NEW YORK, NY.- A Year with Children 2007, an exhibition organized by the Sackler Center for Arts Education at the Guggenheim Museum, is on view at the Guggenheim through June 13, 2007. The exhibition presents selections of artwork by second- through sixth-grade students from 10 public schools throughout New York City that participated in 20-week artist-led residencies. Approximately 250 works will be on display, including prints, paintings, sculpture, masks, quilts, papier-mâché, clay, and more.

A Year with Children is an annual exhibition that showcases work by students participating in Learning Through Art (LTA), an education program of the Guggenheim Museum. LTA sends practicing artists into New York City classrooms for yearlong residencies, to create process-oriented art projects that examine ideas and themes related to the school curriculum. Approximately 1800 second- through sixth-grade students from 17 public schools participated in 10- or 20-week residencies offered by Learning Through Art in the 2006–07 school year. The late Natalie K. Lieberman, a Guggenheim Museum trustee, founded LTA in 1970 in response to the elimination of art and music programs in New York City public schools.

This internationally-recognized program is designed to introduce art techniques, promote critical thinking and creativity, and encourage students to view, analyze, and discuss works of art. LTA residencies are rooted in questioning: questions about the world and contemporary culture, questions about works of art, questions about art materials and what they can do. The program aspires to create an environment of curiosity and ongoing, collaborative investigation. During the 2006–07 school year, LTA residencies explored nature, local communities, historical eras, global cultures, and the students’ own pasts and futures, and posed questions such as, “How does art reflect culture?”, “How does geography affect our lives?”, and “How do writers and artists impact the world we live in?” The resulting art projects and techniques include print-making, photography, papier-mâché, plaster, clay, acrylic, watercolor, assemblage and collage, and installation art. Explorations utilized art on view at the Guggenheim in the blockbuster exhibition Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso: Time, Truth, and History, as well as works from the permanent collection and Frank Lloyd Wright’s unique architecture.

Students at PS 8 in Brooklyn heard individuals’ stories from US history and painted a “portrait quilt” and accompanying masks, to highlight the experiences and struggles of both influential and unheard early Americans. Students at PS 42 in Chinatown learned about the experiences of immigrants who passed through Angel Island on their way to America, and wrote poetry and made monuments out of papier-mâché and metal in response. And students at PS 88 in Queens discussed the impact of artists and writers on the world and created written and visual works reflecting the issues they care deeply about.

Participating schools greatly value the addition of Learning Through Art to their curriculum. Jennifer Sussman, a second grade teacher at PS 144 in Queens, says, “One of the things I like best about [LTA] is how it reaches all types of learners. I have students who have excelled doing this project, who have difficulty in other areas of the curriculum.”

Rebecca Shulman Herz, Education Program Manager, organized A Year with Children 2007 with Marie Reilly, Education Program Coordinator. Herz says, “We are teaching students how to be curious about art, the world, and their own abilities to manipulate materials. We give them the tools to use art materials to shape a visual response to some of their questions and ideas.”