Online Workshops with Artists – Elementary and Secondary
All online workshops with students are facilitated as 3-session synchronous learning with the teacher present.
JUMP TO — Drama/Writing · Visual Art · Dance · Digital Music · Media
Drama/Writing
Creating Characters – Instructor: Paula Wing
Grades: 6-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
Using improvisation, devising, creation games and writing, these
sessions will take students through the process of creating vivid, fun,
memorable characters.
Story Circles – A devised creation process. – Instructor: Sheena D. Robertson
Grades: 6-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
Using a creative process utilized in the Regent Park Project (a collaborative project that led to the creation of a web series), students will explore stories from their own lives. Super fun, highly engaging, and very creative, this process is anchored in active listening, creative story-telling, and the writing that comes from it.
Mastering Monologue – Instructor: Edward Daranyi
Grades: 7-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
Working with a Master Director and Acting Coach students work through the step-by-step process of developing the performance of a monologue. Elements include: deconstructing the text, creating simple blocking, and ongoing practice with expert feedback. Edward creates a supportive, fun and creative environment, that encourages growth and thoughtfulness.
JUMP TO — Drama/Writing · Visual Art · Dance · Digital Music · Media
Visual Art
Drawing from Nature – Instructor: Leslie Ashton
Grades: All – Instruction adapted for level of students
During our sessions, students will learn the basics of drawing: contour, sketching, shading, and shadow, using nature as an inspiration.
Each session will have fun exercises that help to build the student’s confidence, as it improves their drawing and observation skills. Materials should be available at home.
Collaging The Day – Instructor: Leslie Ashton
Grades: 2 and Up – Instruction adapted for level of students
Students will start with a scavenger hunt for materials from around the house to use in their art piece. They will then walk through a process, using collage to express what they are experiencing in the moment, and to tell the story of their day. Collage is a medium that it easy to experiment and play with. There is no need to commit right away to a composition. With the support of the artist and teacher, students can take risks and build expressive, visually interesting work.
Self Portraits – Various Instructors
Grades: 5 and Up – Instruction adapted for level of students
Using materials found around the house, our artist will walk students through the experience of creating a whimsical self portrait – one that expresses who they are on the inside as much as what they physically look like on the outside. This is the perfect moment for a project like this! High success, minimal stress.
Art, Writing, and Wellness – Instructor: Leslie Ashton
Grades: 7-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
Meet your language arts curriculum expectations through visual arts. Using various mediums students work to incorporate words, colour, and texture to create self-portraits, exploring their strengths and challenges. Making the visual art work first, provides an opportunity for the students to explore their ideas of self and leads to deeper, more thoughtful writing.
Art techniques explored may include: photography, photo-transfer, text, paint, and or collage.
Once the art is complete, teachers can work with their students as they write the story of their art work. This can take many forms depending on your classes’ curriculum expectations.
Examples:
- Letter to a future self
- A poem
- A description of themselves as
- A god/goddess or superhero
Art & Wellness – Instructor: Leslie Ashton
Grades: 7-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
Especially at this unprecedented and stressful time educators are looking for ways to support wellness for their students.
These sessions are a way for students to check in with themselves and their community through art making. By experimenting with pleasurable, satisfying, common art materials, e.g.: watercolour, acrylic paint, pastels, or charcoal, students learn about self expression and communication in a visual way. The session themes will encourage students to explore their positive and negative feelings, where they are succeeding and where they are experiencing challenges.
Exploration May Include:
- Painting and mark making inspired by music
- Watercolour resist to highlight a poem or quote that students connect with
- Expressive art making that captures feeling through colour and texture
Each session is very much about the creative process, students don’t have to be confident in art making to enjoy and benefit.
Re-Imagine Creation: An Exploration towards Sustainable Art – Instructor: Jess De Vittoris
Grades: 4-6 – Instruction adapted for level of students
This workshop is an exploration of art practices that connect us to the materials we use and the environmental impact we have in creating new projects as artists.
Students Will:
- Make and practice with different water-based paints made from easily found materials.
