Inside Out Project at VIDA
I have been sharing JR's 2012 TED talk with my students for the last 4 years. Check out the work of JR here. He asks the question "Can art change the world?" while he makes a call to action for people to be the change they want to see in their communities. This year my photo students eagerly agreed that we should propose a group action and put in the work to be part of the Inside Out Project - the largest participatory art project globally. You can follow them on Instagram here. After I submitted our action on their website the organizers contacted me to say the Inside Out Photobooth Truck would be in our area at the end of October and would they like it if they came to VIDA. I of course said YEEEESSS! With the combined efforts of all my art students grades 6-8 we had 210 students and staffulty photographed and their giant photos were printed. We pasted and pasted and pasted some more and covered half the campus with their beautiful faces. It was incredibly successful because I have amazing students who stepped up as leaders and did hard work over 3 school days to make it happen. VIDA is an incredibly special school and you can see it in the faces that now cover our walls. The photos will stay up for about 2 months. I hope you get to see them all when you come for COL's this week. When we engage in dialogue and ask questions we are building empathy as we learn about each other. Our students are learning to listen with empathy and lead with integrity and art is a crucial vehicle by which to do just that.
