Artist-in-Residence Programs

Thea Marshall offers a range of interactive educational experiences for upper elementary and middle school students. These lively multicultural programs incorporate art, science, and math as students learn to make their own kaleidoscopes.

Creating kaleidoscopes serves as a framework, engaging students in synthesizing diverse strands of their learning to build synergies of deep understanding. Thea helps students confront, reason, and reflect on fundamental issues in art, mathematics, science, and multiculturalism, emphasizing the interconnectedness of these realms.

Students examine how symmetry and patterning have been used in art forms by cultures around the globe throughout recorded history.

Building kaleidoscopes nurtures students' capacities for rational inquiry while nourishing their creativity. Over one to three weeks, students learn key principles of reflectivity and symmetry while exploring a diverse array of materials.

Students' triumphs at completing these precision optical instruments, and their delight with the pieces, and with themselves for creating them, serve as a powerful stimulus for further learning.