About the Program
The “third space” project enhances the school environment and elevates the learning experience by showcasing large-scale art installation from a professional local artist. Art is integrated into the curriculum and the physical space of a school.
About the School
James Russell Lowell School 51: A Montessori School provides a safe, inspiring environment that encourages students and staff alike to achieve their fullest potential.
About the Artist
Gina Lee Robbins, the professional artist selected for James Russell Lowell IPS School 51: A Montessori School, is an Indianapolis-based visual and teaching artist. She’s been working in clay for 30 years, stitching for 45, and picking up artifacts along waterways, wooded paths, city alleys and thrift shops for as long as she can remember
About the Program
See. Think. Wonder.
The “third space” project enhances the school environment and elevates the learning experience by showcasing an art installation from a professional local artist. Art is integrated into the curriculum and the physical space of a school.
Lasting for an entire semester, the project incorporates an approach to teaching that helps to improve learning and develop a student’s thinking skills. Based on Harvard’s Project Zero, students and viewers are encouraged to reimagine school environments as dynamic learning spaces and the role of the arts within them – to see, to think, and to wonder.
Students engage in collaborative sessions so that each work of art emerges as a combination of both a student’s thoughts, experiences, and ideas and the artist’s fine art practice.
This particular project combined elements of Arts for Learning’s Fresh StART program. One primary objective of Fresh StART is to strengthen a community’s sense of pride by stabilizing and improving an underused area, within or around the school, through the installation of a permanent, public work of art inspired by ideas generated by students.
This project is made possible by Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund.
Educational Basis for third space
In a third space program, students experience their school, as education philosopher Maxine Greene explains, “as if things could be otherwise.” View a 1998 presentation about the importance of imagination by Maxine Greene on YouTube.
Greene advocates for positioning students as explorers who use their imaginations to envision new ideas and patterns emerging from the world around them (Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, Art, and Social Change (1995)). They gradually align their natural curiosity with their interests.
According to her research and that of numerous other scholars, such as Christopher Garrett and Alice Pennisi, students not only thrive in environments that promote student-centered inquiry and expression through the arts, they also retain more information and are more motivated to continue learning.
The project also uses thinking routines from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education called Project Zero. The thinking routine for third space uses “see, think, and wonder” to develop student observation and describing skills for creative and critical thinking.
Collaborative Student Sessions
Session 1
In session 1 with students, Arts for Learning team members and the project artist engaged students in learning what they THINK, FEEL, and CARE about in their school community. Students overwhelmingly said they cared about their community, peers, inclusivity, and connection.
Students participated in a theatre-based activity, where individuals were assigned a word and presented to the audience for thirty seconds their thoughts about, associations with, and personal meanings of that word. Examples of words used include “friendship,” “wonder,” and “power.”
“Connections are made with friends, like Legos.”
– A student at IPS James Russell Lowell School 51
Session 2
Session 2 was led primarily by the project artist. The artist engaged in conversation with students based upon what was learned about what the students THINK, FEEL, and CARE about in Session 1. The resulting conversation included topics about respect, working together, and diversity. The artist shared her work history and conceptual interests.
The artist also led students in an exercise based upon her work, encouraging students to work together to create a singular sculpture using a variety of found objects selected by each individual student. The teaching artist then led the students in an activity where they created a singular “web” by tossing a ball of yarn to each other while standing in a circle. Students worked together to move the web in response to various beats.
“Art represents harmony and friendship”
– A student at IPS James Russell Lowell School 51
The Role of the Artist
Following the collaborative sessions with students, the artist creates proposals for both a temporary installation (third space) and for a permanent artwork to be gifted to the school as a legacy to the project (Art for Learning’s Fresh stART program).
The artist’s conceptual drive for these works is derived from the intersection of the artist’s own fine art practice and history, and the students’ thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
Gina Lee Robbins said that her proposal is for a project using recycled, upcycled and repurposed materials to create tactile, three dimensional assembled and woven sculptures and wall installations. During the third space period, students will encounter an environment of bright color and texture, that conceptually and literally reflects them individually and as a unified whole.
“This community is experiencing a series of transitions, having recently been joined by another school’s population, and the new adoption of Montessori principles into its pedagogy. In the coming year, the school’s make-up will change again, as grades 6-8 are moved to a separate middle school environment.
