Dear You
Dear You is about making friends around the world through creating and sharing art.
All Dear You participating schools are organized to have a Dear You friend in another country. For example, a class of six year olds in Greenland will be paired with a class of six year olds in Finland. School teachers or hired Dear You workshop leaders living in these countries will go to the schools in their respective location and hold workshops for the children in the school once a month. During these workshops the children will create their art projects, which will then be mailed to their Dear You friends abroad. Dear You focuses on the process of art practice, opening dialogue, and discovering our surroundings!
This concept is similar to having pen friends, but in Dear You every time the students correspond with each other, a new art technique will be introduced. Every participating class will receive an age-appropriate Dear You Art Project, which all the artists will create for each other. The classroom teachers will assist in all these fun and creative things to share- anything that fits in an envelope!
The project is created by Arlene Tucker. Anastasia Artemeva worked with Arlene in this project during the years 2015-2017. Please read more here https://www.dearyouartproject.com/
The 4th graders from Ryerson Public School in Cambridge, Canada making and sharing art with the 10 years olds from Kepa School in Karelia, Russia, 2017.
Here is some of our projects:
Inspiting Stories, Fall 2017.
We thought it would be great to bring the artists in 7C from Helsingin yhteislyseo to get to know another artistic space in Kontula, Helsinki. So we gathered in Museum of Impossible Forms to create Inspiring Stories art project and celebrate with next year's Dear You group from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti, who are also located in Kontula!
We started the session by looking at a video a few of the artists from Shenzhen Middle School made for their friends in Kontula. They had made a sweet introduction of themselves and also shared with us the art that they have been making in China.
Looking at our friend's artwork and thinking about past Dear You projects we have made gave us some material to work with as the next step was to make an audio story. One artist said we need to keep in mind the sanoma (the message) when creating a story. Some other creative writing elements are to designate characters and what is the beginning, middle, and end of the story.
We then got into small groups and came up with four different amazing stories! When it was time to record, we thought about intonation, sound effects, and tone of voice to enhance the story.
The 13 year old artists at Helsingin yhteislyseo in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 13 year old artists from Shenzhen Middle School in Shenzhen, China.
In autumn 2017 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.
The storytellers from Differences and Similarities have more questions for their friends in China.
Do you pack your own lunch? Or do you pay 1euro for it? Or how much?
Do you have a lot of homework?
When does your school day end?
Are your tests difficult?
Does your school have any after-school activities?
Eläimet puussa , Animal in the tree (English translation)
All the animals are meeting under a tree and they decided to make a pack. The pack leader is the lion. The walrus also wants to be a leader. They start to fight and the walrus wins. The walrus will become the leader and so the lion has to go. The walrus was a good leader but the lion returned. The lion took a coconut from the tree and hit the walrus in the head with it while the walrus was asleep. The walrus got a mild concussion! The lion became the leader again. The animals didn't want the lion to the be leader so everybody else left the pack.
(Orignially posted by Arlene Tucker here )
From left to right: Saara Raevuori, Arlene Tucker, and Anastasia Artemeva. Saara is the art teacher at Helsingin yhteislyseo. Arlene and Anastasia are the makers and creators of Dear You. Thank you, Museum of Impossible Forms for hosting us!
