Summertime Abroad for South Colonie Special Education Art Students 

july-august 2010

It’s summertime abroad for South Colonie Special Education students. Not literally, of course, but creatively, a group of middle and high school students studying in this year’s six-week Special Ed summer program are using their imaginations and artistic skills to simulate a trip to Europe. Each year, says Colonie Central High School art teacher Thomasa Nielsen, her summer school students select an imaginary venue to visit on their summer vacations and the lessons and art creations are based around that place. This summer, students are on a trip abroad to France and England. During their art classes, they have created paper mache Eiffel Towers and hand painted on muslin as they develop two souvenir pillows with iconic images from the two countries. After painting their images, they are embroidering their designs onto pillow facings, sew on backs and stuff the pillows. They also made their own earrings, necklaces and jewelry bags as they learned about England and the Queen's Crown Jewels. To spur their creativity, the students took a tour of the Fence Show at the Arts Center of the Capital Region in Troy.