-Artist Gina Lee Robbins
“My hope is that this installation, which will feature a vast array of tactile, colorful materials and reflective elements arranged using repetitive shapes and processes, might represent a space where each individual is welcome, belongs, and makes the greater community more valuable.”
The Art Exhibition
The art installation remains visible for a week or two while the permanent legacy piece remains with the school.
During the school day, students encounter and interact with the art.
Arts Integration Workshop for the School’s Teachers
Teaching with original works of art can be a rewarding way of engaging in conversation about any topic; however, the challenge of such discussions can feel intimidating, and planning can seem overwhelming in an already busy schedule. In this workshop, select teachers collaborate with a curriculum specialist from Arts for Learning to integrate the third space works of art into lessons they already have planned.
Art Exhibition Open House
IPS James Russell Lowell School 51: A Montessori School hosted an open house for students, their families, and community partners.
16 Questions to Ask Yourself When Viewing the art installation
We encourage the viewer to use these questions to encourage students to make careful observations, thoughtful interpretations, explore curiosity, and inquire more deeply.
What do you see? ¿Que ves?
What is going on in this artwork? ¿Qué está pasando en esta obra de arte?
What do you think? ¿Qué piensas?
What do you see that makes you say that? ¿Qué ves que te hace decir eso?
What do you wonder? ¿Qué te preguntas?
What is mysterious about this artwork? ¿Qué tiene de misterioso esta obra de arte?
What materials did the artist use to make this artwork? ¿Qué materiales utilizó el artista para hacer esta obra de arte?
What kind of work would you make with these materials? ¿Qué tipo de trabajo harías con estos materiales?
What story can you tell about this artwork? ¿Qué historia puedes contar sobre esta obra de arte?
If this artwork were music, what would it sound like? Si esta obra de arte fuera música, ¿cómo sonaría?
What title did the artist give this artwork? What title would you give it? ¿Qué título le dio el artista a esta obra de arte? ¿Qué título le darías?
Put your body into a pose like some element of this artwork. How does it feel to be in that position? Pon tu cuerpo en una pose como un elemento de esta obra de arte. ¿Cómo se siente estar en esa posición?
What do you want to remember about this artwork? ¿Qué quieres recordar sobre esta obra de arte?
If this artwork could talk, what do you think it would say? Si esta obra de arte pudiera hablar, ¿qué crees que diría?
If you could ask this artwork a question, which question would you choose? How do you think this artwork would answer? Si pudieras hacerle una pregunta a esta obra de arte, ¿qué pregunta elegirías? ¿Cómo crees que respondería esta obra de arte?
How does this artwork make you feel? ¿Cómo te hace sentir esta obra de arte?
IPS James Russell Lowell IPS School 51: A Montessori School
IPS James Russell Lowell School 51: A Montessori School James Russell Lowell provides a safe, inspiring environment that encourages students and staff alike to achieve their fullest potential. With IPS’ “Rebuilding Stronger” plan, the school transitioned into a Montessori school beginning the 2023-24 academic year. Their mission is to cultivate a love for learning, an international perspective, and respect for individual differences and learning styles in every child.
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About the Artist
Gina Lee Robbins is an Indianapolis-based visual and teaching artist. She’s been working in clay for 30 years, stitching for 45, and picking up artifacts along waterways, wooded paths, city alleys and thrift shops for as long as she can remember.
She holds degrees in English and French literature and is a teaching artist at Indianapolis Art Center, and Arts for Learning Indiana. Gina has exhibited or curated in locales such as: the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, Koehnline Museum of Art, Masur Museum of Art, Freeport Art Museum, Harold Washington Library, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Oliva Gallery, Bradley University Galleries, Jack Olson Gallery at Northern Illinois University, Rockford Museum of Art, St. Xavier University Gallery, University of Wisconsin Union South Gallery, and SOFA Chicago, among others.
She is an active member of Woman Made Gallery, National Women’s Caucus for the Arts, Chicago Sculpture International, and Mid-South Sculpture Alliance. Her sculptures can be found in private and corporate collections worldwide.
Info on exhibitions, awards and events can be found at https://www.GinaLeeRobbins.com/.
