Arte Postale: An International Visual Arts and Writing Exchange
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Give your students an exciting cross-cultural experience while addressing key educational standards.
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| City Life Joshua, Newark, New Jersey, USA |
What is Arte Postale?
Arte Postale is an inclusive international visual arts exchange program designed for classroom students with and without disabilities. The program creates valuable cross-cultural educational experiences by forming relationships between students as they study and communicate about their lives. Students learn to express themselves in artistic ways through this inclusive approach to visual art in the classroom. Their creativity and views of the world develop as their imagination travels to remote lands and they discover the richness of other cultures.
Who can participate in Arte Postale?
Students ages 7–14 with or without disabilities and teachers with all levels of visual arts experience.
What is included in the program?
Teachers receive a guide containing four lessons that include visual and language arts activities surrounding a theme. The activities in the following lessons are designed to encourage thoughtful reflection in the lives and culture of the students:
- What is Culture?
- A Day in My Neighborhood
- Scenes from My Culture
- Our World: Under One Sky
Students have the opportunity to increase their understanding through exchanges via a community blog. The exchange culminates with the creation of a final piece of artwork and accompanying description sheet to be exchanged with the partner classroom in another country. One piece of art from each classroom will be selected to be showcased in VSA’s annual exhibition in Washington, D.C.
How can I incorporate Arte Postale into my instruction?
Arte Postale engages students with and without disabilities in the learning process while focusing on educational goals. The program:
- Weaves seamlessly into standards-based curricula for subjects like language arts and social studies, in addition to visual arts;
- Lends itself to a variety of teaching approaches, including differentiated and scaffolded instruction; and,
- Provides resources through the teacher guide, such as tips to create and sustain inclusive classrooms where students' diverse learning needs and cultural backgrounds can be respected.
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| My Life Cardanne, West Rutland, Vermont, USA |
Theme
Snapshot: A Glimpse through My Lens
Snapshots are a way for us to record everyday events. We can use them as a visual reminder of an important time in our own lives, as a way to share adventures that others were unable to experience firsthand, or as a glimpse of a moment in time during an important event. Common snapshot subjects include the events of everyday life, such as celebrations, children playing, and sunsets. In this year’s Arte Postale program, you will create a cultural snapshot to share with other students around the world.
Imagine that you are looking through a lens. This lens can be a camera, telescope, magnifying glass, pair of eyeglasses, or any other lens you look through. What are you focusing on? What snapshot do you want to share with others?
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| Cheese Alexander, Brandon, Florida, USA |
Before you create your snapshot, you must choose what to include. What lens are you looking through? How can you represent that lens in your artwork? Who is in the snapshot and what is happening? Will the image have any people in it or focus on a landscape that captures your country’s beauty?
Perhaps you want your viewer to look through a magnifying glass to see the city you grew up in. Maybe you are imagining your mother who takes a photo of you riding on horseback, one of your favorite activities. Maybe your camera is pointing towards your relatives as they assemble in front of a Christmas tree for your annual family photo.
What will your snapshot tell your partner classroom about you and your culture?
TIMELINE
- September: Teachers receive an easy-to-follow guide with step-by-step instructions on how to incorporate Arte Postale into their lesson plans and encourage students to explore different aspects of their culture through visual and language arts.
- September-November: Students develop skills in visual and language arts as they move through Arte Postale’s four lessons and participate in multiple points of exchange. Students will increase their understanding of culture and how it relates to their family, community, country, and world. In the final activity, each student plans and creates a piece of artwork to be exchanged with a partner classroom in another country.
- November: All completed artwork is sent to VSA, who then sends it to the international partner classroom.
- December: VSA selects one piece of artwork from each classroom for its culminating art exhibition the following November.
- February: Classrooms receive their partner classroom’s artworks.
- November: The selected artworks are placed on exhibit throughout the month in Washington, D.C.
ENROLLMENT INFORMATION
VSA is only accepting enrollments from groups and classrooms outside of the United States. If you are a classroom within the United States interested in the Arte Postale program for the 2011–2012 school year please contact exchanges@vsarts.org.
Download your Arte Postale enrollment form.
Deadline extended for international classrooms to August 20, 2010.
Download the 2010–2011 Theme.
If you have any questions, please contact Melissa Del Rios at 1-800-933-8721, 1-202-628-2800 (voice), 1-202-737-0645 (TTY), or via e-mail at exchanges@vsarts.org.
Para saber más sobre Arte Postale, haga clic aquí.
Para saber más sobre el tema de Arte Postale para el año 2010–2011, haga clic aquí.
Descargue el formulario de inscripción.
Fecha de límite: el 20 de agosto de 2010
Pour savoir plus sur Arte Postale, cliquez ici.
Pour savoir plus sur le thème d’Arte Postale pour l’année 2010–2011, cliquez ici.
Téléchargez le formulaire d’inscription.
Date limite: le 20 août 2010
Download the Arte Postale 2010–2011 flyer in Arabic (Pdf format).
Download the Arte Postale 2010–2011 enrollment form in Arabic (Pdf format).
Download the 2010–2011 Theme in Arabic (Pdf format).
(F) 202-429-0868