INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS
It's CAFKA time again! Schedule a year-end class field trip with CAFKA today. CAFKA school programs are $5 per student. Spots are limited so please book early!
CAFKA is a biennial program that brings thought-provoking art to our public spaces in order to inspire, engage and enrich community life. CAFKA is a producer, advocate, and educator for innovative, interventionist, and interactive contemporary public art practices.
Our school programs last approximately 2-3 hours and include:
- an interpretative guided walking tour of the CAFKA.18 art installations along King Street in downtown Kitchener,
- an associated art-making workshop, and a
- bring-your-own snack break.
Choose either a morning or afternoon timeslot. We have programs and instructors suitable for primary, junior, intermediate, or high-school groups.
The CAFKA theme this year is RECOGNIZE EVERYONE and our workshop activities relate to this theme. Students will create and present their own work; reflect, respond, and analyze installations in the exhibition; and explore a variety of art forms and discuss socio-cultural contexts. Several of the artworks in the exhibition this year are text-based, question pre-conceived ideas, and prompt us to take a second look at our neighbors and our surroundings.
Example workshops could include:
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Performance Art: Students will create and present their own work. Students will watch a video installation of a child interpreting a poem in ASL. Discuss the concept of a poem as a visual object. How can feelings be communicated in performance art? Discuss "kinetic" art works that involve viewer participation. Students will use body movement and hand gestures to create shapes that interpret artworks in the exhibition. Classmates will "guess" what artworks are being interpreted by their classmates. |
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Mapping & Form: Students will analyze an architectural installation in Kitchener City Hall and discuss how form can be used to divide space. Use a treasure map to "discover" the exhibition and learn basic orienteering skills as we walk. Participate in a workshop using line to interpret form. Example: use wire mesh to interpret the form of a sculpture. How do the lines show the shape of the object? How can we use line to create different planes (floors, walls, ceilings) in space? How can the principles and elements of design be used to alter our perspective? |
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Perception & Conceptual Art: Text-based artworks use the power of language as a vehicle for artistic expression. A simple word change can create a drastically different interpretation; it is easy to get "lost in translation". Discuss the concepts of stereotypes, "judging books by their covers", and the idea of a doppelganger. Students will construct an agamograph (two pictures in one that change depending on the angle you view it). |
Make it a full day in downtown Kitchener by pairing your half-day CAFKA tour with a class visit to the Kitchener Public Library, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, or Victoria Park. You may also qualify for a free Grand River Transit class pass - visit: http://www.grt.ca/en/rider-information/school-programs.aspx for more information.