WVSA

I apparently was in the wrong place last week ? I don't know. I went to WVSA and told them I was from the Corcoran and they took me to Jude's classroom and the Articulate program. So that is where I spent my afternoon.

They have their studio in a basement room that was sorta cramped. They had 2 (?) macs available for the students and previous work hung everywhere and piles and piles of books and works in progress. It was quite the storehouse. 

The mood in the room was relaxing and welcoming. The ARTiculate program is a program for special needs kids to young adults, I think it was ages 15-25. A big drive for the art work they produce is the gallery in the school which of course is trying to sell the works. The gallery gives them themes and they have to work on that theme and produce things for the gallery. The theme they are working on right now is "beauty as in the eye of the beholder". They had images printed off the computer of different ideas of beauty from different cultures. The students were using the images that appealed to them and reinterpreting them in their works.

Jude takes a backseat in the program and seems to be more of someone who is guiding them and available for them when they need, he does not hang over everyone's shoulder. And the students work well on their own and get right to things as they come in. They know when it is time for them to stop and clean up and they do so in time to catch their various rides to wherever they are going.