A Seasonal Approach to Art

When art teacher Yardena Lubotsky created the curriculum for her Introduction to Art course, she turned to the calendar as a foundation for making art history and appreciation meaningful to Ohr Torah Stone's high school students. Lubotsky has found that each season and holiday can provide important lessons in helping students analyze works of art and use art as a means of exploring their own personal identities.

Students "analyzing art and using it to explore their own personal identities."

"Hannukah, for instance, is a perfect opportunity to teach about the different ways in which artists, like Rembrandt, make use of light," explains Lubotsky, whose course is made possible by the Ann Belsky Moranis School of the Arts. "The Purim season gives us the motif of masks: considering the message of a portrait and seeking what some artists have "hidden" in their paintings."

During the Tu B'Shevat (Arbor Day) season, Lubotsky's students examine nature in art, while Passover brings the study of elements found in the Haggadah including illuminations and the development of printing techniques.

The Basis for Independent Study
In the three years that follow the introductory course, students explore the influence of world events and religions on art through the ages. Art also plays a major role, along with history and heritage, in each student's required interdisciplinary study of a topic relating to challenges of Judaism in the modern world.

"The study of art gives young people the tools to say more than 'I like it' or 'I don't like it' when they look at a painting," says Lubotsky, who is developing an art major at Ohr Torah Stone's Neve Channah high school. "It helps them understand what an artist is trying to express, see that there's no one correct opinion and learn to trust their own judgement.