Treasures From The PMA & Delphi, Part 2: The Project

by Elizabeth Van Allen  for scribblesbyartteachervanallen.blogspot.com

Sculpture has never been my go-to art form 

Weeks 4-5: Assemble & Gesso

for student projects.  It's not that it intimidates me or that I'm not good at it, sculpture just doesn't come to me as naturally as drawing does.  When I first started brainstorming project ideas for the PMA-Delphi Art Partners Project with my artist-in-residence, Doris Nogueira-Rogers, I was delighted to discover that sculpture is one of her areas of expertise!  We chose to focus our efforts on a three-dimensional project that the students could actually use.  Doris took our project idea and fleshed it out into a 12-week masterpiece!

The Project: Treasure Boxes

Project Objectives: 
Students will create treasure boxes by constructing and decorating them with hand-made tiles.  They will use inspirational words, quotes, or original poems as part of the design. 

Inspiration/Resources:

Containers, chests, trunks, and boxes designed to hold items of value or importance from various collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Cross-Curricular Connections: 
History (compare & contrast historical objects in the museum), 
Math (geometry & measurement), 
Language Arts (composition, poetry)

Field Trip #1- merging art & writing 

Time Budget: 
12 90-minute periods and 2 field trips

Timeline:
Week 1: Facilitate the creation of a student-designed behavioral contract, introduce Artist-in-Residence, discuss our project with highlight on mosaic art.

Field Trip #1: First field trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, focus on containers designed to hold items of value or importance from their 

Week 2-3: Plan, design, make prototype

various collections.

Week 2: Design a 3D box, make a 
prototype using poster board and 
masking tape.

Week 3: Transfer box shapes to 
board (artist will cut them out),
develop ideas for inspirational words/writing activity focusing on 
student strengths, design tile shapes.

Week 3: Trace prototype onto board

Week 4-5: Assemble boxes using 
archival tape. Paint the inside of
boxes and gesso the outside. 

Week 6-8: Paint the outside of boxes, polymer clay 
demonstration, start tile making. 

Week 9: Tile Painting

Weeks 4-5: Assemble boxes 

Week 10-12: Tile assembly & adhere to boxes,writing final draft in and on boxes, final varnish, 
deliver to museum.

Field Trip #2: 
Final field trip to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, view the exhibition, reception.

Weeks 6-8: Polymer clay tile making

Join us again next week for the exciting conclusion to our Treasures from the PMA & Delphi series and see the treasure boxes created by our talented students!

Weeks 9-12: Paint & attach tiles to boxes 

To access the other installments in the series

 Treasures From The PMA & Delphi

Click here for Part 1: The Program

Click here for Part 3: The Product

Disclaimer: Normally I don't show any students in my articles due to privacy & legal considerations. These students and their guardians all signed waivers allowing for their images to be used.