Hey, kids! Last Thursday night, my school celebrated their second annual Fine Arts Extravaganza with a musical performance and an art show. Our winter art show is with the fundraiser Artome. This is our second art show with Artome and I CANNOT brag on them enough. I swear, I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I just love how easy of an art show (and fundraiser) this is. You can check out last year's Artome art show here.
I shared quite a bit about this art show on my Instagram and I got a lot of questions. I thought I'd put them together in this post and hopefully help anyone out who is wondering about hosting an art show like this. Before I dive in, here's a short time lapse I made of the pre-show...that's right, this is the calm BEFORE the storm!
Here are some of the questions I got about out experience: Is this the only art show you do? No. We do a HUGE art show at the end of the year where every piece of artwork that every child has created is on display. I usually do two blog posts at the end of each school year highlighting both the 2-D and the 3-D portion of our art shows. You can check out archived art show blog posts by using the search bar on my blog and searching "art show".
What happens to the artwork that is not purchased? After the art show, it is removed from the frame and shipped back to me at no extra charge. In fact, there's no charge for this art show except for the cost of the frame. I'll get to that in a minute.
How much is the artwork, framed? That's up to you. Artome charges $19 for the framed artwork (and labor of framing and setting up the art show) and you simply up charge. I ask $25 and receive $6 per piece sold. Artome does not charge any additional fees. No charge for set up, shipping, paper, nothing. So, to me, the $19 is super reasonable.
So, how does this work? You start by contacting Artome either by email or phone. I'm a phone talker myself so I just give them a shout. I ALWAYS get someone immediately. Customer service is spot on. You start by setting up a date and time. About a week later, you'll receive your box of paper for the artwork to either be created or mounted on. The artwork is to be created on a 9" X 12" surface. The paper they send is about 12" X 18" with a space for you to add the child's name, title of artwork, teacher's name and school. Once all of the kiddo's artwork is created, Artome sends you a shipping label. Then you drop it in the mail at your local UPS about 2 weeks before your show. The day of the show, the crew arrives about 2 hours before show time to set up. YOU DO NOTHING! It's fabulous. In fact, the guys who set up my show, had it up in less than an hour!
Writing all of the names on the labels sounds like it would take for ever. What do you suggest? Last year, me and my parent volunteers collectively clocked 2 hours just writing out the names of my 350 students and the rest of the details on the forms. This year, I asked my school secretary if she could print me labels and she agreed. That shaved so much time off the process! I cannot recommend that enough!
If you don't create the artwork on the paper, how do you attach it to the paper provided? We used 3M spray glue. It is stinky but works great. I see you used chalk. Did that smear? How did you set it? My third graders used chalk and we had no issues with smearing! A mom volunteer sprayed it with hair spray and then we attached to the paper...no problems!
What if parents can't make it to the one night only art show? Can they still purchase? So, you get to decide when the art show ends. And, when it does, all of the artwork is packed up, framed, and shipped back to Artome. They do post-show sales for a couple of days after the fact. If you do have sales, they'll ship the framed work to you when they ship the unpurchased and unframed pieces.
What if more than one person wants to buy a piece of artwork? Like a grandparent or something? Artome can do a super high quality print of the original. Then they frame the print and it seriously looks just like the real thing!
What lessons did you do and how did you decide what to have the kids create? I actually did a repeat of my self portrait projects from last year! They were such a hit...I mean, parents love self portraits, right? You can find the complete lessons on all of our projects! First grade did Royal Self-Portraits, second grade did Super Hero Selfies, third grade created these Sandra Silberzweig-inspired Chalk Portraits and fourth grade did Romero Britto-inspired Selfies!
I think that answers about all of the questions I've gotten about this art show. I really love it and love this tradition of having a fine arts night. I do think next year, I'd like to add another element...but because we really go to extremes with our end of the year art show, it feel nice to have a beautiful art show that I'm not sweating bullets over.
