8th Graders Explore The Individual Through Interdisciplinary Creative Project

January is here and, for eighth graders at Glen Urquhart School, that means the coming of 8th Grade Arts Night, the annual, and much anticipated, dance performance and art exhibit. This night represents the culmination of work they began in September, and a celebration of one of the most celebrated GUS traditions - the White Shirt Project.

The eighth grade theme, The individual: who am I and where am I going?, encourages students to explore the world, the effect individual actions have on others, and how they can make a difference, as they prepare to move on from GUS. The White Shirt Project is a shining example of self expression that shows not just where our 8th graders want to go but what they want that world to look like. It’s a project that deliberately integrates a variety of disciplines - research, writing, creating, and public speaking - and challenges students to create and share something personal, important, and meaningful.

So, what is the White Shirt Project? From a simple instructive, a world of creation emerges:

1. Identify a contemporary artist who you find in some way inspiring.

2. Design a personally meaningful expression that draws (in some way and to some degree) on your artist. 

3. Include a white shirt in some manner.

Using a white shirt, students are tasked with creating an autobiographical, mixed-media statement, with original ideas and symbolism, that uses aspects of their chosen artist’s style and techniques. In the fall, students visit the MOMA in New York City to study contemporary artists as part of their humanities curriculum. When they return, students select an artist. Students work independently at home as well as in school where they’re able to talk through what will be necessary to make their ideas a reality with their teachers. These in-person check-ins help students understand the scope of the project, brainstorm and plan, and practice articulating their vision. Additionally, students work closely with humanities teacher Jeffrey Bartsch to write research papers that profile their artists and critically assess the artist’s contribution to his/her times.

Since all of the artwork is done at home, students have little, if any, idea of what their peers are working on. The day after Winter Break, the art arrives! Year after year, the breadth of method and materials, one of the strengths of the project, amazes all who watch the work enter the building.  

The projects typically cover a wide range of mediums, including: photography (both wet and digital), animation, multimedia, collage, painting (with a variety of paints-oil, water, house), model-making, woodworking (formal and abstract), written word-inspired sculpture, mobiles, and drawing. It is exciting to see which students decide to work with a medium for the first time.

On arts night, they deliver powerful and thoughtful gallery talks about their artists, their own experiments with creating art, and what they learned along the journey. Political involvement was valued this year. There is a piece that addresses human rights crimes and repression in China. Another features the catastrophe of unchecked gun violence in America. One student explores the hypocrisy of using the same plastic products as art supplies that the artist herself is highlighting as a major ecological disaster, while another addresses the loss of sea life. One work features a fractured world, pulled apart by horror, disasters, and tragedies, while quietly putting forth the possible existence of solutions.

The White Shirt Projects will be presented at 8th Grade Arts Night on Thursday, January 23, 2020 at 6:00 p.m., and will be on display in the upper school gallery at Glen Urquhart School through March break.