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Art for All

Daniel Finocchiaro
John G, Leach School, New Castle, Delaware

Subject: Special Education
Grade: Nongraded Orthopoedically Handicapped (ages 10 to 20)

"Success for the students was in creating art works that let them artistically express themselves with fewer limitations than with other media."

Purpose and Description of Project

Daniel Finocchiaro believes that "one of the unique challenges" of teaching his handicapped students "is encouraging them to communicate and express their own individual ideas." His students have a range of disabilities (sometimes multiple), ranging from muscular dystrophy to spina bifida to hydrocephalus, and are involved in a prevocational training program.

The teacher found that the photogram was an excellent medium of expression for his students because the photogram (or shadowgram) lends itself to an almost endless array of creative arrangements while not requiring the fine motor control of regular photography. The procedure is also simple enough for students to maintain full control over the final product even if they need assistance at some stage, and, as a result, says Finocchiaro, there was "a general increase in students' morale and their attitude toward education."

The students chose their own set of objects from school and home, including lace tablecloths, small toys, feathers, kitchen utensils, flowers, and nuts and bolts. They then experimented with arrangements as they placed their selected objects on a piece of Plexiglas. At this point, the students moved into the darkroom, put the Plexiglas sheet and arrangement over photographic paper, and exposed it to light. The pictures were then developed and framed. The results were often startlingly beautiful, impressionistic visions.

Activities

The teacher began with class discussions of the nature of a photogram vs. a photograph, how photographic paper works, and how photograms are made. Students also studied several examples of photograms and tried to guess what objects had been used to create the images.

Once the students had selected their objects and arranged them on a Plexiglas sheet, they went into the darkroom in groups of two or three and followed these steps: placed the photographic paper under the Plexiglas sheet; turned on the light source for the proper amount of time to expose the paper; placed paper in the developer tray and then transferred it to stop bath, fixer tray, and at last to rinse.

After studying each day's results, the students chose new objects or rearranged old ones and repeated the entire process. The students' work will be displayed in an annual photogram exhibit at the school as well as in district art exhibits in competition with both regular school students and handicapped students.

Materials, Resources, and Expenses

Various other school personnel assisted Finocchiaro and the students both in the classroom and in the darkroom. Equipment included an Omega B66 Enlarger, a Gray Lab Model 300 darkroom timer, two orange safelights, KODAK POLYCONTRAST Paper, and a Soligor Store N' Feed Paper Safe. Chemicals used were KODAK DEKTOL Developer, KODAK Indicator Stop Bath, and KODAK Fixer. Other items needed were developing trays, tongs, a sink with running water, a 10" x 12" sheet of clear acrylic for each student, and materials to mount the photograms.

Outcomes and Adaptability

The teacher's main goal was to open up an avenue of artistic expression that his handicapped students could handle and that produced results they could compare with pride to similar works of any other students. Photograms, he found, are ideal for these purposes. Even the more severely disabled students, he says, could be "'proud that the photogram was 100 percent their own creation." Further, each creation could be judged on its merits, rather than against some artificial norm or standard.

Finocchiaro stresses that this process can be used by any teacher with any students-either under an unrestricted format to focus on students' artistic creativity, or according to guidelines to enhance a specific subject area. He notes that the procedures of the photogram are so easy to learn that a substitute who filled in for him observed for only one day and then ran the program for the next two days with results "as good as or better than I had produced." He adds that a bathroom or closet can be converted to a temporary darkroom and that a desk lamp and a clock with a second hand can be substituted for an enlarger and a photographic timer.

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