All That Jazz -Art with Ms. Diana

It’s been a busy moving month here at Greene Towne! But amidst all of the packing and moving, the kindergarteners were able to get into the spirit of jazz through the art of Romare Bearden!

Romare Bearden was born in North Carolina in 1911. When he was just a toddler, he moved to Harlem, New York. While he was growing up, his parents hosted many influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance in their home. Romare had Cherokee, Italian, and African heritage. Because of his fair skin, Romare was able to cross many racial boundaries that other black people could not. In 1935, Romare graduated from New York University and went on to study art with a famous artist named George Grosz at the Art Students League. Romare also was a semi professional baseball player, a historian, and a composer. He served in World War II and lived in Paris, France for two years after the war. There, he studied at the Sorbonne and developed his signatured abstract, cubist style. Around 1963, Romare began to experiment with collage work. He would take clippings from magazines, cut colored paper, and add layers of paint and graphite to create scenes that often depicted black families or jazz bands. Even after Romare Bearden passed away in 1988, his work continues to inspire many artists all over the world. 

Because of Greene Towne’s big move to our new, beautiful home, just the kindergarteners worked on their own collages inspired by Romare’s work. They started by collaging different images of buildings and homes from magazines along with brightly colored scrap paper from past projects to create a background. Next, they chose two jazz musicians to add to their scenes. Lastly, they used oil pastels and watercolor to liven up their work even more. If you look closely at some of their pieces you might see some familiar faces!

Check in soon for a bonus update on the auction art’s progress!