Project Submissions
ARTIST INFORMATION
PROJECT SUBMISSIONS
If you are interested in submitting a project for our annual Project Fair, please review the following.
Submissions can be made on our project submission form here around the end of September to the Fair Deadline in mid-February.
You will need to prepare both a lesson plan and a presentation board (see below) that includes a specific focus on an artist, art technique, or art movement, and provides student examples of the project if possible. Artists are also encouraged to provide a video or powerpoint presentation as a teaching resource. Refer to the Lesson Plan/Docent Handout description below for more requirements. Projects will be selected using the following criteria:
Quality of the student’s experience.
Adaptability for students in kindergarten through nineth grade.
Ease of preparation, presentation, and clean up by the docents.
Availability of material and safety requirements.
Time Limitations: should take no more than 1 hour to complete including the lesson. We recommend 10-15 minutes for a lesson and about 45 min. for the project and cleanup.
Project should be success-oriented in the student’s eyes.
The cost per student should average $1.10 per project or less.
The projects that have an historical lesson and/or a lesson of an art technique are the most favored.
If your projects are chosen by one of our groups you will be contacted by a representative of the group with more information. Our organizations do pay a stipend of around $250 or more for your time once your workshop contract is fulfilled.
Typical workshop requirements consist of teaching a group of 100 - 300 adult docents for approximately 2 hours. You may also be asked to run a small focus group of children with the project before the adult training.
SUBMISSION PROCESS:
Submit the project. Once you have your lesson plan and presentation board ready you can submit your projects to our selection committee from September until the listed submission deadline using the provided form. Be sure to include student sample pictures, preferably marked with age or grade level. You can submit as many projects as you'd like and we will let you know which ones we'd like to invite to that year's fair.
Project Invitation and Pickup. Between the submission deadline and the Project Fair date you will be contacted by one of our docents to make arrangements to pick up your project and review the lesson plan. It would be great if you can spend a few minutes to take our volunteer through the project steps and review the needed supplies so that they understand the project process and can explain it well to others.
Project Selection Fair. Your boards and accompanying resources will be displayed along with other submissions for voting. Representatives from each of our organizations will select their short-list of favorites. After the fair date, your boards and resources will be returned to you in a timely manner.
Final Selection. You will be contacted by a group representative after the fair if your project has been selected, or has been selected for a second round of testing and review. (A small focus group will try your project before final selection takes place). Each SBAA group chooses between 5-6 final projects for the coming school year.
Contract. Once your project is confirmed, a group representative will contact you and make arrangements for a teaching date during the following school year and send you contract and stipend information. You will be asked to provide your lesson plan, project photos and supply list to the group. You can keep your board and resources with you for your contracted teaching date.
We are extremely grateful to all of our submitting artists which enable the organization to preserve its wonderful art enrichment program and cultivate future artists here in the South Bay.
We look forward to working with you. Thank you!
PROJECT LESSON PLAN / DOCENT HANDOUTS SPECS.
The California State Board of Education wants students in grades K-8 to perceive and respond to works of art, objects in nature, events and the environment. Your project should be made out of materials that are non-toxic and safe for students. Please use this outline to assist you in the preparation of the lesson plan.
Title: Fun titles get more attention during our project selections.
Description/Objective: The description should include the history and background of the the artist, art technique, or art movement being studied and what students will learn from the project such as art vocabulary terms or techniques and the medium of the project.
Motivation: Where does this project get its inspiration from? What inspired you to create it? Can you recommend a selection of music that could go along with the project to set the mood (optional)?
Materials/Supplies: List specific materials including paper/brush sizes, grades of paper, types of pencils, markers, brushes, paint, brand names, and colors etc. Please include links to online supplies or addresses for local resources, suppliers etc. Our supply acquisition volunteers will appreciate as many details as possible!
Cost per student: Please provide a breakdown of the cost per student based off of required supplies. We try to keep costs at or under $1.10 though slightly more expensive projects may still be accepted.
Instructions: Step by step instructions with photos if possible are most helpful and required.
Additional References: include a list of where teachers can find additional resourses including any books, periodicals, posters, paintings, links to videos or websites, etc.
Project Examples: Provide examples of the finished art, student examples are preferred. If you can test your new project with a group of children of different ages to make sure it will work with varied grade levels it is helpful.
Artist Biography: Provide a brief history of your personal background, career, qualifications, accomplishments, and experience working with children.
Presentation Board
This is an example of a presentation art board that is used during our project selections to present your project. It is built on a bi or tri-fold foam-core or cardboard display panel and has information such as project title, artist information, objective of the project, and student examples. We ask that you not include your name anywhere on the boards for fairness during the selection, but it can be included in the submitted lesson plan documents along with your "about the artist" section. If your name is on the board it will be covered with removable tape at the selection.
GUIDELINES FOR THE SAFE USE OF ART AND CRAFT MATERIALS IN CALIFORNIA
California Education Code prohibits the purchase of art or craft materials containing a toxic substance for use by students in kindergarten and grades 1-6. For the complete list of unapproved art supplies click here.
Partial list of unapproved craft and art supplies:
Rubber cement, household cement, aerosol glue sprays/mounting sprays/glitter sprays, Krazy glue or permanent bonding glues, various ceramic glazes, oil-based stains, varnishes, solvents (any liquid used to dilute or disperse other substance), permanent inks, etching inks, oil paints, artist grade watercolor paints, any products with a negative health hazard label. See the full list for specific items at the link above.
Art and Craft Materials to Avoid and Recommended Substitutes
1. AVOID: Products that may generate an inhalation hazard. Examples include clay in dry form, powdered paints, glazes, pigments, wheat paste, and aerosols (for example, spray paints, fixatives).
SUBSTITUTE: Wet or liquid non-aerosol products. (If dry products are used, they should be mixed while young children are not present.)
2. AVOID: Hazardous solvent-based products. Examples include rubber cement and its thinner, turpentine and other paint thinners, and solvent-based markers.
SUBSTITUTE: Water-based glues, paints, markers.
3. AVOID: Materials that contain lead or other heavy metals. Examples include some paints, glazes, and enamels.
SUBSTITUTE: Products that do not contain heavy metals.
4. AVOID: Cold water dyes or commercial dyes.
SUBSTITUTE: Vegetable dyes(onion skins and so forth).
5. AVOID: Instant papier-mâché, which may contain asbestos fibers or lead or other metals from pigments in colored printing inks.
SUBSTITUTE: Papier-mâché made from black and white newspaper and library or white paste (or flour and water paste).
Some art and craft projects involve processes that are inappropriate for young children. Some examples are airbrushing, enameling, photo developing, and soldering. Instructors are encouraged to avoid projects that would involve these processes.
*Information obtained from the State of California Education Board
https://oehha.ca.gov/risk-assessment/art-hazards