Each week ARTstudio students commit to a rigorous drawing practice, exploring how artists participate in culture, asking questions of their own work, to ultimately create exceptional artworks. We have shared many memorable moments, including visits to Frank Sinatra High School and the High School of Art and Design, trips to galleries on the Lower East Side and to the Sugar Hill Museum of Storytelling and Art—exploratory walks through the Lower East Side and Washington Heights where we drew the neighborhood and gathered inspiration. The abstract painter Sam Gilliam famously said, “(Abstraction) it messes with you. It convinces you that what you think isn’t all….It challenges you to understand something that is different.” Last fall, we made artwork using a variety of materials , techniques and processes: from creating new tools out of cardboard in order to make marks, to silkscreening on top of color-field paintings. As Gilliam pointed out, there is great value in creating artwork that asks a question. When we see art and ask, “What IS that?,” we are generating curiosity and opening ourselves up to new ideas.
– Stephanie Costello, Teaching Artist
34 ARTstudio students have been accepted to the city’s most competitive public art high schools, including LaGuardia, High School of Art and Design, Frank Sinatra and Fashion Industries.
