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Art for Character's Sake: A Community Based Character Education Art Program
Gloria Dunnivan, GEAR UP Coordinator, Kent State University
and Launa Stan, Artist
Art for Character's Sake is a unique after school community-based program that creatively and naturally instills good character into the lives of the youth who attend. The art classes are offered in an inner city neighborhood and are funded by a local foundation. Students are provided with authentic learning experiences that engage their minds, hearts and bodies, and are encouraged to draw upon their personal experiences as well as consider input from mentors to generate their projects. Each lesson is composed of four integral parts: study of a concrete art form (poetry, sculpture, etc), an art project, a character lesson, and an instructional objective. Character education is taught through the process of creating artwork as well as through an intentional focus on literature that is used for the instructional piece. The program can easily be duplicated in a school setting as well as in youth organizations.
Students in the program create literature, artwork and poetry as well as keep journals about their experiences. Character education is integrated into the entire program through mentoring, literature, service learning, creating artwork and poetry, etc. As part of one service-learning project, students created sculptures for the community garden.
