Having Fun and Creating Community - The Mental Health Benefits of a Collaborative Art Project

Ready to make the first mark.

One of Professor Nordell's teaching goals for the year was to add more active learning experiences to his History of Art class.  Over winter break he attended an online professional development workshop presented by Faye Kendall: Considering Mental Health Challenges in the Art Classroom 

Kendall noted how collaborative projects can foster classroom community and allow students to develop social and emotional skills.  She described such a project where by using lengths of tape attached to a single paint brush, four students can work on a painting together.

"Teamwork makes the dreamwork," said Hunter, shown at front right.

Kendall also pointed out how perfectionism can be a roadblock to enjoying art.  Professor Nordell assigned the project to build classroom community and to take pressure off of public individual performance which can produce anxiety.

Some students said it was fun. Some students said it was cool.  Many said it was hard.  When Professor Nordell asked, "Is hard bad?" he was met with a hearty round of "No!"  

Professor Nordell first instructed groups of students to paint a peace sign together.

Before introducing the project to students, Professor Nordell discussed the connections between making art and play.  To further get into the spirit of art, fun and playfulness, he showed the silly yet informative video created by Mr. Bradley on his Leaning Made Fun YouTube channel titled Cave Art | Stone Age Paintings (How they did it?), in which Mr. Bradley, among other things, spits a mouthful of paint over his hand placed on a cave wall to make a stenciled imprint. Talk about hands-on teaching!

A Cube - After the peace sign, Professor Nordell asked each group of students to paint something more complicated.

To further up the collaborative ante, Professor Nordell had each group of four to pair up with another group to create together.

The purple paint team finishes the smiley face as the orange team looks on.

There was lots of laughter and joking around. Members of the football team engaged in gentle trash talking.

Eight people but only two brushes!

Debriefing the experience, Karashan suggested to have the experience at the beginning of the semester as a way to get to know classmates, "as you would talk to people you would never talk to." 

Letters can be easier than circles.

The orange paint group found that painting the word "art" was easier than making the peace sign, as four people painting a circle with one brush proved difficult to coordinate, as the students needed to figure out which way to go. 

Hmm... Students challenged to coordinate their physical and aesthetic actions for a common artistic goal. Sounds pretty good to us!