6TH GRADE: ELECTIVES Art Electives Graffiti & Street Art (6/7th grade, 1x per week) Graffiti art, a pillar of Hip-Hop culture, is America’s most authentic visual art form. Street Art, its sibling movement, is the most popular visual style among youth worldwide. Both were born of rebellion here in New York City, yet rarely are they offered in a course of study. Here, students will create new names for themselves and invent fresh letter styles. Wild-style, block letters, bubble letters, tags, 3D, graff characters, stencils, stickers, and black books are just some of the skills and materials students will work with. Underpinning the course will be a historical overview of graffiti’s local Bronx roots and the Black, Latinx/a/o, and immigrant peoples that gave it birth. This course will use non-toxic materials, particularly colored pencil, markers, and acrylic paint, while focusing on the aesthetic and historical development of both genres.
Computer Electives We are surrounded by science fiction—portable computers, social media, artificial intelligence, 3D printing, electronic games, nanotechnology, big data, etc...—built by people who know how to design, dream, and code. With computer science we can make art, crunch numbers, translate languages, and solve many human problems. Our courses show students how to be more than just consumers or users: they learn to be independent creators on computers, able to control and help shape the tools of today and tomorrow. Using software that runs similarly on Mac, Windows, Unix/Linux, and tablet computers, our courses teach a range of topics including programming, graphics, circuitry, web, spreadsheet analysis, logic, and other skills that are useful for doing everything from analysis to artwork to running social movements.
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