Level One Projects

Cultural Credit Options Name______

A project is due about 8 days before the end of the 1st, 2rd, and 3rd quarters. There are many options.

Choice A – this is for the makers and do-ers!  You will create or perform. This creation of performance may be 2D or 3D art, dance, architecture, or music. Look around to see some samples.  If you choose to create, you cannot just copy an original piece of art. You can use its style, form, or ideas in an original fashion (a Grecian urn of your own design, a Van Gogh style portrait of your mom). Or, you may choose to combine two styles or ideas (a Warhol Mona Lisa). Music and dance performances must be live. You must actually do the skill you are attempting; for example, if you say you are going to make a quilt, you can’t glue the fabric together.  Things kids have done: Carved in stone, made stained glass, imitated modern art, created jewelry based on art, made a political statement through art, made a mosaic, learned a new piece of music, created an illuminated manuscript, painted ceiling tiles, created an architectural model, performed a ceremony, sculpted a family pet, made a parody of a well-known piece of art, made a film based on the film of a famous director, made a dollhouse in an architectural style, photographed in the style of a well-known photographer.  You will present your level one project in class informally. You will tell us what you created, why you created it, the ideas behind the art, and a critique of your project. These projects are not middle school dioramas. They should reflect time, challenge, and effort. That’s 80 points. You’ll earn 20 for your informal presentation.

Choice B – this is for the creative writers!  You will write a story of historical fiction -- four pages or more. It cannot be completely fictional. It might be the story of a Greek man seeing a tragedy that teaches him about his life, the story of Wagner’s first visit to the castle inspired by his operas, or the artist Goya witnessing executions which he later depicts on canvas. Research that you do should be photocopied or printed out and the parts you used highlighted or marked in some way. This will not include a bibliography or citations, but just like a real historical fiction writer, your piece will have many connections to your research.  You should also include as a preface to your story how you became interested in writing on this subject and one or two of the most interesting facts you learned while researching.  Kids have written stories about artists' models, diaries of composers, deaths of artists, “eye-witness” accounts of the Fall of Rome, etc.  Mechanics and usage are worth 20 points. The paper's connection to research, ideas, creativity, and style make up the other 80 points. Choice type C – this is for the adventurers!  Go find a “cultural opportunity.” Do it! What counts as “cultural”? Although spending the day hiking in Ridley Creek State Park, going to see The Dave Matthews Band, or celebrating Aunt Tilly’s 80th birthday may be nice, this assignment calls on you to reach beyond your home and what is familiar to you in order to discover the larger world. We are fortunate to live in an area where so many culturally enriching activities are available.  Local options include the Wharton Eshrick museum & studio, Colonial attractions, Museum of Anthropology and Archeology, foreign film at the Ritz (or my room! Details to follow!) Brandywine River Museum, lecture at a local college, Imax at the Franklin Institute, Rosenbach Museum, Widener or Swarthmore Observatories, The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Mutter Museum -- Or check out visitphilly.com!  A three-page response in essay form is due with each cultural credit experience. It is worth 100 points, 80 for content, 20 for mechanics. The response will contain the following: A brief summary. Tell the place, date, nature of your experience, and the names of others that accompanied you. A brief evaluation. Good time? Bad time? Weird time? Analysis. In this portion you will write on one or a few of the following: What were the major ideas/ messages about life? What insights or knowledge did you gain? Discuss questions the program generated. Were you able to compare it, contrast it, or make connections to other arts experiences? Analyze the culture to which you were exposed.  In addition, I need concrete evidence of your attendance. Show me pictures on your phone and bring me paper proof – a playbill, a receipt, etc.

Choice type D – this is for the avid readers!  You may read a book with a Humanities tie-in. Choose a book – have me approve it! Then read. You will submit a two-page reaction paper – discuss the most interesting ideas, things you learned, if you enjoyed the book, etc. Mechanics and usage are worth 20 points. Ideas, detailed examples, and deep thinking about your book make up the other 80.

Some book choices that kids have enjoyed in the past: Biographies of Musicians, Composers, Artists, Architects, etc. . . Various classics (Frankenstein, Hard Times, The Odyssey, Robinson Crusoe, The Orestia, etc) The Agony and the Ecstasy, Irving Stone Almost French, Sarah Turnbull Angels and Demons, Dan Brown The Autobiography of Santa Claus, Jeff Guinn Birth of Venus, Sarah Dunant Beneath a Marble Sky, John Shors Breakfast With Buddha, Roland Merullo Brunelleschi’s Dome, Ross King The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer City of Thieves, David Benioff Conspiracy of Paper, David Liss The Dante Club, Matthew Pearl The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown Girl in Hyacinth Blue, Susan Vreeland Girl With a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier How the Irish Saved Civilization, Thomas Cahill Inferno, Dan Brown Inferno, Dante Alighieri Isabella, Isabella Leitner The Judgment of Paris, Ross King The Lady and the Unicorn, Tracy Chevalier Lives of the Artists, Giorgio Vasari The Lost Painting, Jonathon Harr The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown Loving Frank, Nancy Horan Lust For Life, Irving Stone The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco Marrying Mozart, Stephanie Cowell Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling, Ross King Morality Play, Barry Unsworth Mozart, Piero Melograni The Other Boleyn Girl, Phillippa Gregory The Passion of Artemesia, Susan Vreeland People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks The Pillars of the Earth, Ken Follett Portrait of an Unknown Woman, Vanora Bennett Priceless, Robert Wittman The Rule of Four, Caldwell & Thomason Siddhartha, Herman Hesse The Sixteen Pleasures, Robert Hellenga Tulip Fever, Deborah Moggach Will of the World, Stephen Greenblatt Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks

*******Some topics that we do not study in-depth but students find interesting: Many writers, poets Asian art Greek and Roman myth Native American art Celtic myth Art as resistance William Shakespeare Art restoration Charles Dickens Communist art Fairy Tales Upcycling art Nursery Rhymes Contemporary art Political cartoons MC Escher Interior design Tintoretto Contemporary choreography Titian Contemporary music Canaletto John Cage Benvenuto Cellini Faberge Eggs Winslow Homer Antonio Vivaldi John Singleton Copley Carl Orff Rene Magritte Construction Technology Louise Nevelson Byzantine architecture in Russia Auguste Rodin Frank Furness Photorealism Frank Gehry Ansel Adams/ other photographers Antonio Gaudi Gilbert and George Homes of stars or royalty and more. . .