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Visual Arts Support Healing Needs

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Waterbury teen sells paintings to help pay for father’s medical bills Dad has diabetes and needs kidney transplant BY MIKE PATRICK REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN June 28, 2019 3 8066 cutline attribution name:MIKE PATRICK REPUBLICAN-AMERICANAngelina Soto, 14, displays some of her paintings. The incoming Waterbury Arts Magnet School student sells her artwork to help support the medical bills of her father, Angel Soto, who has diabetes and needs a kidney transplant. WATERBURY Angelina Soto’s first works of art were scribbles and stick figures; but as she grew older and her talent improved, she graduated to oil painting. Now, the 14-year-old is using her skills to ease her family’s medical bills, selling her paintings to provide income as her father suffers from diabetes so severe it’s nearly blinded him and left him needing a kidney transplant. “To do one painting, it takes her a good four to five hours and then some,” her mom, Millie Soto, said. “So she does put a lot of
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Authentic Learning Experiences Created Through Field Trips

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Bridge Academy 11th Grade Ventures to the MOMA in New York City to Make Authentic  Connections to Modern Art  I believe authentic learning is very critical for students to become invested in the subjects being taught in the classroom. However, even though school administrators preach creating connections for the students they are often the obstacle that keeps the teachers from actually achieving this goal. For Example, I was fortunate enough last year to acquire funding to take my 11th grade students to NYC to the Modern Museum of Art ( MoMA ). It was an incredible experience for the students in many ways. I had previously done several lessons on modern art in the classroom. I observed that my students didn't really connect with how varied and creative the modern art can be. In addition to simply visiting the museum, we had an instructor lead us through an exercise where students created their own sketch while surrounded by modern work for inspiration. The students were dire
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Intrinsic Motivation Improved Through Art

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Bridge Academy, Bridgeport, Ct  / Freshman Class Selfie art, Spring 2017 Student Self-Driven Art Activity The above art was done by 9th grade students at Bridge Academy in the Spring of 2017. As the art teacher at the school I witnessed a very interesting evolution during the two week period with this particular group. For the majority of the school year I presented students with common core based classic art curriculum that was age appropriate. I found their interest to be marginal at best even though many in the group displayed artistic talent. Clearly the  intrinsic motivation , source of motivation within an individual (Human Learning 6th edition 2012, Ormrod, Chptr16, p 428), was deficient due to the fact the many of my students suffer from emotional affects from their urban community. I had experienced first hand the drive reduction or self-handicapping response from students too often during the last school year. After doing research on this topic, Maslow's theory o
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Wild Style Gallery Show Bridge Academy's Class of 2019

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Arts center program wraps with students’ Bridgeport gallery show By Laura Weiss   Published 1:08 pm, Thursday, June 8, 2017 View Full Article Here   BRIDGEPORT — Inside a brick building several blocks from their school, students’ graffiti works lined two walls, adding splashes of color, political statements and diverse interpretations of graffiti style to the gallery space. At Bridgeport art gallery 305 Knowlton Monday night, the  Westport Arts Center ’s “Connections” outreach program finished with a flourish. The experience, which offers high school students in underserved urban areas an intensive 10-day artist-in-residency program, concluded with a gallery show of students’ work for the first time. “I never knew anyone in my class could do any of this,” said  Gio Alvarez , standing beside his piece on display Monday. The 16-year-old Bridgeport resident was among about 50 tenth grade students at Bridgeport’s  Bridge Academy  who particip
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