We discovered that we can make art with letters and words! It was wonderful to be able to express ourselves with words and art.
Dear You Art Workshops
Owls' Curiosity and Questions
4 years old, 5 years old, Czech Republic, Dear You Art Workshops, Little MoleCommentOwls' Pieces of Me
2023, 4 years old, 5 years old, 6 years old, Czech Republic, Dear You Art Workshops, KoreaCommentThe pathfinder was started by asking children to think of ways to share who they are with their new friends in Jeju Island. They thought of sending them postcards with drawings so we then introduced the concept of a collage. We showed some examples of different collages and provided them with several magazines, scrap paper with patterns, colors and old newspapers.
Deep in self-reflection as art practice
2022, 3rd Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Iceland, Ukraine, USACommentWho am I?
2022, Dear You Art Workshops, Ukraine, USACommentDear You inspiring stories
11 years old, 12 years old, 13 year olds, 2021, Dear You Art Workshops, IcelandCommentIn this last stage of the creative process, the kids were invited to place their voices.
In the case of the 4th grade group, they have chosen to narrate about the environmentally friendly cities that they have built. An invitation to take care of our planet can be heard in 3 short videos. In the case of the 5.6.7 grade group, they have chosen to do 3 short and cute plays to share with the kids from Ukraine.
The art of imagining friendly ways of life with our environment
10 years old, 11 years old, 12 years old, 13 year olds, 2021, Dear You Art Workshops, Iceland, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th GradeCommentThe Art of Words
2021, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, Dear You Art Workshops, Iceland, UkraineCommentThe Owls train their ears and warm up their listening skills
4 years old, 5 years old, 6 years old, Czech Republic, Dear You Art Workshops, IcelandCommentThe Owls here in Little Mole preschool were thrilled to hear we had some messages from our Icelandic friends. They were eager to listen to all the messages but when they learned that the messages were in an unknown language we decided to train our ears and warm up our listening skills first. We opened our ears to listen and try to identify all the sounds around, we also listened to different types of music in different languages.
Dear You connects with Japanese speaking families around the world!
10 years old, 11 years old, 13 year olds, 2021, 4 years old, 5 years old, 6 years old, 7 years old, 8 years old, 9 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, InternationalCommentDear You at Valencia Design Education Forum 2020 on November 5 via ZOOM!
2020, Dear You Art Workshops, PresentationCommentVery happy to be a part of Valencia Design Education Forum 2020 / #VDEF2020! The theme of this year’s forum is Analogue+Digital. Welcome to the presentation/workshop “Mail Art + Pen Friends = Dear You Art Project” on Thursday, November 5th from 11-12 (EEST) via ZOOM. Register by emailing Arlene at arlene.dearyou(at)gmail.com. You will receive the ZOOM link after registration.
Weaving recycled materials in Finland
2020, 10 years old, 8 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, United KingdomCommentHello from middle of the cardboard boxes and packing :).
It was fun for the girls to get the scissors out for a change and use their hands and creativeness in a new way in this weaving project. Both girls carefully chose the recycled materials that they wanted to use. Out of all materials Ella and Anna-Sofia were most fond of the pages from a Tate Modern membership magazine.
Interpreting Where Shall We Go with Reika and friends
2020, 10 years old, 11 years old, 13 year olds, 8 years olds, 9 years old, 7 years old, 6 years old, 5 years old, Collective Art, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, Make Together, Mixed age group, Together 2020, Together We MakeCommentTaideleirin aikana teimme teoksia Dear You:n Where Shall We Go -projektista. Kaikki unelmoivat, visualisoivat ja keksivät erilaisia tapoja ilmaista ideoitaan ja paikkoja minne haluaisivat mennä.
During the art camp we made artworks from Dear You's Where Shall We Go project. Everybody dreamt, visualized and came up with different ways of expressing their ideas and places of where they would like to go.
Together We Make artworks from China have arrived!
