Friday, July 24, 2009


Wow…this week has zipped by!
This institute has been a wonderful example of scholarly rigor. The presenters/scholars share with us what they know, back it up with references and THEN we get to see the REAL THING in person! This week we talked about landscape and literature. The Hudson River school of artists and authors such as James Fennimore Cooper and Henry Thoreau were introduced to me. We traveled to the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut to experience the paintings in person. Much of the information was in greater depth than I can recall, but the connections between the literature and the art of the time are evident. I knew what I was looking at and had a sense of being in the presence of an artifact of history. There really is sooooo much more to a painting than originally meets the eye at first or quick glance!

2 comments:

Guy Trainin said...

I wish I could participate too. Sounds like really deep connections. But how can we do this with kids when we cannot talk in such depth nor take them there...

Monique Poldberg said...

We can't take them there, but we can take opportunities to talk in depth about some things. We may need to make some choices, but "depth" in a topic can be important! I'm also seeing ways to bring resources to the classroom via the internet resources. I just need to embrace the technology!