Jan 22, 2008 12:15 PM
Where to have an art installation by emerging young artists but Tompkins Square Park in the hipster heart of the East Village?
The East Village of these particular artists, however, is not the East Village of avant garde or grande latte. It’s still called Loisaida, the Lower East Side, also known as Alphabet City, and they study art at a red brick public school that takes up half of 12th Street between avenues A and B.
It’s a regular neighborhood school, like hundreds of others in New York City serving predominantly low-income families.
But art means the world to East Side Community HS.
A gallery opening at the school on Dec. 14 drew 300 people and on Nov. 28 a one-day installation in Tompkins Square Park drew hundreds of reactions as pedestrians came upon life-sized sculptures sitting on benches relaxing or tying their shoelaces or reading.
“Our 10th- and 11th-grade students were inspired by the work of George Segal, which they saw during a field trip to Christopher Square in the West Village,” said Desiree Borrero, who teaches advanced art and founded the school’s Loisaida Gallery.
“They were challenged to create their own three-dimensional work, constructing the sculptures from paper, tape and plaster and molding them into human poses. They worked hard and produced beautiful work to display within their community. Making the sculpture was a great lesson in human proportion and in creative problem solving,” Borerro said.
Great academic lessons can be taught through making art, according to the philosophy at the progressive 6-12 school, also known as IS/HS 450. Teachers infuse all subject areas with art and working artists are frequent visitors in the classrooms.
At the gallery opening, the sculpture, self-portraits, abstract work, collages, landscapes and computer-generated illustrations were all beautifully framed or mounted. Borerro and her colleagues work to make sure that the gallery looks like a gallery: a simple aesthetic space with professional lighting where great attention is paid to installing artwork.
“It serves as the school’s art assesment,” said Leigh Klonsky, an art teacher active in running Loisaida Gallery, adding that the school practices portfolio assessment.
The school also practices the art of running a great school.
Most kids who enroll come in performing well below grade level. Yet 90 percent of graduates attend college. Mornings begin with 30 minutes of independent reading and the rest of the day is structured so that teachers have only 40 students — two classes of 20 kids — staying with them for several hours a day, for two academic years.
Although teachers were pleased when their school got an A on the School Progress Report, few set much store by it.
“I don’t believe standardized tests are necessarily the best way to evaluate students and as an art teacher I really do not believe that. Art has always been marginalized when it comes to evaluating schools,” Klonsky said.
“We prep for tests in some respects but it isn’t the focus of classes,” added Borerro. “The focus is hands-on learning and making the subject matter relevant to students’ lives; that’s what really makes a difference.”
More meaningful to Borrero, for one, was acing the School Quality Review. “When outside evaluators came into our classrooms for a few days, saw the portfolios — that was more telling than getting an A on the progress report,” she said.
And what’s most important to her is that “as art funding continues to be cut, we continue to provide the highest level of art education.
“We fund-raise throughout the year at our gallery openings, selling student art,” Borerro said. “The custodians bought the gallery lighting for us. And people donate as well. The more good you put out there, the more things come back to you. But the biggest support comes from Mark [Federman], our principal, who gives us money from the school budget for materials and makes art a priority.”
“The support that our principal gives Desiree, other teachers and the art progam, which is so important to our success as a school, shows what it can mean when a principal has the right priorities about creating a school community that values, encourages and celebrates students’ intellectual and creative achievements,” said Chapter Leader Benjamin Wides.
The Loisaida Gallery is not the only space at East Side Community HS where creative achievements are in evidence. The hallways teem with artwork by students of all ages and includes their written comments about their creation.
“I may not know how to draw,” wrote 8th-grader Misael, “but I know how to learn. I realized that in some areas the drawing didn’t come out how I wanted it to but I kept working on it. I am proud that I drew a drawing that I liked … and I would like to do others.”