers an opportunity to put their inquiry tools to use by connecting to the ‘real’ world which is where curriculum is actually coming from.”
(Students explore the Homelessness Memorial by Keith Turnbull & Ritchie Velthuis in words and art)
Sandy says that the basic tools of the site-specific experience are a blank journal and a pencil. As students engage with their learning site and surrounding environment they are encouraged to “observe, reflect, sketch and wonder in that journal”. The process of close looking and transferring those observations to paper is a form of art in and of itself, she continues.
“Public art, and viewing and appreciating it, is a natural extension of paying attention, and responding, to a public environment. Since public art is often "eye-catching" it makes it a natural inquiry topic. I feel it is not so much that site coordinators make conscious decisions to seek out public art to include but rather that when you are open to an interesting public environment the public art in it is something students (and adults) are drawn to and have questions about and want to look at and sketch and write about.”
(Exploring Tsa Tsa Ke K’e - Iron Foot Place - photo D. Martineau)
The ways public art can be incorporated into a learning environment are only limited by the imagination, says Sandy, noting that Alex Janvier’s work Tsa Tsa Ke K’e is used by Ice School as a model for math facts. “I too use Tsa Tsa Ke K'e in my program, but in a very different way - that is the beauty of responding to art! I was excited to note that downtown Edmonton is now a place where it is much easier to acknowledge that the land which we explore is Treaty 6 territory and traditional meeting ground for many Indigenous and other people. I send links out to teachers before they arrive on site for the week about Alex Janvier and the creation of the mural and then on our first day we go and see it. Powerful experience all the way around. To be honest we also pose by Wayne Gretzky!
(Sir Winston Churchill Statue by Oscar Nemon- photo D. Martineau)
I also spend time each week taking in the statue of Winston Churchill and do a body language activity there, asking students to plant their feet, lean a little forward and clench their fists at their sides. We immediately come to a place that brings words like determined and stubborn into the conversation. It makes a discussion of the naming of the Square much more engaging and connecting Social Studies concepts like historical thinking possible in a new way.
(Making rubbings of Geese in the City by Holly Newman)
Whenever the weather permits I have students use the ‘Flying Geese’ benches on Jasper Avenue for a word and image collection activity by making rubbings. Because there is a poem interwoven in that art, I often use that activity as inspiration for a poetry writing activity when we return to our classroom.”
(Playing with Recycles by Lynn Malin & Elizabeth Bowering Beauchanp)
Students have also just had fun playing on the Recycles sculpture at Beaver Hills House Park – the fun element is just one of the ‘civic boxes’ that public art ticks – “It’s about things to share, reference, celebrate, landmark, engage, discuss, memorialize, beautify, reflect, honour, have fun, inspire. Each week I have teachers and adults who say ‘I didn't know ...’.”
The scope of art in Edmonton covers many subjects and exhibits a myriad of qualities says Sandy. Interactivity is a two-way street and should be for everyone – “Every piece of public art does not need to be "child-friendly" but considerations related to durability, climb-on issues, touch-ability are all worthy criteria for artists who create pieces to consider. ‘Quality art’ - I am not a fan of that term - is generally child friendly. These ideas make places people-friendly not just child-friendly”.
All photos by S. Van Riper except as noted