SchoolArts Magazine Features Beloit Memorial Arts Program

National Magazine Recognition

On that cover is BMHS student Marabella Gomez, photographed in the wig she created under the direction of the Art Department’s Liz Carpenter. Carpenter, in fact, wrote the article inside titled “Wigging It.”

Marbella Gomez

Other featured students are Tiffany Cobb, of pink wig fame, and Baylee Engle. This trio of students as well as their parents say they couldn’t be more proud of the art department’s current prominence in the national magazine written by and for arts educators. Similarly, they say they could not be more excited about Carpenter’s teaching and the art department.

“I enjoy SchoolArts,” Carpenter says. There are basically two art ed publications for k-12 teachers. I think SchoolArts has better ideas for high school. Each magazine will publish one curriculum idea per grade level per publication. So they will only do 10 to12 high school lessons a year and they are split between drawing and sculpture, so it is a bit competitive.

“I sent some stuff off for middle school but wasn’t accepted. I don’t even think they emailed me back — it was that rejected.”

But that didn’t deter Carpenter from trying again at the high school level. And so she turned the page and submitted words and pictures highlighting a current favorite BMHS class project.

I Love The Wigs

“I love the wigs,” she says, “and always thought they were a great assignment for Sculpture/3D that wasn’t clay or made from recycled materials. I came up with the idea after poking around Google and seeing these paper wigs used for an Hermes store window display — I get inspiration from everywhere. It wasn’t that hard for me to figure out how they made them. I think I first made them three years ago with students after a couple art teachers asked me how to do it when I was at an AP studio art conference.

“I decided to write it up for publication in SchoolArts or Arts and Activities. I sent each magazine a few images and asked if they were interested in publishing an article about them and they both replied in the affirmative. School Arts pays their contributors and arts and activities doesn’t; and, as I said, I generally like their high school curriculum better, so easy choice for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AvE-mpnbUg

Initiative + Creative Ideas

“In the past year or so,” Carpenter continues, “I have been trying to do more art with a social conscious, so I maybe able to share some of those ideas too. I have a ton of ideas, which I would love to share but am too old to blog. Maybe I should…

“I was going to write up a lesson about masking tape murals – we made one downstairs for a lip dub and a couple smaller ones on our floor, but as soon as I got around to doing it, SchoolArts published a lesson on it. You have to be really quick.

“I also make chandeliers, trashy fashion – recycled fashion, dragon staffs/scepters, huge stuffed animals for installations, specimen drawings, appropriation self portraits, Van Gogh ink landscapes – all that I think are original curriculum and I could write up.

Thinking of her current cover story, Carpenter says, “I love the GIF of Zarreya — it just makes me smile every time I see it. And Marbella’s wig on the cover is gorgeous!! She is in AP Studio making wigs as her concentration for her portfolio. She should create six beautiful head pieces by the end of the year.”

Beloit Memorial Home Coming Parade 2015

The BMHS Art Department

Of her work and department at BMHS, Carepnter says, “I think our Art Department is wonderful in that we really try and respect each others’ needs for creativity in the curriculum. We don’t teach Spanish (for example) – we teach a subject that changes all the time.

Trying to make sure our students have a great foundation and access to contemporary idioms requires us bringing in topical curriculum. Coming up with interesting projects keeps me abreast of what’s going on, feeds my hunger to be creative and makes my job a lot of fun!

It’s exciting in the classroom when you take a risk and try something new. I feel the students pick up on that energy.”

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