Early Childhood

The Essential Question
How can we use improvisational techniques to create an installation?

Objective
Students will respond to music through mark-making and create a mixed-media drape painting.

Materials
water cups, paintbrushes (various sizes), absorbent drop cloths or canvases, watercolor crayons, liquid watercolor in spray bottles, watered-down tempera in droppers, tacks, foam or cork board, cameras

Procedures
1. Show students the work of Sam Gilliam and discuss his use of materials and how he experiments with paint through improvisation. Have students compare and contrast his paintings with a more traditional painting.
2. Discuss improvisation and how it relates to both art and music. Then have students mimic brushstrokes in the air along to a piece of music.
3. Follow this inquiry with a game of musical painting. Distribute drop cloths or canvases and painting supplies (see step four) and have students create while listening to different songs and genres. When the music stops, students must hold their brush in the air and freeze.
4. Change painting materials between songs (e.g., start with liquid watercolor in spray bottles and change to watered-down tempera in droppers). Consider turning the cloth or canvas between songs.
5. Once students have covered their entire piece of fabric or canvas, they set them aside to dry. Once projects are dry, students drape and fold their paintings however they like, pinning them to the wall or a piece of foam or cork board. Once students have installed their finished pieces, they photograph them.

Assessment
Can students define improvisation and installation? Did students create a drape painting in response to music? Did students install and photograph their work?

Colleen Pickup is a Pre-K teacher at Settlement Music School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.