Art Docents

Bringing art to the children of the Los Gatos Union School District

New Logo – 45th Anniversary

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Art Docent’s celebrate 45 years with a new student-designed logo

A Los Gatan high schooler has updated the look of the Art Docents of Los Gatos for the first time in 45 years.

The volunteer-run non-profit was founded in 1973 to provide high quality visual arts curriculum to students in Kindergarten through 5th grade in the Los Gatos Union School District.

The goal of the group is fostering the development of flexible, innovative and creative individuals.

To mark the occasion of its 45th anniversary, the docents ran a logo re-design through Los Gatos High School’s graphic design class.

They began the competition in March and received 20 submissions.

On Friday, sophomore Mira Sharma was announced the winner with her design, and was met at the school by the docent’s executives. Mira won $300 for her achievement.

Fellow sophomore Dawson Smedt took second place and a $150 check. Both are students of teacher Alex Czech.

The new logo will begin to appear in the association’s marketing by mid-August as part of a larger story about its ongoing evolution.

 

 

 

Congratulations to our two top submissions!

 

 

 

 

Prints Update Project

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Over the Spring Break we asked if any of the Jr. Art Docents could join us at

the Art Docent office to help out with our “Prints Update Project”. 

Lucky for us…we had an awesome team of 4 Los Gatos High School students who joined us

along with Theresa B., Judith F., Julie F., and Emilie R.

Together we divided into teams, and in 3 hours we measured, cataloged,

​and rated over 150 prints.  This is the first step in making sure that our

amazing Print Collection is kept up to date and looking great for the classroom use.

 

 

The edges of the presentation boards needed some attention….

some we can trim, some we will reorder, and some need cleaning!

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Well we started with an inventory…thank heavens we had great help from the Los Gatos High School Jr. Art Docents!

 

 

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Big Data Art – Piloting the Lesson

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We are excited to announce a new addition to our curriculum!  

This year we have been developing a lesson that we will teach in the Fall called “Big Data Art” in the 6th grade math classes.  

We realized that not only did we need to fill a hole in our curriculum for 6th grade, but we also wanted to create

a lesson that was on the cutting edge of Art and how it relates to the STEAM initiative.

 

Just this May, our Curriculum team, after many months of developing the lesson, actually tested it out with five 6th grade classes

in Ms. Brandy Nelson’s classroom at Fisher Middle School.  We had so much fun and excitement, and found out some valuable feedback as well that will help us to edit

and hone our lesson to be taught in the Fall of 2018.

One thing we learned is that we will need to teach the lesson in a 90 minute period

instead of a 45 minutes.  We also realized that we needed to simplify the Tally Sheet we gave the students.

Piloting the lesson was very valuable, we were learning on the spot.

After the first time that day we only had one student who finished their Spiral Data Portrait –

but by the end we had our directions down pat and were

able to have a whole class complete the project.

 

Ms. Nelson was so excited about the lesson she said,

“I’ve been talking with the other 6th grade math teachers about this lesson and we are going to

rearrange our curriculum to be taught at the time the Art Docents will come in to teach this lesson.”  

 

She also was so eager to have her son, who is going to major in Data Analytics this fall in college,

come to school the day we were there to pilot the lesson so he could learn about the subject as well.

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What is Big Data Art?

What is the Big Idea about including this art lesson in a math class?  

How can we combine a complicated subject and bring it to life for our tech savvy students?  

These were the questions we have attempted to answer in this new and exciting lesson.

 

Our objectives with this lesson cover both Visual Arts Standards as well as Math Standards.  The Students will: Students will:

Make connections between art, math and science, as well as career potentials related to these fields.

Enter, observe and analyze data about themselves that will be collected and displayed using a Heat Map.

Record and tally their individual data of how they spend their time on a typical day.

Create a Spiral Data Portrait of themselves called “A Day in the Life of Me”.

Observe and analyze all the 6th graders Spiral Data Portraits collectively in one Big Data Art piece.

 

 

The student’s start out with filling in an online Google Form Survey ahead of time

asking them questions about

“Where they were born,” “What’s one country or state they have enjoyed visiting,”

and “ What’s one country/state that they would love to visit.”  During our presentation we show the students

a heat map and an interactive map that was generated by their data.    

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 The lesson also covers what a Data Scientist does, different types of info-graphics, charts and now the artwork that different artists are inspired by all this data.  

 

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We end the lesson with a project for the students.  Students are working on their own “Data Portrait”.

They must first fill in a tally sheet which shows them how much time they devote to different areas of their life.  

Then for each 15 minute period will be represented by one dot of the color that coordinates with their

activity. They will put their favorite activity dot color in the center of the Data Spiral.

When all the 6th grade classes are completed we will display all the spirals

(about 550) together as one large BIG DATA ART installation to be viewed by the school.

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President’s Letter – May 2018

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Volunteers are the key to our Success!
Please help us recruit new docents – by sharing our story to neighbors and friends.

Save the date 

Volunteer Open House Thursday, September 13th 

Help spread the word and let other members of our community know about the

wonderful things the Art Docents do. Invite a friend to save the date

and join us at our Open House in September. You can give them a sneak peak

of what we do by sharing the link to our Volunteer Video. 

Art Docents of Los Gatos – Volunteer with Us

 

Send an email to artdocents.com for more information. 

