1 Maart 2011. Vandaag was de eerste dag op de IJpleinschool met de muzikanten en mij als kunstenaar. Machteld was er als de reguliere docent. Het was een geweldige ervaring! Wat een goede energie, wat was het speels op veel fronten en wat zag ik een hoop blije gezichten. Het was een hele mooie manier om de kinderen te onderwijzen en ze van alles te leren. Leren luisteren, meer leren over muziek en muziekinstrumenten, meer leren over hoe je een klank in een beeld vertaald. Ik vertelde ze ook wat een kunstenaar is en wat die doet. Machteld kende de kinderen en zij wist ze heel goed te begeleiden ondanks de opwinding.
Rita en Aart van de Muziekstraat in Amsterdam Noord kwamen spelen die dag. Rita opende met het prachtige nummer : “ I’m sorry ” van ..Alecia Keys (?). Daarna zong Rita klanken of hele korte stukjes melodie die de kinderen tekende. Zo kregen ze een idee van hoog en laag. Daarna gingen de kinderen tekenen en zong Rita hun werk . Bij Aart ging het net zo. De kinderen waren enorm gefascineerd door de saxofoon en het geluid er van . Ze wilde ook van alles weten. Waarom die zo oud was en of ie niet gepoetst moest worden en wat die kostte en waar die m dan had gekocht. Een jongetje wist me te vertellen dat ie in een week ooit 10 euro had gespaard. Kijk daar kon Aart niet tegenop. Toen Aart aan het spelen was gingen een aantal kinderen van groep vier dansen. Ze konden gewoon niet blijven zitten. Daarna gingen ze geboeid aan het tekenen.
Na afloop van de les heb ik al het werk van de kinderen nog gefotografeerd.
Tuesday, March 1 2011 Today was the First day at the IJpleinschool with the musicians and me as an artist. Machteld was there as their regular teacher. It was a great experience! What an nice energy and what a playful and happy way of teaching and instructing those young children. We first introduced ourselves and I explained to them what an artist is and what artist can do. When I spoke about games there were a lot of sparkles in their eyes. Also Rita and Aart, who came the second half of the day explained what they do. Rita started with the opening song “I am sorry ” of …. beautifully sang and after that, we a kind of split up the music in short an expressive parts for the children to draw. That was for group eight. Aart played the saxophone. He got a lot of questions of the real young children of group four. From which year it was, and that it looked dusty, but also special and that they also wanted one and what it cost en where to buy. They were very impressed!
For group eight it was a bit more easy to respond and keep sounds and forms apart and hear and see the differences. But in group four the children were totally into the music and lost themselves in dancing and drawing. There was less control in the beginning, later more. But there was an unbelievable amount of fun and interest.
For them it really is something to think in abstractive forms and non figurative work. Machteld already helped them by making a lesson about Kandinsky and how he expressed music in his work. Some really got the hang of it and understood fairly well how music and form can communicate. One little guy from group four expressed every bit of music by the expression of his hands. Higher lower quicker for the rhythm etc. Next step is to get a bit more control over the form and to increase their creativity so that they also start expressing the atmosphere of the music. Some children think that high is the same as loud or that low is the same as soft. Some don’t know what a color field is. So we talk about that and give examples. I game home totally flabbergasted by so much enthusiasm. They clapped after every music part and for each other. That is the power of art. It already brought a real good day to all these happy children expressing how they loved these lessons. After I came home Sylvia Kukulus from municipality called me. The major of Amsterdam is coming to Amsterdam North and asked me if I wanted to meet him for an informal talk, as one of the active inhabitants of North. That is fun, off course! So that is on Friday.