On July 3, students enrolled in the program took a school bus trip to the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach. Students were introduced to original works of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. They learned to differentiate murals from paintings, surreal art from abstract art and attended a workshop. They talked about Latin America and learned that there were three great muralists called Los Tres Grandes. They are Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The students were surprised to learn that the three muralists are Mexican and all three have painted murals in the United States.
Before leaving the museum, students attended a workshop where they created a collage using pastels, texture, color pencils and cut-out pictures of the exhibits they previewed. Students were accompanied by parents who discovered that Long Beach is not that far and that they could come back on a Sunday for a free entrance and workshop.
One third grader described surreal art as “weird,” and the curator said “that is a good way of describing it” as she acknowledged that when you are observing art you can use your words to describe it and begin to appreciate it.