I know at some art show that folks put together, they have places set up for kids and families to create. I'm intrigued by this idea...but with our musical program already taking place on the same night, I think adding that just might be too much. I'd love to hear from y'all if you do something in addition to sharing artwork at your school art shows.
I'd also love to hear if you've worked with Artome? What did you think? Such a great idea!
By the way, these are the chalk pieces...I think they look great, don't you? No smears. That also shows how carefully each piece is framed.
Thank you so much for letting me share my art show with y'all! It was such a fun night. We plan to use the funds raised to purchase clay and glaze for our spring projects. Y'all know how quickly 500 lbs of clay and a million bottles of glaze can add up!
Big thanks to Artome for making it a fun and EASY night for this super tired art teacher!
I have fur realz been slackin' on this bloggin' thing, y'all! My apologies...I've just become COMPLETELY OBSESSED with flipping my art room around. I know you've seen pics if you follow me here where I have been shamelessly oversharing. However, I'll be posing a pretty big reveal right here on Friday so be sure and wake yourself outta your turkey-day coma and pop back by.
I've also not shared new lessons here lately because I've actually been doing some "reruns" of projects from last year! I don't often do projects more than once (and usually not consecutively) but these selfies are for our Artome art show. They were such a hit last year when my fourth graders did them that I decided to bring it back. And I'm so glad I did, they turned out amazing...even if there were some whining about color-pencil-hand-fatigue!
Here's the lesson video I created and we used:
The reason I decided to have every kiddo in the school create a self portrait is because I know that's what I would want if I were a parent: a kid created selfie! They are so sweet and fun. You can see what my first graders created here and my third graders made here. I'll be sure to post what kinder and second are working on as they finish them.
The kids were super proud of these...I love that with this lesson, the background serves as a way for them to show their interests. I'd also like to add just how much I'm noticing rainbows popping up in my students art work...I take full responsibility!
Swoon!
Now, I will say this: colored pencils...NOT.MY.FAVE. Ugh, y'all. The constant pencil sharpening buzz is enough to make me wanna stab my ears. Please tell me I'm not alone in this.
For that reason, I also give my students art sticks to add color. If you are not familiar, art sticks are colored pencils without the wood (heehee). Crayola makes them...but my FAVORITE are by Prisma Color. Of course, they cost one million trillion dollars but they are worth it and they last. We are down to the nubs in my room...hence the Artome fundraiser!
Eyebrows on fleek, y'all. AND, yes, the S...she managed to get that Sharpied before I could convince her otherwise. Such a beautiful drawing of a beautiful girl. I love seeing the kids write JES...we have such a strong school pride!
AND can I just point out that this sweet girl made the end of her hair into a paint brush that is painting her shirt?! LOVE!
But, back to colored pencils...for the longest time, when I would sharpen colored pencils (btw, do you say "color pencils" or "colored pencils"?) they'd break. Over and over until I was down to a tiny pencil. I used to think it was because the colored pencils were cheap (and that might very well be the case) but now I have a different theory. I blame...THE PENCIL SHARPENER.
If you join my FB LIVE chats (you can find them archived here...I go live every Wednesday at 8pm CST), then you've heard my theory on this. A couple of years ago, I splurged and purchased a $50 Exacto electric sharpener. And it's a loud pencil eater. When my mom came to visit recently, she brought me my old Panasonic faux wood, 5 lbs workhorse of a sharpener. Y'all, this thing is BANANAS. It will sharpen anything without breaking it and leaves the pencils FRIGHTENINGLY sharp. Like, I had to establish a rule: Y'all don't have to come up to me and show me how sharp your pencil is every time you sharpen it. I know. It's sharp.
When I found another Panasonic faux wood sharpener at the thrift store the other day, y'all better believe I scooped it up. So, long story short: if you are tired of your colored pencils breaking in your sharpener, don't blame the pencil...get you a vintage Panasonic sharpener. I just did a quick search on ebay and here she is:
That being said, do you have a fave colored pencil brand? A long time ago, Ticonderoga made a colored pencil and they were AMAZING. They never broke, the colors were bonkers and creamy. I found them on a clearance aisle at on office store years ago and they were my everything. Sadly, they no longer make them...and I've just been using what I've got since.
