Day One: Tantamounter

At South B, we like to jump right into the art making. With that idea in mind, we took a look at the Tantamounter Project. The project was created by a  group of artists in NYC who would collect objects from the public and in about 45 minutes, they would return the object with a work of art that was tantamount to the original. View the project here.

Today's Challenge: I set out a wide range of interesting object... a pumpkin in a cauldron, a cornucopia, and old telephone. Next, I explained where art supplies and various other materials could be located in the room. Then I said, "Form teams, pick an item, and create something tantamount to it. You have less than an hour to complete the task."

That's not a lot of direction and at first everyone sort of waited to hear if there would be more. A few students whispered their questions.. "How big did he say the teams should be?" Can we use the paint?"

After the realization that instruction time was over, a few students got up and headed towards the items. Then everyone jumped up. They grabbed tape and markers, cardboard and paint. They went right to work creating their tantamounters.

Not a bad first day of art.