Reflection Paper 1 - Art for the Exceptional Child

For our first day of field work in the Arts-2-Gether program, we focused primarily on ice breaker activities to help get to know one another. As students were arriving to the classroom, we played various games ranging from name games, role-playing games, and sound and movement manipulation games. This allowed for our students to become not only familiar with everyone in the art program but to also feel comfortable and want to participate in all of the activities.

           

After all the students had arrived and we completed all the ice breaker activities, we brought the students to the Samuel Dorsky Museum, located on the campus of SUNY New Paltz. Although the gallery is normally closed on Tuesdays, the gallery director opened its doors specifically for the students of the Arts-2-Gether program. From the expressions on the students faces, I would say they were all excited and were anticipating what they were about to see inside. Judy, in particular, was extremely eager when she ran inside the gallery and saw the giant bench made from a tree along the Hudson River adjacent to a hanging composition of the planets. I think Judy found it interesting to walk around and under the planet composition which is rare to be able to do in an art gallery, and look at the composition from various angles. When I asked her what she liked most about the mobile, she replied “They’re planets! I can name them all!”

Unfortunately before she could finish naming all of the planets, we were advised to take a seat as the gallery director informed us that were about to view the Hudson Valley Artist exhibit.

           

As the gallery director was informing us of the Hudson Valley Artists and the installation art in the back room, Judy’s focus was on the feel of the Tree Bench we were sitting on. The top of the wood was smooth and polished looking which contrasted the outskirts of the bench which was rough and textured. She kept asking me to feel the bench and asked me what I felt. After I responded to her about the glossy feeling of the top, she asked me if it made me feel cold as ice. I found it extremely interesting that she associated my response to ice and being cold.

           

After the gallery director was finished with her introduction and welcoming to the gallery, Judy quickly got up off of the bench and was eager to interact more with her peers than with the art work on display. After the gallery visit, I asked Judy what her favorite part about the day was. “The people” was her response.