Art
For the Sky is a magical, boundary disolving, outdoor, ecological, team-building experience for all ages with teachings that last a lifetime. The adventure culminates in a gigantic living painting colored and shaped by the living forms of participants often along with materials such as thrift shop clothing, leaves, shredded bark and recyclables. Thousands of children and teachers across the country have enjoyed this experience and their words bear witness to the wonder and lessons this unforgetable way of art has to offer.
Creating sky art is essentially, a math problem. From a "thumbnail creation," the figure chosen is transformed to GIANT SIZE (generally 150 x 150ft.) through an ancient technique called "enlarging from scale".
Sometimes recycled materials, leaves or thrift shop clothing
are used to add detail to the image. Monday morning Daniel Dancer shares interactive multi-media visual presentations with grouped classes which explore the remarkable history of this art form and the valuable teachings it has to offer our world. Information about the plight of the creature or importance of the symbol we are creating is shared with all participants at this time. The presentations include the learning of one of Daniel's original songs about awakening our "sky sight." In the afternoon, Daniel works with selected children for an hour in laying out the image grid on the field.
Tuesday is the day we prepare the field for the big event. Sky Captains are needed to help supervise students in the spreading of the pallete of our detail materials (soil, sand, muclh, leaves, recyclables, clothing, etc.)which usually make up a lot of the detail of the sky art designs. We will need 2 or 3 wheelbarrows, shovels and grass rakes, and lots of pails or 5 gallon buckets which are perfect for kids to carry and pour materials from. This all is a great exercise in collaboration and experiencing the age old fact that, "many hands make small work!" See the Sky Captains page for more info about the volunteer help which is so vital to the success of each program.
Wednesday is Event Day! Participants, wearing their special t-shirts (optional), come together as "color dots" on the image charging it with life and beauty. Daniel Dancer photographs, films and directs the project with
a megaphone from a tall (always donated) crane or man-lift. Two or three on the ground volunteer-photographer-Sky Captains take digital pictures for potential inclusion in the film of the project.
On
Thursday, images are shared during an assembly with a special
presentation that includes a school-wide sing-along of Wings To Fly or other song chosen for the event. Media loves this work and a photo story almost always lands on the front pages of the local newspaper (see some headlines), so be sure to contact them ahead of time!
"This was the best field trip I've ever been on!"
--Mimi Hoffman, Principal, Manatee Elementary, Port St. Lucie, Florida
The school receives a DVD of the final assembly presentation film (see samples in the video gallery) and a large display print which becomes part of the school's history. Schools sometimes sell the DVD to participants to raise funds for the school or help offset the cost of this program. A common practice of late, after the project has been completed, has been for schools to sell the state-of-the-art-Earth-friendly T-shirts featured by Art For the Sky with the finished design upon them. This has proven to be another good way to raise funds, remember and celebrate their creation. Be sure to see the Mementos page to see just how to do this.
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