As we round the bend towards the end of this project, I've been pleasantly surprised by the amount of focus and energy that each of my students have as they come in each day. Many are coming to and from practice, second jobs and/or preparing for the beginning of school!As they've been working, I've been wondering about the amount of creative dialogue that's being allowed each day. Because this program is a public art apprenticeship, students are expected to create a final piece of work to be displayed somewhere on the reservation at the end of this program. Of course, most projects come to an end with some sort of final product, yet I feel there's added pressure due to the responsibility to provide a product for the reservation.
While I believe the production of an end product has its importance, I've been focusing so much on the process of that production as well, trying to allow each student to create content from a personal standpoint...So what gets lost in the process? Am I sacrificing quality of product? Or are we increasing the quality of content? And which is of more importance?
So much discussion took place in the first few days, I feel I've saturated this group with information about collage, artists, building an interest for personal history...and now that it comes to the actual act of making, I fear some of them are feeling lost or overwhelmed...I know it's my purpose to guide them through this art making process, but I hope to be facilitating exploration, investigation, and guiding them through the problem solving process instead of just providing solutions. In reality, while this is happening for some, it is not happening for others. What can I do to help those that feel stifled by this process or this style of work? How do I lead the way without holding their hands?
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