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campcounselorlife123 · 1 year ago

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bad art class reflections

i taught art classes at a summer camp this summer and i could teach whatever i wanted. my favorite class that i taught was a class that i called Bad Art Class. i would switch up what i did every day/week on a whim but i had a few rotating activities that were pretty successful. i wanted to document it because i felt like i learned a lot from it and i wanted to share it because maybe it would be interesting to other people too.

i tried starting each class by asking each kid about something they are bad at. this worked on the first day but lots of kids have a hard time thinking of things that they are bad at every day. i always told them that i am bad at driving and it made them laugh. i have a long list of things i'm bad at and it feels good confessing them. i never fear confessing these things to children because i'm so much better than them at lots of things so they can't really judge me. they are also bad at driving. it's like aa or something. removing the stigma. we are all bad at things.

my class rules : don't think too hard, don't be competitive , don't make art that is mean or disrespectful. (+ other rules that are more general to any sort of class... ie: don't talk when i'm talking, etc....)

we would usually start the week making a list of traits of bad art and good art. if they needed help thinking of things, i'd ask them to think of art they love/hate and list the qualities of it. or i'd ask them about a time they made something that they thought was bad/good and what made it bad/good. usually they'd say that bad art was boring, vague, uninteresting, simple, nonsensical, and turns out differently than you planned it. good art is detailed, cohesive, interesting, focused. this just helped to define and make concrete a more abstract concept.

activities:

bad drawings - I gave kids a topic, a paper, and something to draw with. i told them to draw their worst drawing of the topic. i collected the drawings. i presented them to the class. i told the class to vote if the drawing was bad or good. if most votes were for bad, the kid could keep it. if most votes were for good, the kid had to rip it up.

this one was a big hit. kids love ripping things up. some kids hated this one because they would get too attached to their drawings. i wouldn't make them rip it up if they didn't want to because im not an asshole.

bad art debates - i assigned two judges. i gave kids a category like: colors you hate. i asked them what their least favorite colors are. i chose two. those were the teams. i told them to choose which color is worse to them and come up with one reason why they think that. kids presented arguments, judges presented verdict. then new topic, new teams, new judges.

this one is funny because in my head i thought that the kids would hate it but they actually loved it. they loved playing roles. i made the judges wear silly wigs and those positions were highly sought after. my intention here was to show how arbitrary our opinions about art are. i would introduce it by saying how opinions are not facts even though they might feel like it. i'd be like: see how we can't even agree about what is bad? this one did get a little competitive so maybe that kinda goes against my intention with the class but overall it was a success.

bad joke show - i told the kids to think of their worst jokes. i'd create a stage area and an audience area. kids would perform their bad jokes one at a time. after each joke, the other kids were allowed to boo at the performer and throw crumpled up pieces of paper at them.

this was a hit because it broke a lot of social conventions/taboos. probably never would a teacher ask kids to boo and throw things at another kid. kids like ripping things up, yelling boo, and throwing things at each other. they also liked being booed at and having things thrown at them. it is fun and to have fun while being booed at feels incredibly freeing.

feet drawings - i'd make kids try to draw with a marker between their toes.

this one is an instant hit but kids get cramps in their feet easily from it and often accidentally draw on the floor. it is quick and they get bored easily from it. nevertheless, it is very effective in making kids let go of the idea of making "good" art because it takes away virtually all control in the process of making. it is also silly and fun and breaks a lot of social conventions.

bad stories - i'd make kids come up with a bad story and have them read them aloud to each other.

this one was rough with younger kids because they couldn't write or conceive of what makes a story good/basic story structure. it is much more interesting for the older kids that like writing.

scribbling on coloring sheets - this is a classic coloring outside the lines cliché thing. i printed out famous pieces of art in coloring book form and had them scribble over it.

many of them disliked this and just wanted to draw inside of the lines. i told them that they could do that but if they did then they would have to rip it up afterwards. i realized that kids actually tend to love coloring inside of the lines. many of them are insecure in their opinions/abilities and need guidance badly. they often got too attached to rip them up. again, i wouldn't force them to but then it kinda lost all the original intention.

bad collages - i would tell kids to cut out the ugliest images they could find and put them in the worst order.

these were so interesting to me. i love images and seeing what kids are instinctively visually drawn to/turned off by. sometimes they would just collage large blocks of text or ads. sometimes it would be textures they found gross or items they found boring. often they used pictures of people kissing (ew).

throughout the week, sometimes i'd doodle or draw something during free time. often the kids of my bad art class would be surprised that i was actually good at art and question why i would teach bad art if i was good at it. i'd explain that nobody taught me how to be bad at art and how i think that's actually much more important than being good at it. maybe they understand that or maybe not but either way i'd let them scribble over my "good" drawings. sometimes it hurts a little but the more i did it the less i cared. i took a long time perfecting a realistic eye drawing then let a little kid ruin it. it felt nice. maybe these ideas are big and lofty but i think that experiencing them is very therapeutic and cathartic. even if they don't understand exactly the point of the activities, i think that it is beneficial to experience joy while being bad at something. to be bad at something and not be alone. to practice being bad at things in a safe place - to prepare for when you inevitably are bad at something that you really want to be good at. to not give up doing that thing because you are bad at it. it is something that i have been needing.

one fun thing that happened : when i was doing the feet drawings one day, three boys made "pee art". one of them peed on a piece of paper then outlined the patterns that the pee left on the paper. i had to clean the table with bleach and talk to their parents about it. i had to be mad about it but honestly i was impressed with the creativity and i thought it was hilarious. i took a picture of it in the trash can. it is my home screen on my phone. this is what it looked like.

this is a quote that i like that i feel like summarizes the ethic what I was going for with the class. :

Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow. - Kurt Vonnegut

i think making classes and creating experiences/activities like this is an art form in itself. if places like the one i work at had more resources and my job wasn't way more stressful than it should be- i'd love to do stuff like this for a living. but im not sure how long it is sustainable for. i'm teaching more classes in the fall though. i hope they will be cool. i will miss a lot of the kids from this summer. i always get so attached to them :/ my little friends...

#camp #camp activities #bad art #summer camp #camp counselor #funny kids

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