Exploring AMERICA'S COURTYARD
Artists Students Teachers Home About Português
About This Project Click here for specific information for teachers

Exploring America's Courtyard is a collaborative project of the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE), the Chicago Public Schools/University of Chicago Internet Project (CUIP), the Ministry of Education of Brazil, and artists, teachers and students in Chicago, Illinois (USA) and Salvador, Bahia (Brazil).

"America's Courtyard" is an interactive sculpture by Denise Milan and Ary Perez with installations in São Paulo, Brazil, and in Chicago, USA. The background of this web page consists of a picture of the installation in Chicago. (You can read more about the sculpture by
clicking here. See http://www.americascourtyard.art.br for Ary and Denise's web site about their sculpture.).

Lincoln Park High School students, working with Chicagoan Deanna Shoss of São Paulo Partners, have already studied this installation and created their own artistic responses to this work. The students' enthusiastic participation in this experience laid the groundwork for
this international exchange.

"At once arena, chapel, playground, and theater", America's Courtyard is a complex piece that references philosophical, cultural, and aesthetic issues. Culminating events for this Brazil - USA learning exchange could include performances and readings in the installations.

The project connects middle school and high school teachers and students in Chicago with middle school and high school teachers and students in Salvador. One goal is to increase mutual cultural understanding among these participants.

The coordinating organization in Chicago is the Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE). The coordinating organization in Salvador is Via Magia. Both organizations are dedicated to finding the authentic connections between the study of the arts and larger issues
of young people's personal, intellectual, and academic development. The connection between these two organizations was facilitated by arts educator and theoritician Ronne Hartfield, who is currently researching the sacral functions of art across cultures through
Harvard University.

The project coordinator in Chicago is Arnold Aprill, director of CAPE. The project coordinator in Salvador is Ruy Cezar, director of Via Magia.

Bernard Williams (Chicago artist) and Arnold Aprill (director of CAPE)

The project web builder is Craig Cunningham, curriculum director for the Chicago Public Schools/University of Chicago Internet Project. CUIP is a collaboration of 29 Chicago Public Schools and the University. CUIP is dedicated to supporting the schools in the areas of infrastructure, systems management, training, and currculum support. See http://cuip.uchicago.edu/cuip for more information.

Here is the framework used to stimulate an educational exchange between teachers and students between Salvador, Bahia, Brazil and Chicago, Illinois, United States of America:

1) Each participating teacher was asked to send a statement about what they wanted their students to get out of this exchange.

2) Each participating teacher asked their students what they wanted to send to the students in the other city to explain life in their home town. Different classes focused on different subjects, such as: the ecology of their city and state, the religions of their city and state, the social, economic, and political history of their city, migrations and immigrations, jobs, popular music, maps of their neighborhood, postcards and old photographs of their neighborhood, interviews with people and businesses in their neighborhood, a valued object from a student's family history, architecture, gardens, cemeteries, statues, festivals, holidays, food, homes, clothing styles, the rooms of young people, transportation, famous writers from their city, books about their city, families, games, pets, dance styles, performing and visual arts movements from their city, the languages spoken in their city, the ethnicities and cultural histories of their city, etc. Each class chose a few "artifacts" (essays, drawings, poems, self portraits, photographs, postcards, book reviews, maps, graphs, lists, statistics, songs, video clips, sound recordings, etc.) to put on the website.

3) Each teacher asked their students to study the artwork on this website by artists from Brazil and from the United States, to consider the ideas, themes, issues, and styles represented by the artists, and to create their own artistic responses. These could be paintings, drawings, songs, sculptures, collages, short stories, essays, dialogues, monologues, animations, soundscapes, poems, photographs, videos, etc. Each class was asked to select a few of these artistic responses to be submitted to this website.

For more information, contact:

Arnold Aprill
Executive Director
CAPE
111 N. State Street, 11th Floor
Chicago IL 60602
1-312-781-4056 (voice)
1-312-781-4604 (fax)
aaprill@capeweb.org

Information for Teachers

(Click here for Português)

Send materials to Arnold Aprill either by email:

aaprill@capeweb.org

Or by mail:

Arnold Aprill CAPE
11th floor
Marshall Field1s
111 N. State Street
Chicago, Illinois 60602
USA

My phone is: 312-781-4056 ­ Call with any questions.
My fax is 312-781-4604

1) Each teacher is asked to send a statement about what they want their students to get out of this exchange. If possible, send in both English and Portugese. These need to be sent by or before November 15th, 1999

2) Each teacher is encouraged to send a photograph of themselves. Teachers may choose to send group shots. These need to be sent by or before November 15th, 1999

3) Each teacher is to ask their students right away what they want to send to the students in the other city to explain life in their home town. Different classes may want to focus on different subjects, such as: the ecology of their city and state, the religions of their city and state, popular music, cultural history, architecture, homes, clothing styles, dance styles, the languages spoken in their city, etc. Each class will chose a few "artifacts" (essays, drawings, poems, self portraits, photographs) to send to put on the website If possible, send text in both English and Portugese. These need to be sent by or before November 30th, 1999

4) Classes that would like to can send an audiotape or a videotape representing life in their city. These need to be sent by or before December 31st, 1999

5) Each teacher is to ask their students to study the artwork by the Brazilian and United States artists that is on the website, to consider the ideas, themes, issues, and styles represented by the artists, and to create their own artistic responses. These can be paintings, drawings, songs, sculptures, collages, short stories, essays, dialogues, poems, photographs, videos, etc. Each class is asked to select a few of these artistic responses to be sent to place on the website. These need to be sent by or before December 31st, 1999. You will be informed of when the website is going on line, and what its address will be.

6) The original artworks and the website will be displayed in Brasilia early in the year 2000.