Residency Curriculum Connections
Language Arts:
Oral language skills are sharpened as students give and seek information in conversations and in group discussions during the sculpture’s creation. Students demonstrate effective listening to learn, process, and analyze the meaning of new information. Written communication can focus on writing a report on the residency for class or school publications, writing descriptively about the experiences in a journal or composing poems about the process and/or product and publishing them as a class book (with illustrations or photos). Students can script and film a documentary of the project, designing the video to reach an intended audience (younger students or parents.)


Math and Science:
The residency provides students with a hands-on understanding of many abstract notions. To explore
balance, students are able to use the concepts of greater than/lesser than, probability and comparing and contrasting weight. The selection of appropriate materials encourages both mathematical and analytical thinking. The sculpture’s construction teaches calculation skills and introduces concepts of physics.
Visual Art:
Students will increase their visual literacy and art vocabulary by using pattern, color, rhythm, symmetry and asymmetry, positive and negative space, spatial relationships (overlapping, size, proportion and placement), organic and geometric space. Working abstractly allows students to compare abstract and realistic works of art. Students will also gain an understanding of site-specific work and the role of public art.
Music and Dance (Movement):
Students can transfer the spatial patterns of the sculpture from the visual to the aural (music) or the kinesthetic (movement of dance). Students can translate the rhythm, dynamic and tempo of the sculpture into musical form through improvisation and/or composition. The sculpture’s movement can inspire a dance that demonstrates initiation of movement, articulation of isolated parts, weight shift, elevation and landing.
Social and Interpersonal Skills:
The sculpture itself is a model of many parts working as a whole. Students must collaborate with Mr. Reese and with each other. Decisions must be made, consensus must be reached and interpersonal skills are tested and stretched. The final product is a testament to teamwork.
Workshop Curriculum Connections
Language Arts:
Students utilize effective listening to learn, process, and analyze the procedures, instructions and information. Oral language skills are sharpened as students give and seek information in conversations and in group discussions during the workshop. Students can describe the workshop and/or the mobile created in descriptive writings, in poems, in oral presentations or in school publications. Connections can be encouraged between the mobile and other things that have many parts working together to make a whole.
Math and Science:
The workshop provides students with a hands-on understanding of many abstract notions. To explore balance, students are able to use the concepts of greater than/lesser than, probability and comparing and contrasting weight. The selection of appropriate materials encourages both mathematical and analytical thinking. The mobile making teaches calculation skills and introduces concepts of physics.
Visual Art:
Students will increase their visual literacy and art vocabulary by using pattern, color, rhythm, symmetry and asymmetry, positive and negative space, spatial relationships (overlapping, size, proportion and placement), organic and geometric space. Working abstractly allows students to compare abstract and realistic works of art. Mobile Gallery participants gain an understanding of the role of public art.