Synopses & Reviews
Artist Mark Cooper creates remarkable, collaborative art with children, and in this practical book of ideas he shows how it can be done anywhere, with amazing results. Drawing from his own work with classes around the country, Cooper shows how children can create art objects together, from decorated sculptures to billboards against violence to maps of the world. Children learn the way adult artists workand about how democracy worksin planning, designing, and executing these large-scale works.
A bold, richly illustrated, practical book that offers a new way to think about making art with kids.
Practical and revolutionary. Should be required reading for all elementary and secondary school teachers.” John Laughton, composer, professor, and former dean, College of Visual and Performing Arts, University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
A highly innovative approach to a very modern and important subject. Cooper and Sjostrom have done an amazing job of making collaborative community art fun, instructive, and accessible. Every teacher, artist, or parent should have this book for their work with kids.” Henry Horenstein, professor of photography, Rhode Island School of Design, author of Beyond Basic Photography
A thought-provoking book, this volume will be a wonderful and useful resource for all parents, teachers and youth leaders. The authors do a tremendous job of making these large-scale projects seem very doable. Even teachers without any art experience or knowledge will come away feeling empowered that they can tackle what is described in this book
.This resource explains the power of collaborating with youth while providing wonderful details on brainstorming, funding, making and displaying powerful pieces of art.” Voices of Youth Advocates, review in the February 2007 issue
Mark Cooper is professor of art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and at Boston College. His solo work has been exhibited in prestigious galleries and museums, and his collaborative work with children has been displayed in the Whitney Museum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and many other venues.
Synopsis
Artist Mark Cooper creates remarkable art with children. Visiting classrooms around the country, he helps children create ambitious art objects--together. From decorated sculptures to billboards against violence to maps of the world, children plan, design, and complete the projects themselves, often tying their art to larger themes. The resulting pieces have been featured in newspapers and displayed in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and many other venues.
Wherever Cooper has worked, he has left behind delighted teachers--and not just art teachers--who are inspired and empowered to create similar projects.
Making Art Together will enable all teachers and other adults who work with groups of children to re-create the successes of Coopers versatile approach. Cooper argues that seeing teachers as master artists, using the insights of contemporary art, and tapping the unique power of collaboration can revolutionize what art can accomplish in schools. And he makes the argument practical with dozens of examples and scores of illustrations. Making Art Together promises to change the way people think about creating art with kids.
Mark Cooper is a professor of art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and at Boston College. His solo work has been exhibited in prestigious galleries and museums, and his work with kids has received the support of leading foundations and arts organizations.
Synopsis
Artist Mark Cooper aims to change the way you think about making art with kids.
Working with schools around the country, Cooper has brought together scores of teachers and hundreds of children to make remarkable collaborative art that has enlivened classrooms and public spaces and been displayed in the nation's most prestigious museums.
In this inspiring, practical, idea-filled book, Cooper shows how any teacher—not just art teachers—can imagine and execute similar projects in their own classrooms.
But more than that, Cooper transforms our sense of possibilities, arguing for a new view of art in schools. Making Art Together is a book about art education structured around big ideas: that adults can flourish in the role of Master Artist, that the perspective of contemporary art offers liberating possibilities for rethinking art in schools, that art can and should be about the larger world, and thus naturally ties in to all areas of the curriculum.
Most of all, Cooper shows us the power of collaboration. From mammoth, freestanding sculptures to billboards against violence to maps of the world, the projects here are all planned, designed, and completed by children themselves. The resulting artwork is complex and ambitious on a scale that would be out of reach for any individual child. Working collaboratively, using a distinctly democratic model, kids actually think and work like adult artists throughout every stage of the project. Together the sky's the limit—the artistic and educational opportunities are boundless.
Making Art Together is a bold, beautifully illustrated book that could—at a time when art budgets are being slashed—revitalize our sense of what art in schools can accomplish.
About the Author
Mark Cooper is professor of art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and at Boston College. His solo work has been exhibited in prestigious galleries and museums, and his collaborative work with children has been displayed in the Whitney Museum in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and many other venues.