imagine south Plainfield: Leave better than when you arrived

Monday, July 8, 2023 - Friday, July 19, 2023

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Art

Throughout our two weeks of programming, students dove into mediums of mural painting, collaborative songwriting, ensemble games, and sculpture to explore the theme of betterment. Our theme this year is “Leave Better Than When You Arrived”. Which RH Doaz designed into a mural and lead students through a painting workshop to display that betterment permanently and proudly across the SPMS entrance. Our teaching artists Dave Seamon and Jasmine Carmichael lead students through a collaborative songwriting process to develop and share their songs of betterment. Students also worked with flower foam to create their 3-D sculptures which depict, meaningful shapes.

Advocacy

“Leave A Little Better Than When You Arrived” was the advocacy theme throughout our program this summer. Our teaching artists lead conversations and artistic reflections to help students identify their relationships to the terms “better” and “legacy”. Some of the questions they ideated around were: What does “BETTER” mean? What would it mean to make a space like a classroom better? What is a time I felt I left better than I arrived? What is a time I left a place better than when I arrived? With this reflection and new understanding the students were able to articulate through their sculptural and musical art pieces ways they wanted to better the world. This also gave them a deeper connection to the mural work they completed to better their school.

Community

Throughout their lessons and conversations around betterment students considered what actions of betterment for themselves and their communities. What steps they could take to make public spaces around them better for the people who use them. From our teach Artists and RH Doaz they learned the role art plays in bettering spaces and connecting communities. The days they spent painting the mural at the entrance of the South Plainfield Middle School gave them a direct experience of bettering a public space for themselves and for students and teachers who will come after them.