And I kinda made a promise to myself to never EVER order any more. I have 8 tables in my art room with two large trays of colored pencils at each table. I recently had a former student volunteer and she organized all of my EXTRA colored pencils by color...the idea being that my students can go there and get whatever colors that their table tray might not have. Here's what my EXTRA colored pencils look like:
Yeah, I'm pretty much set for life. Unless I have either a beaver or a termite infestation, I'll be sittin' pretty with these bad boys for quite some time before I need to reorder.
However, if there is one brand that you think would be worth ordering...despite my clear over abundance, I'd love to hear!
But, back to the lesson. My kiddos worked on these for about 2-3 one hour sessions. We drew with the video one day, added patterns and designs and traced with Sharpie the next and then spent the rest of time coloring. And coloring. And coloring.
Oh look, rainbows!
And more rainbows....ahem.
I cannot wait to see these framed at the Artome art show...I'll share with you when the show rolls around!
Well hello there! My Royal First Graders and I are thrilled to have you drop by and visit. These sweet kiddos have been working super hard on their 9" X 12" selfies for our upcoming Artome Art Show!
If this project looks familiar, that's because I've shared it before on this here blog! You can find additional information about this project here and here.
I realize that I've never shared a video of this process which might make it easier to understand. It's a project with plenty of steps...which is easy for me to break down in my 30 minute class time. Because I see my younger students for 30 minutes, I don't often make instructional videos for them. However, I did create one just for you! Here you go:
I also got a lot of questions about this project on Instagram, namely how do I teach color mixing for skin tones. So I thought I'd film myself explaining that to my students. I also wrote a blog post about that process which you can find here.
For our Artome art show, which is a fundraiser, I always love to have the kids create self-portraits. Every parent LOVES a self-portrait! They sell really well. This fall, when I had the art show looming, I was really sweating coming up with 5 new selfie lessons. It was then that my husband said, "were the ones from last year successful? Then just do them again!" I don't know why I always feel the need to reinvent the wheel. The self portrait lessons we did last year were all so well received. So, I'm doin' 'em all again. Only the kindergarten lesson is getting a reboot. Here's what my third grade is creating:
Last Tuesday my school hosted their first ever Artome Art Show and I gotta say, it was FABULOUS! If you are not familiar, Artome is a fundraising company for the arts. To join the fun, you simply call or email Artome and let them know the number of students you have participating. In return, they send large sheets of paper that students can either create directly on or artwork can be added to. Also on the paper is a place for you to add the student's name, artwork title, grade, teacher's name and school. Once artwork is complete and the form is filled out, Artome provides you with a UPS shipping label. Slap that label on your box of artwork and ship it on to Artome. Then, two weeks later, THIS happens!
Two hours before our art show/winter program/book fair (we specials folks like to do ALL THE THINGS, ALL AT ONCE), two sweet Artome dudes showed up and set up our displays. The artwork could be organized anyway I asked...so I decided to mix it up a bit. Instead of having all kindergarten artwork together, I had them mixed with other grades. This added variety and also made it so folks went through the art show more thoughtfully.
Here's how the fundraiser portion works: Artome is paid $19 for each framed piece. Whatever amount you up charge is what you take. For example, we asked for $25 for each piece making our profit per work of art $6. We have about 320 students at my school and sold over half of the works of art. We did really well!
I think next year we will do even better. Our program was for our 2-4th grade kids so many of our younger students were not in attendance. If there were, I think we would have sold even more. And, actually, we have...Artome allows a week of post-show sales for families who missed the show.
Any unsold pieces will be removed from their frame and sent back to me to return to the artists. Also, this was so helpful: any artwork that was not completed in time to be shipped could still be framed the day of. That helped me out tremendously with my friends who were absent on art days. Overall, it was a seamless fundraiser that resulted in happy artists and parents. Who could ask for anything more? Love to hear if you've given Artome a go and what your experience was like.
