All of your hard work has led to this…
The art show is over, but that doesn’t mean the work is over.
You took down all of the projects and now you have to figure out what to do with them. There are several different ways you can handle this situation.
1. Let students take the artwork home at the end of the show.
Our state youth art show has a huge reception at the state capital with a closing reception from 4pm-7pm. They allow the students to take their artwork with them at the end of the reception. The pieces that are left are mailed back to the teachers. It saves a lot of work when the students take their special pieces with them at the end of the show. For a school show, you might allow students to take work down after a certain time. For example, if your show is scheduled from 5pm to 8pm, you may let students take work starting at 7:45pm.
2. Send the artwork home with the students via their classroom or homeroom teachers.
Maybe you chose one picture per student. Maybe you took the best of each project. Regardless, all of that artwork has to get home. One easy way is to ask each homeroom teacher to send the projects home when they next send class work or other important mail home. To make this task easier, label each project with the homeroom teachers’ names when you mat them for the show. As the show comes down, put the artwork into class piles and deliver them. The other teacher might even display a small class “art show” before they send the pieces home.
3. Store the artwork in the art room.
I like to keep my students’ artwork until the end of the year. That way, I have everything I need for art shows and my students’ projects are more likely to get home if everything is sent at one time. When the art show is over, return the work to where you store the other projects. Make sure to label the back of the images while you are matting so they will be ready to send home when the time comes.
Regardless of how you handle finishing up the art show, a little planning goes a long way. Just this year, I learned how to use Google docs to create labels. Making labels with the students’ names, grades, schools and homeroom teachers has made my life so much easier. A quick glance at the label and the artwork is headed home… wherever home may be.
How do you hand back your students’ art show work?
What is the biggest challenge to wrapping up your art show?
Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.
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