Case+61+-+Ms.+C's+Class+Investigates+the+Art+of+Playing

Scenario: Ms. C was seeking out ways to integrate current art happenings into her lessons for a sixth grade art class. This particular sixth grade class was having difficulty connecting the importance of art and its processes to real life situations. While perusing a daily New York newspaper, she came across an article regarding a local artist who primarily worked with Legos to create life-sized sculptures of people in various poses. The article stated that the artist was a lifelong fan of building things with Legos and now, in his 30’s, was still “playing” with Legos and receiving hefty commissions to create sculptures for various individuals and for commercial installations as well. Ms. C thought the article was an interesting way to open up dialog and critical thinking opportunities about the relevance of art and design, possibly following one’s passion toward a career in the arts; and a great tool for discussing some new vocabulary. See article: [] Commentary: Ms. C’s use of the newspaper article in the art classroom falls under the Fair Use of copyrighted materials exemption. The article is being used in a non-profit setting and is of an educational benefit to the students. The newspaper that the story originally came from is a large New York City daily newspaper and by copying and distributing only this one article to the class, in no way impacted current or future sales of the newspaper. Ms. C chose the article to connect the ability to create and be inspired by art to a real life situation. She hopes the article gives her students food for thought and shows them the value in what they are learning in art class. She also pointed out to her students that the article was not meant to have them go out and create Lego sculptures to compete with the artist of note, but rather, to have them think creatively about the world around them – drawing comparisons to Andy Warhol’s soup cans. Ms. C only distributed the article to her students during school hours and did not post it on the internet.