Drawing Outside the Box

Year: 2010
Country: El Salvador
Project Status: Funded
Impact Sector: Education
Project Investment: $370.80

Project Launch:

A $370 grant in 2010 supported a 10-week course on drawing and collage for junior-high and high-school age students at the Casa de la Cultura in the pueblo of Candelaria de la Frontera in El Salvador. The course taught basic drawing skills, familiarized students with different drawing materials and the varied ways they can be used, and emphasized the skill of perspective. The course focused on drawing because it is a foundation for other forms of art such as painting. The group worked primarily with compressed charcoal on large pieces of paper, which is a good format for learning to draw basic forms, as well as shadows and highlights. This type of programming served as a creative antidote to the rote copying of figures that children often do in school in El Salvador. Toward the end of the course, the group also experimented with colored chalk and collage. The emphasis of the class was on drawing rather than the product. At the end of the course, the school exhibited the students' work and invited them to talk about it with families and community members.