2020, 1st Grade, 2nd Grade, 3rd Grade, China, Dear You Art Workshops, Make Together, Together 2020, Together We MakeCommentWe are so very happy to have received artwork from Taizhou Phoenix Primary School in Taizhou, China. The school’s art teacher Ms Liu Chunjuan has provided a lovely atmosphere to be creative as you can see in these photos. Children from Grade 1-3 participated in the three activities "A Map at the palm of your hand"," Sound travels"," Reinventing Trash". They used different materials and individual imagination to express their inner world.
Artists from Australia make art from “Words that describe me”
2019, 8 years olds, 9 years old, Australia, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandCommentThe students really enjoyed the first Dear You project.
Firstly, we spoke about the word translation, and what it means to communicate verbally or visually over long distances. I showed the class a map of the world and showed them where Finland is, they were excited that our artworks will be travelling so far around the world.
I showed the class some photographic portraits and discussed what the pictures are translating to a viewer. We got a little stuck on visual appearances, many of the responses were superficial, for example “tall, smiling, happy, sad”. I had to encourage them to look beyond the outward appearance and try to decipher what the person may be thinking. After this guidance some deeper thinking became apparent and the students commented that the people in the examples were “lonely, determined, excited, responsible”.
I then gave the sheet and asked them to write down “Words that describe me …”. I modelled a few examples on the board to assist with spelling. They first wrote down what words that they think about themselves, then I encouraged them to brainstorm, walk around the room and ask their peers what they think that they translate to the world around them.
We then spoke about photography and how we could translate these attributes into a photograph, we talked about using perspective, props, light and shade to communicate meaning to a viewer. We practised picking objects around the room (e.g. book, pencil, chair) to use as props, experimented with our body position to communicate a feeling (e.g. looking away from the camera, blocking our face with our hands, leaning into or away from the camera, etc).
I asked the class to prepare props and choose a site in which to have their picture taken. Once they were ready I took their photograph with the school’s digital camera. I invited them to either take the picture indoors or outdoors, I feel like this was a setback because the majority of the students outside choose to perform athletic tricks/moves/positions, rather than communicate an emotion or feeling like we had spoken about earlier. If I did this again I would ask them to create both an indoor picture and an outdoor picture. This strategy would produce improved results I feel.
Nell, choose to communicate “Sensitive”
I printed the photographs, the students cut them to size and glued them onto the sheets. I asked them to underline what single attribute of themselves they were attempting to translate to the viewer of the picture.
On the back of the sheet the students all wrote a short message to their “sister class” in Finland, “Hei”!
Regards,
Jeremy Gudze
1/2G Classroom Teacher
Bulli Public School
Harvey, choose to communicate “Brave”
The 2nd graders from Mäntykankaan koulun in Kokkola, Finland are making and sharing art with the 1st and 2nd graders from Bulli Public School in Bulli, Australia.
Kanelit and the Monkeys make art at MIF!
2018, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandComment
Kanelit (Cinnamons) and The Monkeys got together at Museum of Impossible Forms in Kontula, Helsinki to make art!
It is amazing that the Monkeys from Your School in Olari, Espoo and Kanelit from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Kontula, Helsinki got to meet in person after months of making and sharing art from a distance!! What an exciting morning we had at Museum of Impossible Forms!
We first got into small groups of mixed artists from the two schools to listen to the sound art we had made for the previous art project. This way they could meet and get to know each other by physically making art with each other! Everybody was so open and kind with each other.
The first part of this session's artistic process was listening to each other describe what they saw in the environment. This brought immediate smiles to their faces as they heard their own voices and their friends' on the loud speakers. The Cinnamon group made these recordings and The Monkeys made these. As they listened to the recordings they could draw what they heard. They could be more abstract or more literal with their drawings. For example, some chose to draw the soundwaves of children laughing in the background and some drew snow and sun as they were mentioned in the recordings. The artists were free to go in any direction they wish, but the awareness of connecting sound to thought to visual output was discussed.
After some time of collective drawing, the possibility to collage and build with maps was introduced. Maps were chosen for their symbolic purpose as our artists live in different locations, but have come together to meet and create. Simple 2D maps turned into 3D bridges, people, and tunnels. I was so impressed with everybody's creativity! Masterminds at work!
