Families of Country Day - Fasoli and Veglia
Tell us about this special hands on art experience with Artist, Daniele Sigalot and Mrs. Leal’s 1st grade class.
During Art Basel, we had the chance to meet one of the exhibiting artists, Daniele Sigalot. Daniele is a young Italian artist whose most famous artworks are installations of aluminum paper planes. One of them is currently hanging from the glass ceiling at the entrance of the Miami Children’s Museum. I liked his art because of its irony, for the concept of the idea behind it, and for the "pop" connotation that makes his art enjoyable also by children.
When Daniele announced he was coming back to Miami, we decided to create a program that was hands-on for the children. On February 13-14, Daniele came to work with Mrs. Leal’s 1st graders on his aluminum planes and on the Totem of the Bad Ideas. In the artist’s vision, many bad ideas are the foundation of one good idea. For this reason, we should value them and celebrate them in a piece of art.
During the workshop in the Garner Innovation Center, the 1st graders worked on “bad ideas” and “good ideas”, writing them on aluminum sheets that they previously painted. With the good ideas they built planes, so they could fly high. They crumpled the aluminum sheets with the bad ideas to make a totem of them. With these creations, Daniele created two totems that are now on display in Mrs. Leal’s classroom and an installation of planes in the Center for the Arts.
What inspired you to bring the artist to work with Lorenzo and his classmates?
Lorenzo had an immediate connection with Daniele so we invited him to our home. Daniele and Lorenzo spent time together working on paper planes and paper worms! Going back to school, Lorenzo wanted his schoolmates to meet Daniele, too. Last year he could not visit, but we put together a little presentation and brought to school one aluminum plane from one of Daniele's artworks. The whole class enjoyed the presentation and loved the metal planes pictures. He promised he was going to meet his schoolmates next time he was in town, and we are so grateful for the recent experience with Daniele in Mrs. Leal’s class.
What surprised you about the project?
The happiness and pride on Mrs. Leal’s 1st graders faces when they saw the completed artwork was the best reward and surprise for us and Daniele! We will cherish the memory for a long time.
It was an incredible experience for me to get to work with the children and to be involved in the full process of creating an art piece. Our objective when we planned the workshop with Daniele was to offer not only a chance to the children to be exposed to the beauty of art, but also, to be an active part of it.
What has been your favorite part of Lorenzo’s first two years at Country Day?
Lorenzo’s first two years at MCDS have been so enriching. We love the sense of community that pervades every single school event. It makes us very proud to be part of this school and we are happy to help and support our community as much as we can.
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