The Halloween Art Challenge

Updated: Nov 23, 2021

It's the Friday before Halloween and all throughout the day, New Buffalo artists are sculpting from lumps of clay. All art students in grades 6-12 were given a one-day challenge to sculpt a Halloween or Fall Festival themed sculpture from a ball of clay. By the end of the period, they turned in their project through photo documentation to be graded on how they interpreted the prompt, the sculptural qualities of their form, and their artist craftsmanship in the work and their effort in the studio environment.

Inspired by the NBC television series, "Making It!," produced by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman, artists are given timed challenges to plan, experiment, implement, and present their work to the judges before each round's elimination process. To start the lesson, I showed a Making It! clip where artists had to create a Halloween costume for themselves using recyclable materials. One student responded with, "Ohhh...this reminds me of Cake Boss!"

For the middle school students, this challenge was a nice segue into their next unit in ceramics to experience the clay medium and experiment in a 30 minute period. By learning through a hands-on experience of trial and error, they could problem-solve how to create their concept before planning their full-length project next week.

The high school students had already began clay units so the challenge was a brain break from their current work and an opportunity to take risks by creating within the parameters of one hour from start to finish instead of developing their work over several days.

Since this was a one-day challenge, the students were told that the work would not be fired in the kiln for permanent safekeeping. This reason is due to the nature of clay itself. Ceramic projects need to be hollowed out, with attachments slip-and-scored so that they are secure enough to withstand the firing process and won't not fall apart or explode in the kiln. More time would be needed to create the work and allow it to become bone-dry before firing and going through another round of firing with glaze. With only a few weeks left in our trimester, that was simply not possible to dedicate precious class time to a holiday project. However, the students were thrilled with the lesson and many became extremely attached to their artwork. Many students even started naming their pieces and begging to keep their sculptures, so I emailed each student who asked for a photo of their project to them by the end of the day.

The fact that we can continue to safely create artwork with in-person instruction gives me a overwhelming sense of relief. While modifications are definitely possible for art-making through distance learning, nothing beats being able to be in the class together and create physical work with their peers using the school equipment, media, and resources. I prepared personal clay kits for all classes with pre-sliced slabs of clay wrapped in plastic for each student. Material pick-up and clean-up was dismissed one at a time by table number and students waited their turn to wash their hands at the sinks with the water running for the next person to use during the clean up phase at the end of class. I admire my students for taking this process seriously and doing their best to stay safe so that we can continue to experience the kind of interactive work that we do in art class.

I gave periodic announcements over my PA microphone when students had 20, 15, and 5 minutes left to finish their artwork before the clean-up phase. Each reminder was followed by groans and desperate statements like "No, no, no...I need more time!" and "Why can't we have a longer art class?" It's true that time flies when you're having fun and this day just flew by.

During their independent work time, I displayed a slideshow of photos from other classes earlier in the day on the smart board. The middle school students were excited to see the sculptures created by their friends and older siblings from the high school classes. Some even added to their projects when they got ideas from seeing the artwork of their peers. A few trending themes were jack-o-lanterns, pumpkins, ghosts, and "Among Us" characters. Here are a few of the highlights: