The Grange Park

This week I visited the beautiful new Grange Park behind the A.G.O. and O.C.A.D. Here's the site: http://grangeparktoronto.ca/

The park is beautifully laid out- our first impression was of an architect's drawing of a park. The trees and gardens are well-maintained and well-distributed throughout. Henry Moore's Two Forms sculpture has a new home; the Grange heritage building is accessible all the way up to the front door; there's a new entrance to the Learning Centre of the A.G.O.; and the kids playgrounds are awesome! 

Here's a shot of one of the beautiful old Chestnut trees (with the A.G.O. in the background): 

We also stopped by the gallery for a quick visit- here's one of the Rodin casts, in a beautiful spot with natural light:

- Patrick

A.G.O. Field Trip Planner

Earlier in the school year, I created this A.G.O. Field Trip Planner for teachers, highlighting some of connections that can can made to various Ontario secondary curriculum- not just for Visual Arts classes!

Several of the teachers that I work with used this to plan fun and rewarding field trips. The A.G.O. changes/updates their programming so be sure to check their site for more info: A.G.O.

- Patrick

"What is art for? Alain de Botton's animated guide"

Here is a wonderful, quick video that addresses a question that many people find challenging to answer. This would be a great way to start an art class or a unit on art history.

Cheers,

Patrick

Art & Nationhood- AGO Creative Minds- April 21st, 2017

A fascinating conversation about art and nationhood happened last night at Massey Hall in Toronto, featuring: Christi Belcourt, Sir David Adjaye, Junot Diaz and Paul Gross. In light of the upcoming Canada 150, the conversation gets to the heart of some of the serious problems with trying to define nationhood in Canada- hearing from Indigenous, American, British and Canadian perspectives. Looking forward, the talk brings up the idea of "radical hope" and the role that art can have in breaking down our barriers and illusions and allowing us to reveal and share in our humanity. Definitely worth a watch!

See the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TukxNhN740M

And find out more about AGO Creative Minds here: http://www.agocreativeminds.ca/

- Patrick

Illustrated Vimy Oaks piece in the Toronto Star

Last week, the Toronto Star featured a beautifully illustrated true story of the Vimy Oaks that has to be read to be believed. A wonderful historical tale with oak trees at the centre, illustrated by fellow Sheridan grad Kagan McLeod.  Have a look here:
http://projects.thestar.com/vimy-ridge-100th-anniversary-vimy-oaks-return/

This would make a great starting point for a lesson in a variety of classes:
- any history, geography or social science course as an article analysis and reflection;
- a science class to cover how to germinate and graft trees and the effects on the environmental of transporting trees and associated restrictions;
- a communications technology or media studies course, covering visual communication using traditional and digital media to illustrate a piece for a newspaper
- and of course any art class, as an intro to illustration and visual communication.

- Patrick

Gardiner Museum Partnership Ceramics Summer Course (for Grade 11 + 12)

I'm very excited to have helped develop a partnership course between Blyth Academy and the Gardiner Museum, for a Grade 11 + 12 Summer Course in Ceramics. The course is a senior-level visual arts that focuses on ceramics - course code:  AWC3M / AWC4M.

This course will run in July 2017, Monday-Friday from 9:00am-3:30pm. It will be based out of the Blyth Academy Yorkville campus and will include many visits to the Gardiner Museum, four of which will be ceramics studio sessions and several more will have the students explore the collection and sketch in the galleries.

Looking forward to it!

- Patrick

Prints for order of The Elements & Principles of Design!

By far my most viewed post is about some classroom handouts that I made to teach the elements and principles of design- with links to download the images for free.  I have them printed larger for my classroom and I wanted to make it easy for others to be able to order them printed at various sizes, and in higher resolution, so now in addition to the free download links in the original post, they're available for order here:

The Elements of Design

The Principles of Design

Cheers!

- Patrick