8th grade student artwork inspired by Hopper

I recently had the opportunity to tour the 

Facebook campus. A veritable beehive of

creativity, one of the most notable aspects of the visit was the presence of "hacker culture" applied to the workspaces.  Employees have created giant walls of art using paint, found objects, etc. to brighten up their surroundings. They've constructed playful sculptures around the grounds and have come up with fun names and themes for the small conference rooms that dot the floors.

Facebook is currently constructing a new building to house a rapidly growing number of creative workers. They've selected the architect Frank Gehry for the project and, while the design of the building is a bit of a departure from some of his bolder work, it certainly shows the thought that goes into planning surroundings for creative high-tech workers. Gehry is best known, perhaps for his undulating, shiny steel buildings that look more like abstract sculpture on the landscape -- the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain; the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago. Just like the Mona Lisa and the Eiffel Tower help define a visual memory of Paris, Gehry's buildings help define the cities in which they are built.

As students in Art in Action programs are learning to look at art, they start to see the concepts they are learning all around them.   Architecture reinforces concepts like line, shape, perspective, color, scale and even mood.  And, in addition, architecture provides a great example of STEAM in action -- where science and engineering combine with the eye and vision of artistic expression.

We explore this in a number of Art in Action lessons. In 6th grade, students explore the Parthenon as a building both with a purpose (as a temple) and as an artifact of an artistic style.  We use it as a great example of proportion, positive and negative space and art as storytelling.  In 7th grade, they "visit" the Taj Mahal (one of the greatest physical structures on the planet, in my humble opinion) and discover the importance of symmetry and geometry in the art and architecture of Islamic Art. 

Hopper's "House by the Railroad" is featured in our 8th grade program where students learn about the ways light and shadow interact with a building to help define the mood created while looking at it. In this lesson they draw their own houses using two-point perspective and emphasize mood though highlights, shading and watercolor techniques. Click here to learn more about units like this in our in-depth curriculum. 

Just as a great painting can bring light and energy to a room or a powerful sculpture can command your attention and consideration, architecture is all around us, and at its best it can be uplifting, beautiful, interesting, challenging and thought-provoking. As you walk, bike or drive through your neighborhood, town or city, take a moment to appreciate the great art that makes up the fabric of our daily lives.