- Learn drawing and painting techniques.
- Upcycle with objects and artwork already created.
- Repurpose natural or made materials into art.
- Think about what our role is for sustainability within the arts, our communities and in caring for our surroundings.
Drawing – Instructor: Leslie Ashton
Grades: 4-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
This workshop gives students the confidence and practical steps to explore the rich and important work of learning how to draw. Drawing is the basis of so much of visual art, it improves concentration, hand-eye co-ordination, and visual analysis, plus it’s wonderful to see students’ confidence grow along with their skills. The only materials needed are a paper and pencil.
JUMP TO — Drama/Writing · Visual Art · Dance · Digital Music · Media
Dance
Site-Specific Composition – Instructor: Meredith Thompson
Grades: 4-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
Using your school, school yard or home as your ‘stage’, this workshop will explore site-specific composition, opening up new possibilities for movement creation and creative problem solving. Using elements like staircases, windows and doorways, we will engage in safe movement tasks and explorations that play with how architecture inspires new movement vocabulary and offers exciting framing for our movement ideas. Please note: Proper social distancing measures will be considered at all times throughout the workshop.
Photo by Henry Chan
Dance As A Way of Knowing – Instructor: Meredith Thompson
Grades: 1-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
In this workshop, we’ll work to build upon what we innately know about movement and apply strategies that tap into our natural appetite for moving. Through engaging and challenging movement games, tasks and exercises, we will practice a range of technical and creative movement skills, gaining increased coordination, strength and agility, but more importantly, an understanding and appreciation of the expressive capacities of the body. Collaborative problem solving and creative risk taking will be encouraged and celebrated throughout our process. Please note: Proper social distancing measures will be considered at all times throughout the workshop.
Dancing Poems – Instructor: Amanda Davis
Grades: 4-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
Students will explore a variety of ‘ways of moving’ laid out in the Ontario Curriculum, and will then use their movement phrases to interpret poetry, and create a simple choreography.
Building Dances – Instructor: Meredith Thompson
Grades: 4-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
This workshop is an exploration of compositional ideas that lend themselves to building meaningful dances. Connections to literary sources or a curricular theme of choice will provide us with source material and a common jumping off point. Using simple physical tasks and exercises, we’ll safely practice and explore a range of creative movement skills that we can put together to create short dances. Please note: Proper social distancing measures will be considered at all times throughout the workshop.
JUMP TO — Drama/Writing · Visual Art · Dance · Digital Music · Media
Digital Music
Sonic Lab – Instructor: Michael O’Connell
Grades: 7-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
This workshop takes place online while students are in their classrooms/computer labs. The aim is to build skills in digital audio creation/composition. Students will be supported in creating mini-compositions that include various digital instruments, with the possibility of adding voice and/or live instruments.
Students Will:
- Work with audio software available in the school (i.e. Garageband or Bandlab)
- Use iPads, tablets, laptops OR their phones to create digital music.
- Work collaboratively using breakout rooms (where available), learning to offer peer to peer support.
JUMP TO — Drama/Writing · Visual Art · Dance · Digital Music · Media
Media
Exploring Shot Types – A Hand-On Exploration – Instructor: Sheena D. Robertson
Grades: 4-8 – Instruction adapted for level of students
A hands-on exploration of shot types and how directors use them purposefully in commercials and in film. Participants will need a camera to participate in this workshop, and will complete a ‘Photo Scavenger Hunt’ as part of the workshop.
Photo by Daniel Grant
Unpacking Stereotypes in Commercials – Instructor: Michael O’Connell
Grades: 7-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
Examining the composition, intended audience and messaging techniques of commercials this workshop looks at the overt and nuanced stereotyping of gender – participants will be supported in flipping the script and re-imagining an equitable narrative.
Self Portrait Videos – Instructor: Michael O’Connell
Grades: 7-12 – Instruction adapted for level of students
Using accessible apps for phones and tablets, participants will explore GIF making, and short video creation that will support the articulation of their own world views while considering and speaking to others’.