Man Learns Through his Senses - About Me  “Man learns through his senses. The ability to see, feel, hear, smell and taste provides the means by which an interaction between man and his environment takes place. The process of educating children can sometimes be confused with developing certain limited predetermined responses. The curriculum in public schools tends to be little concerned with the simple fact that man, and the child too, learns through these five senses. The development of perceptual sensitivity, then, should become a most important part of the educative process. But except for the arts, the senses are apt to be ignored. The greater the opportunity to develop an increased sensitivity and the greater the awareness of all the senses, the greater will be the opportunity for learning”. This was written by Victor Lowenfeld in his book titled Creative and Mental Growth in 1947. Nashville Tennessee, Public Schools introduced art and music classes’ city wide in 1997. That was the year I came to Tennessee. I came for a job as an art teacher. Thanks to our then mayor and now Governor Brednesen in partnership with Dr. Gene Pletcher, we received an exciting art curriculum and began the journey of offering art and music to all students in Davidson County, kindergarten through 12th grade. The arts offer the awakening of the mind through sensory experience. Our Arts Alive Group wants to join in with the rest of the city and Celebrate Nashville during this year which marks her 200th birthday. I have lived here for ten years now and have watched as the Athens of the South opened the Frist Art Museum, welcomed our own football team as well as others sports teams, and decided that our school system was most effective through the efforts of a united community. Our community wanted a school system where excellence was the norm. In this addition to our web site we want to present an album of pictures depicting a sampling of Celebrate Nashville activities that Arts Alive has participated in up to this date, March 7, 2007. I would like to also introduce myself. My name is Renee Somers and I have been an art educator since 1974. My art teacher through high school and college was Barclay Sheaks, the well respected East coast artist famous for his paintings of old barns, water scenes from the Chesapeake Bay area, and Queen Ann’s lace strewn across Virginia mountain meadows. I loved art from the early ages. My mother had pencil drawings of my Uncles she had done and to me, Mother’s work, looked like a miracle of illusion on paper. I remember looking at the tattered edges of the sketches. The drawings she had done were in the mahogany china cabinet. I can still smell the drawer I took them from. I looked at those drawings periodically and though, how I would like to draw like that. My motivation was not from a lecture, or insistence, but from my mothers’ ability to create a likeness on paper of my Uncle Allen in his military uniform. She inspired me by example. I am currently teaching art in the public school. I live in an urban multi-cultural area of town. Our part of town houses the young the old, the poor and the well respected. I have searched my mind for four years trying to resolve the problems of poverty and drug abuse I have witnessed. My background in Art Therapy provides me with a therapeutic understanding of many of the maladies of cultural deprivation and substance abuses. I feel compassion and have  As an artist and therapist, my first approach to a solution included involving the students in my neighborhood in the art process. We tried to clean up the back alley as well as paint murals over the walls that were cracking and wearing gang graffiti. We planted a community garden and tried to think of ways to make the picture of life become one of integrity. The combination of work ethic and creative process’ equaled an effective approach to accomplishing a worth while task. The young boys that I began this adventure with suffered being made fun of for hanging out with me. They struggled with the differences in our cultures. I recently watched the youngest one play a basketball game and listened to the heckles from the young girls at this white lady they were sitting with. This reoccurring theme is not the result of the work for civil justice that Martin Luther King presented. It is for this I will continue to pursue what I know to be true. We are not so different that we cannot live together in the same world and neighborhood and benefit from knowing each other. We can celebrate our differences while we celebrate 200 years of Nashville history. Welcome to our website. About Us Our mission is to empower at –risk youth in the urban Nashville area, building self respect and creative self-expression while growing in understanding. It is our goal to help the students develop a concept of community pride through the use of the arts. Children do not have to be talented to enjoy the arts: they simply need opportunity to participate, explore and wonder. Our second major goal is to offer positive life experiences to counteract the limited boundaries in the urban environment by filling their time with productive experiences. The intended target goals for 2007 are: *“Arts Alive” Mural Project for Council District 21, State Senate District 19, and State House District 54. *“Nashville Portrait Society” Project, in which the at-risk students document with a digital video camera the visiting of art sites in and around Nashville. They will later present their video footage of the trips to other students in a school setting thereby building self-esteem and learning to share their experience in public settings. * “Mirror Images” which is an international project that includes producing and presenting written and artistic expression of native “German and Nashville students in a book form, offering translations in both languages. This project will be in association with Sister Cities of Nashville. It is our intention to NOT limit ourselves to painterly arts. We intend to include the written word, video and film, and musical expression as opportunity permits. The components include addressing urban at-risk youth cross cultural understanding and international diversity. We are
planning on making a difference with at-risk in urban Nashville,
focusing on the Hadley Park area and beyond by producing art, music,
film and literature. We have sought funding sources within our city to
assist in the delivery of these programs. Professionals working with the T-2-T Development Corporation on these projects are as follows: |
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About Us |