In Brockton, Mass., more than 500 area students have been learning to express themselves through architecture.
The students, mostly 6th graders, recently constructed a large-scale model city with roads, trees, buildings, and people for a “kid generated’’ art exhibit at the Fuller Museum of Art.
“You really got the feeling of being in the city,’' says Linda Keating, the Fuller’s education director.
The exhibit, entitled “My City, Myself--A Work in Progress,’' was the result of a collaboration between the Brockton art museum and two local elementary schools.
The museum supplied wooden panels, paint, cubes, rectangular blocks, and other materials, Ms. Keating says, and museum staff members took students on field trips into the city to learn about architecture and the ways cities and buildings relate to people.
“Architecture is everywhere, and it is art,’' Ms. Keating notes.
Ms. Keating says the museum’s staff tries to supplement school arts programs each year. Because of tight district budgets, the staff wants “to keep kids working with art, even through the difficult times,’' she says.