 

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At this time of the year, when we are winding things up here at Art Docents,

 

it’s time to say thank you to our most important and vital assets….our Volunteers!

 

With our Volunteers

 

~ we can personally reach out to over 3000 students ~

 

~inspire those who want to be creative or who just need to find a passion that suits them ~

 

~help students to be critical thinkers~

 

~provide involvement in the arts which is associated with gains in

math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skills.

 

~improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork.~

 

~ connect people more deeply to the world and open them to new ways of seeing,”

creating the foundation to forge social bonds and community cohesion. (Edutopia.org)~

 

We have enjoyed so many new things this year along with dealing with some changes as well. 

Our docents have experienced loss of loved ones, health concerns, new grandchildren,

new family members, remodels, caring for parents, changing jobs,

children involved sports, plays and school work. 

 

This is life…both good and difficult

things happen in our everyday lives and yet

we still make time to give back and share our time and I

appreciate all the dedication of time and energy

VOLUNTEERS put into our community and our program.

 

 

 

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New Logo for Fall 2018!

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Just wanted to let you all know that at our last meeting we voted in to move forward with our new logo for Fall of 2018.

Thanks to all those that helped make this happen.  Over the summer we will be updating our website

and any other items with our new logo. More details to come in the Fall when we celebrate our 45th Anniversary.


 

Have a Great Summer…and see you in the Fall!

Julie Ferrario

President of Art Docents of Los Gatos

 

President’s Letter – April 2018

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April Showers Bring May Flowers…

and for the Art Docents we have the …

Art Show


Kindergarten Foil Workshop


Spanish Art History


French Art History

The year is winding up and we have finished with all of our print presentations.

During April, May and June we have several important items to cover with the Art Docents.

The Art Show is one of our large components of the Art Docent program and we have been working hard to get it ready. 

Thanks to Frances and her awesome committee on all the hard work they have put in thus far. 

The following lessons/workshops are ready to be taught these last few months.​

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KINDERGARTEN FOIL WORKSHOP


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Teaching Objective: 

Students will learn about sculptures, 3 dimensional objects, and materials used in sculptures by creating their own foil sculpture animal.

Explanation of Concept:  

Sculpture has shape (height, width and depth), it is not flat, and is three dimensional. 

Sculpture is not just art.  It can be created to be part of a celebration, a dance, a show or part of a building.  

Sculpture can be functional.  

Sculpture can be made of any material. 

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SPANISH ART HISTORY – 7th Grade
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“Frida and Diego Rivera” by Frida Kahlo (1931)
Frida painted this portrait of herself with husband Diego Rivera.
Who is she portraying as an artist? (Her husband was more famous than her at that time.)
How is she showing her pride in her heritage? (By her traditional Mexican clothing.)
Whose head is turned; whose is forward? What does this suggest?
Do you notice anything else about their posture?
What does a plain background such as this do for the subjects?

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FRENCH ART HISTORY – 7th Grade

Pierre-Auguste Renoir,  ​“Luncheon of the Boating Party,”
Renoir was another founding member of the first Impressionist exhibit;
he actually exhibited at the official Salon back in 1864 but did not gain recognition until much later.
What does this painting show?
​Does it feel somber or light-hearted?
“Boating Party” is one of the most beloved works of Renoir for
its sunny, playful quality but carefully studied composition.
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LOGO SUBMISSION UPDATE

Secondly I wanted to tell you all about our Logo Submission Request.  We reached 
out to the Los Gatos High School students as you all know last month 
to give them the students the first opportunity to send in submissions
for a new logo going forward for our 45th Anniversary.  

We received over 25 submissions!  

Thank you to Sue W., Stephanie D., Cheryl H., Elizabeth G.,
Beth R. and Stefanie J.
for you help in working on the committee for screening the logo submissions 

and presenting their top 2 choices to our Executive Board. 

Also a big thank you goes to 
Mr. Czech, the Los Gatos High School Art teacher
who was instrumental in working with both our Logo Committee 
and the students on their submissions!

From there the Executive Board agreed unanimously on one choice, 
and decided to give the Art Docents the opportunity to vote on
whether we move forward with the new logo, 
or continue on with our current logo.  
So we are presenting those two choices at the next meeting 
Friday, April 27th, 9 am at the Art Show Set Up
held at Fisher Middle School.

We are not revealing the choice in public yet since we have not notified the students
yet of our decisions since we will be waiting to complete the vote
​from all the Art Docents at our next meeting.

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Thank you Jr. Art Docents!

Prints Update Project – Part One

Over the Spring Break we asked if any of the Jr. Art Docents could join us at the
Art Docent office to help out with our “Prints Update Project”.
Lucky for us…we had an awesome team of 4 Los Gatos High School students who joined us
along with Theresa B., Judith F., Julie F., and Emilie R.

Together we divided into teams, and in 3 hours we measured, cataloged, 
​and rated over 150 prints.  This is the first step in making sure that our
amazing Print Collection is kept up to date and looking great for the classroom use.

We will be meeting again to work on “Part Two”
on May 23rd @ 9 am in the Art Docent office
if anyone is interested in join in on the fun, please email either Stefanie at artdocents@me.com or Julie F.

 

 

 

 

 

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It’s time to Spring into Action!

 

Happy Spring,  Julie Ferrario


President of Art Docents of Los Gatos

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