Artwork: Adam M., Pre-Kindergarten, Grand St. Settlement, Brooklyn, Studio Artist Instructor Lia Zuvilivia
At The Studio in a School Gallery
July 2026 – June 2027
This exhibition features paintings made by artists aged 3-14. Each year, thousands of students in public schools across New York City create art with professional artist instructors during Studio in a School residencies. Students engage in the artistic process, building foundational skills in a variety of art media including painting.
Painting is an engaging and dynamic media. As students explore the expressive possibilities of paint with guidance from practicing artists, they learn to communicate their ideas and experiences through brushstroke, color and shape. The works in this exhibition represent a spectrum of student interests and approaches to painting, from abstract to representational, observation to imagination.
This exhibition was curated by Leigh Ruple, in collaboration with Anna Bida and Nicola Giardina.
The Studio in a School Approach to Painting
Studio’s approach to painting begins with exploration. Students explore the possibilities of the brush, learning how to create a variety of brushstrokes and marks by holding the brush in different ways and experimenting with pressure. This is done with black paint on white paper (or white paint on black paper) to focus attention on the brushstroke.
Once students discover how to handle the brush to create a variety of marks, they are ready to explore color mixing. In the early grades, we begin with two primary colors at a time, discovering the range of color that can be created with only two colors. Students learn that mixing the same two colors in different proportions leads to different results. Older students may begin with all three primary colors at once, learning to create the secondary colors. Once students understand how to create secondary colors from the primary colors, they are ready to explore mixing tints and shades by adding white and black. Students apply these foundational skills to the genres of painting: abstraction, portraiture, landscape/cityscape, still life, and animal paintings.
Studio in a School Painting Curriculum is available on our website, Teach and Create.
VISITING INFORMATION:
The Studio in a School Gallery
1 East 53rd Street
New York New York, 10022
Open to the public 9am to 5pm, Monday – Friday