than 20 six- and seven-year-olds at a long table covered with mounds of rust-colored clay, and immediately got to work. He and all the children pounded, pulled, pinched, stretched and coaxed their clumps of clay. Soon a menagerie of strange and magical shapes appeared: a snake wrapped around a tree branch, a nest of chipmunks, a shark with a flashlight fin, a dog that meows, and from the special guest – a mask with a beaked nose and a tusk passing through the eyes.
Acclaimed sculptor Mark di Suvero usually works in a very different medium -- steel -- but he clearly relished his opportunity to be teacher for a day in any medium. Variously described as “America’s Great Man of Steel” and a “steel whisperer” for his lyrical and monumental steel creations, di Suvero came to the Neighborhood School on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to participate in Studio in a School’s second annual Open Studio week. During the intense hour of art making, the children shared ideas and inspiration with their famous visitor,
who praised the creativity and exuberant spirit of his fellow artists. “To build, make art, with these kids is electrifying,” di Suvero said. “It creates the energy of life.”
The young artists were excited to meet Mark di Suvero because many had seen his work on Governor’s Island, in Socrates Park, and at Storm King. They are the art students of Studio in a School artist/instructor Valerie Hammond, who has been teaching at the Neighborhood School for 20 years and, like all Studio instructors, is also a professional artist. Hammond works in a variety of media in her own art and in her teaching – drawing, painting, sculpture, wax. Her students’ creations fill the walls – colorful mosaics of animals, multimedia ink drawings of trees overlaid with prints of butterflies and raindrops; a series of “fresco” pastel moon paintings. “My art informs my teaching and my teaching informs my art,” says Hammond. She sometimes brings her own art into the classroom and says, “My students are often my best critics.”
Di Suvero’s sculptures appeal to children for their bright colors and interactive opportunities -- such as his swinging beds. When asked whether he intends a sense of playfulness in his work, di Suvero said, “I deeply believe in interactive art. Swinging is one of the most natural and primordial activities in human history. It restores our sense of balance and allows us to interact with the world. The structure of art, of architecture, of poetry, creates magnificent feelings.”
Six-year-old Emerson brought a small rock he had found at Socrates Park to show di Suvero, and the artist suggested he incorporate it into his clay sculpture. Emerson proudly shared his creation at the end of the class – a clay disc balanced next to the rock wrapped in clay – and Di Suvero was delighted. “The hardest part of making art is to move from the moment of imagination, to make it grow…that’s what these kids did here today. Most teachers don’t know how to teach that. That’s why Studio in a School is so important. To have a dream and be able to make it is the real pleasure of art.”