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One of art’s key properties is its ability to transfix viewers and let them get lost in the piece. Because of art’s aesthetically pleasing values and its ability to serve as a positive distraction, art has great potential in clinical settings. Art can brighten the atmosphere while positively affecting students' performance through the use of perspective, technique and mechanical skill building.
Art Education at Valley Collaborative addresses skills that are crucial for both artistic and educational development in all students. During class times, students are exposed to vocabulary and styles through programs that are developed with the classroom teachers, therapists and behaviorists in order to provide informed and directed lessons that cover the specific needs for all students in the class.
Lessons in the Art classroom focus on goal and skill building that suits not only as artistic outlets, but as building blocks that can be used in other subject areas throughout the school day. In class we work with a variety of mediums that cover new ranges of skill that students find accessible and fun. With these 2d and 3d projects, students are exposed to artists of the past as well as new styles and outlooks that can be used in day to day life. During this time students are also able to focus on mechanical and occupational skills that are usable cross subject in order to create well rounded and diverse learners.
While in the Art classroom students are encouraged to interact with each other socially, encouraging success and working together on perspective. Art at Valley Collaborative is a fun and unique way for students to gain confidence in skills that they may otherwise not feel comfortable building without the supportive atmosphere. Skills we work on in the classroom include social skills, hand and eye coordination, perspective taking, accepting, problem solving and many more. Along with these added benefits students receive experience in Art that coincide with Massachusetts state standards, exposing them to artistic skills that can be used as building blocks for a creative and open-minded future.
