artists making a difference

Dr. Arthur Culbert is the head of the Central West End Community Farm and one of the kindest people I have met! He partners with the New City School 4th graders to plant, tend, and harvest the garden for local food banks. This is a really wonderful partnership and we are lucky to have him in our community. Read more about his work here.

We were approached by Arthur to create a mural on the existing barriers blocking the garden from the alley. These were an eyesore and Arthur wanted to change their purpose to allow passers-by to see what this garden is all about. The fourth grade artists spent many hours designing, planning, consulting, and collaborating before the actual painting even started! The garden mural is now finished and is a happy centerpiece of the community farm. Many times, people have stopped to comment how seeing the mural on their way to work and home, brightens their day!

garden loom

I brought out some scraps of yarn for our garden loom the other day during my recess duty. Usually our garden loom is filled with earthy colored twigs, sticks, long grasses, and garden cuttings from work days but I like the splash of bright color here too!

The garden loom is wonderful Multiple Intelligence tool. It fosters the use interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligences, and of course the spatial, naturalist, bodily-kinesthetic, and logical-mathematical intelligences.

If you want to find out more about how to build your own garden loom check out Weaving a Life and The Earth Loom Foundation. Our garden loom started as a hallway conversation "wouldn't it be great if..." and our wonderful NCS parents made it happen!

second grade garden contours

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. -Rachel Carson


The second graders found natural objects in the garden to use as inspiration for an observation based drawing. Each leaf, flower, or twig was carefully observed and recreated using only contour lines (the most important lines of an object that give it shape). The piece was finished with a special watercolor technique and white gel pen details. It is always such a pleasure to see these young artists take the time to study the smallest details.

second grade texture tiles

The second grade artists spent some lovely spring mornings outside exploring textures. They used their naturalist and spatial intelligences to find natural objects that would make an interesting texture to print in the wet clay. They made two tiles each, one with an imprinted texture from a natural object and one built up texture inspired by nature. The clay pieces were kiln fired and then a special glazing technique was used to make the textures really stand out.

These are beautiful tokens of texture that will always remind us of our school garden.

first grade garden friends

The first graders took a look at the art of Elsa Mora and were inspired by her book Blossom Buddies. We spent some lovely Spring mornings last week in the school garden using our naturalist and spatial intelligences. The first grade artists used natural materials to make their own imaginative characters and the results are sure to make you smile!