In today’s world, peace needs to become more than just a word. On September 21, 2011, Dan F. Long Middle School participated in an International art and literacy project, Pinwheels for Peace. Art students “planted” pinwheels with messages of peace in the garden in front of the school.
Over 170 Dan F. Long Middle School Art students created the pinwheels and wrote their thoughts about "war and peace / tolerance/ living in harmony with others" on one side. On the other side, each student designed a visual expression their feelings. The students assembled the pinwheels in class and displayed them on the International Day of Peace as a public statement and art exhibit/installation.
Katherine Broadwell is the Art teacher at Dan F. Long.
Pinwheels for Peace is an art installation project started in 2005 by two Art teachers, Ann Ayers and Ellen McMillan of Coconut Creek, Florida, as a way for students to express their feelings about what’s going on in the world and in their lives. In the first year, groups in over 1,325 locations throughout the world were spinning approximately 500,000 pinwheels pinwheels on September 21. In 2010, over 3.5 million pinwheels were spinning in over 3,500 locations, including the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada, the Middle East, Africa and South America.
This project is non-political – peace doesn’t necessarily have to be associated with the conflict of war, it can be related to violence/intolerance in our daily lives, to peace of mind. To each of us, peace can take on a different meaning, but, in the end, it all comes down to a simple definition: “a state of calm and serenity, with no anxiety, the absence of violence, freedom from conflict or disagreement among people or groups of people.”
No comments:
Post a Comment