NYU Art+Ed alumna and elementary art teacher Emma Niwa makes so much art! At her school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, her 5th grade students explore many media and materials but a staple project each year that everyone looks forward to are the self portrait and printmaking studies. In addition to creating a visual portrait of themselves that reflects their emotions and interests, students create a print to serve as their background to share other aspects of their lives and personality traits they want to highlight. Emma takes students to local museum exhibitions to see portraits by contemporary artists and always asks students to write about their experiences making the work and the choices they made along the way.
Student artwork from Emma Niwa’s class:
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