"Peace is in the Air" from Tennessee

April 28, 2016    A wonderful Kids Guernica Stop Motion film was created with children and adolescents from the Tennessee School for the Blind and gifted and talented first graders from the Discovery School.

0https://youtu.be/515mu9uOll0

Filled with colorful hot air balloons, a collaged sky, and happy children, Tennessee students from three different schools collaborated to create an international stop motion film called "Peace Is In The Air."

This innovative stop motion film highlights Tennessee children’s perspectives of peace. It is inspired by the International Kids Guernica Peace Mural Project, based in Japan. 

In 2005, Dr. Debrah Sickler-Voigt and Mrs. Suzanne St. John created the first Kids Guernica Peace Mural from Tennessee with children from Mitchell Neilson Elementary’s Extended School Program. Our peace mural was exhibited in Bali, Indonesia as part of their 10th Anniversary international peace mural exhibition. Dr. Sickler-Voigt also created a peace mural in Brenderup, Denmark in 2011 during a study abroad program with Dr. Isaac Larison and Lone Bodekaer.

Peace Is In the Air revisits this theme using a different medium and students. This project is the first example of a Kid’s Guernica Peace Mural using stop motion film as its medium.

Under the direction of Dr. Debrah Sickler-Voigt, MTSU Pre-Service Teachers enrolled in Art Education Practicum planned the project’s activities. To make a connection to the original peace mural in Japan, the pre-service teachers appropriated the concept of the hot air balloon. Our project started at the Tennessee School for the Blind with the diligent efforts of Ms. Monica Leister.

In the diverse school settings, all students discussed the meaning of peace and developed the collage sky background to film their project. The students created visual representations of peace that included playing, cooking, resting, and spending time with family. The students from Tennessee School for the Blind utilized found objects to create colorful hot air balloons for the production and planned the stop motion film’s initial storyline. The three first grade classes from The Discovery School added singing sound clips and created the stop motion animations using art objects, found objects, and their bodies.

Peace Is In the Air also includes an original song about peace by musician Brian Shind and a professional music production by Dwayne Russell.

Our stop motion film adds to the collective body of International Kids Guernica peace mural projects created by children across our planet. It presents peace from the perspective of children in Middle Tennessee communities, including children who have special needs and children who are gifted and talented.

(Tennessee and Danish murals)

Debrah C. Sickler-Voigt, Ph.D.

Professor of Art Education

http://www.arted.us 

"Art Education: Thriving in Teaching & Learning” - Forthcoming Textbook

MTSU Senior Art Education Faculty

MTSU Scandinavia Study Abroad Program Director

ICEFA Lidice International Juror

Kids' Guernica in Strongoli, Italy

March 23, 2016  
The Alcmeone  Alcmeone School, the Proloco of Strongoli, successfully organized a Kids' Guernica exhibition at the Museum of Strongoli Municipality in Italy. This wonderful exhibition couldn't be realized without the tremendous voluntary work of Francesca Iannotta of the civil service.

Kids' Guernica and Third Paradise from Nikko to Florida

April 2016      A collaborative project of Kids' Guernica and Third Paradise is going on. 

This collaboration started from Lamezia Terme, Italy  in March last year.  First, a symbol of Third Paradise project was drawn in the center of a Kids' Guernica size canvas. Then, it was sent from Italy to Cuba, Brussels, Bali Indonesia, Cambodia and Japan.  In each place, children added their images on the canvas. In Japan, it was moved to Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nikko. After the workshop in Nikko, it was sent to the United States. In Florida, an art teacher, Wafa Elska organized a  workshop of this collaborative project. Wafa reported that her students could learn a lot about respect of cultures, earth, people on working on this project. The canvas will be sent to Italy again soon. 

                                                    Previous Workshop in Nikko, Japan

Workshop in Florida, U.S.A.

A Kids' Guernica in Nikko, Japan

March 20, 2016   A Kids' Guernica workshop was held in Nikko City, one of the famous resorts in Japan. Nikko is well-known as its cultural heritage and natural beauty in different seasons. The organizer thought a spirit of hospitality is the essential for a peaceful world and the painting represents it with various attractive elements of Nikko. From two-year old infants to more than seventy-year old grandmothers participated in making it. Kids' Guernica is an art project of kids but even adults who still have an innocent mind like a child can participate in it. After the completion, the painting was shown in a multi purpose hall for community on the municipal day of Nikko. A mini concert was held on the opening day and Kids' Guernica paintings from Italy and Poland were exhibited in the hall.

Kids' Guernica at Akabanedai Nishi Elementary School in Tokyo

53 sixth-grade students thought about the meaning of peace and happiness in their peace study class at Akabanedai Nishi Elementary School in Tokyo, Japan. After that, their thought was expressed in a new Kids’Guernica painting. The two towers in the painting are sending a wave of peace with many pink hearts which bring happiness to different places. They painted pictures of happiness inside the pink hearts. On the other hand, the dark part shows the places of discrimination and conflicts. This painting is filled with the students’ wish for peace all over the world.

Kids' Guernica at Tabata Elementary School in Tokyo

November 21, 2015
A new Kids' Guernica peace painting was created by Tabata Elementary School Children in Tokyo, Japan and it was displayed at their school art exhibition.

Kids' Guernica at Nakateshima Elementary School, Toyonaka City, Osaka, Japan

January -March, 2015
A wonderful Kids' Guernica peace painting was created by 83 sixth grade students of Nakateshima Elementary School in Toyonaka City, Osaka, Japan.
100 people have 100 different ideas of peace. There are so many different living things in this world. Each has its own idea. They are all interconnected harmoniously on this earth. We are living in this harmony. Based on this concept, the peace painting was composed by four different parts, “Water as a symbol of natural resources of the earth”, “Plants as a symbol of all the living things on this earth”, “Light as a symbol of dreams and hopes”, and “Darkness as a symbol of sin”. The circle in the center of the painting represents that the world exists in balanced with these four elements.

Special thanks to Misako Yamaguchi, an art teacher who continued this project for many years.