Already Informal Artists in Residence?

“Art making is making the invisible visible.”

Marcel Duchamp, Da-Da Artist

In Rivers and Revolutions, the creative process is continually entrusted to sustain student engagement, to make tangible meaning of course content, and to allow learning to be experienced as a shared and aesthetic endeavor. Students are often asked to think and operate as artists or an artist collective. And because much of our curriculum is "place based", meaning that the town of Concord and its surrounding landscapes replace the traditional textbook, we are also working like informal "Artists in Residence". We continually attempt to make meaning of ourselves, our community, and the larger world through investigation of local phenomena, contemporary issues, environmental resources, historical landmarks and characters, and cultural organizations.

One way in which students participating in Rivers and Revolutions express and demonstrate their learning is through the creation of "artifacts". For example, in place of an exam at the end of each quarter, students instead create an art project that is independently conceived, designed, and completed. This assessment evolves out of a daily practice of journaling and completing learning tasks such as writing poems, composing drawings, conducting experiments, acting out performances – anything that offers students the opportunity creatively engage with course material. Here is a link to a collaboratively authored poem that is being translated by the World Languages department, to include in our installation art project: poem.

Today, all the students who have been engaged with the research and development of an Artist in Residence at Minuteman National Park, have begun thinking about their second big artifact project. They have been asked to make something that relates to course material, and their stewardship experience. Preliminary ideas range from painting a triptych inspired by local landscapes, to writing historical science fiction, to creating a mock newspaper column about current revolutionary ideas. After sharing these ideas, we set out to complete an ongoing installation project at CCHS - a project which has allowed us to experience first-hand what it is like to make "site specific" art . We are responding to our school's setting and inhabitants, while being mindful of necessary limitations and regulations.