We closed the day by taking a long caterpillar walk to look at the artworks and made a circle where the artists could reflect on the morning and their experience. It seemed that everybody really enjoyed meeting their friends and making collages together. In the closing circle, they realized that they had more in common than their love for making art! The topic of languages came up and they discovered that their friends from the other school could speak Somali, Russian, Albanian, Finnish, and English! What an amazing bunch of young artists and teachers that encourage their creativity and help grow their confidence!
The Monkeys stayed at MIF to eat their lunch before hopping on the metro to head back to Espoo. Marianne Niemelä, one of the artistic directors of MIF, came up with the great idea to make wristbands! Naturally, these were a huge hit with the kids and now they all want to come back to make more! Thank you, Marianne!
Thank YOU and Dear You wishes you all and happy happy summer! Hyvää kesää!
With love,
Arlene
The 6 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland.
In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.
Finally we get to meet our art friends!
2018, 5 years old, 4 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandComment
Pippurit, Mantelit, and Tigers have been making art and sending it to each other since January 2018. Pippurit and Mantelit are from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Kontula, Helsinki and the Tigers are from Your School in Olari, Espoo. After months of getting to know each other, themselves, and their surroundings, they got to meet to have a morning of making art together!
At first, everybody was a bit confused about the other group. Once we got inside and we heard Project 3 from the Pippurit and Mantelit and from the Tigers, everything started to come together. "Oh! That's my voice!" "I remember that!" "It was winter!".
We listened to the sound recordings we had made in March. As we listened, we could draw what we heard. After a while we introduced the possibility to collage using road maps of Finland.
One of the great things about this session was how listening to these recordings triggered many memories and ideas that we could then play off of each other in our small groups. For example, one of the groups started to think of boiled eggs as one of the recordings involved a bird. One artist drew snowflakes because at the time of the recording there was snow on the ground. Now it's spring time and everything is in bloom!
At the end of the session we had a mini-exhibition where everybody could display their artworks and tell about what they drew. Each small group was a mixture of the Pippurit, Mantelit, and Tigers. Everybody was so kind and welcoming to their new friends!
Thank you, Museum of Impossible Forms for hosting Dear You!
Have a great summer everybody!
With love,
Arlene
The 5 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 5 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.
The artists from Linguajoy translate their environment and Easter!
2018, Dear You Art Workshops, Finland, ChinaComment
Our third Dear You project took place during the week leading up to Easter vacation. The students were asked to create a Easter eggs and while working they discussed their activities and what their environment looked like.
The first group was a bit shy but we discussed what we were going to say and even rehearsed saying it a few times before we created our recordings. The second group of students were very excited to describe their environment and discuss their families Easter traditions.
Sincerely,
Rachel Kangas
The artists in Grade 2 (8-9 years old) at Taizhou Pheonix Primary School in Jiangsu, China are making and sharing art with the artists at Linguajoy (7-10 years old) in Helsinki, Finland.
The Monkeys translate their environment for their friends!
2018, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandComment
Words have an amazing way of painting pictures in our minds! The Monkeys have created sound pieces that will hopefully tell their friends in Kontula about where they are in Olari. We started by exploring the environment and then as we were recording tried to catch as many details as we could to communicate them to our friends.
Kanelit, you can draw a picture based on our recordings! Also, do you hear what is happening in the background? The more you listen the more your visions grow.
Thank you for making art with us!
Sincerely,
Arlene, Sanna, Ben, and The Monkeys
The 6 year old artists at Your School in Espoo, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland.
Upeita taideteoksia Päiväkoti Pihapirttista!
2018, 6 years old, Dear You Art Workshops, FinlandComment
Paketti on saapunut! The package has arrived!
Hello! Beautiful thank you for your artworks, they were great! Here are our responses to your artworks :). Let's keep in touch! Kanelit/Eskarit/ Päiväkoti Pihapirtti.
Monkeys tekivät suoraan taidenäyttelyn ystävänsä taideteoksista!
The Monkeys immediately made an art exhibition of their friends' artworks!
The 6 year old artists at Päiväkoti Pihapirtti in Helsinki, Finland are making and sharing art with the 6 year old artists from Your School in Espoo, Finland.
In winter 2018 Dear You project in Kontula is supported by the Museum of Impossible Forms.
