- Decide on a subject for
your image . . . animal, tree, culturally significant symbol,
it's up to you. I am happy to suggest ideas based on your region
and timely issues that are important culturally or ecologically.
Once we have a subject in mind, you may suggest ideas for the
image if you wish and together we will arrive at the one we want
to use.
- Get everyone excited! Your spending a good amount of money on this program and the best way to get the most out of it is by building up the excitement long in advance. Begin by having students study the website, watch some of the videos, do art and story around the creature they will be creating and go over the Six Teachings with them. A wonderful thing to do in advance is to create a big display about Art For the Sky and put it up somewhere for all to see. Here is what one teacher did! Collaborate with parents, student aids and high level students on this and other projects related to this project. That is what this work is all about!
-
Decide on location.
Usually this is your athletic field, park down the road or if you have the funds to bus students a ways away . . . then
a beautiful, wilder location outside of town. Generally an area
200 x 200 ft. is sufficient.
-
Manifest a crane,
man-lift, bucket truck or fire truck from which to film
the image. We need to be at least 80 feet above
the image (the higher the better!) for a great photograph. CRANES are always
the best option and crane operators have proven to be especially
inclined to loan their services for this work. Always try them
first! In most every case, all of the above have been donated
at NO COST to schools! A call from the principal works like magic
most of the time.
- Decide about T-shirts.
Most schools go this route as it is a wonderful way to build
community and give the story of their Art For the Sky experience
a long life. Cost of the t-shirts includes a 4x6 sky-card with
each order which depicts the completed image, framed by words
of the lessons they learned. A downloadable
letter goes
out to parents who generally buy the shirts for their student. Also check our mementos page to learn about using Art For the Sky as a fund RAISER.
- Familiarize your self with the sample
schedule and
make sure you allow time for all events.
- Locate a place for the artist
to stay while
in your community. Often this is a guest room or guest house of a supportive community member. Sometimes local hotels
are willing to donate a room in support of the project.
- Work with artist on determining what kinds of materials will be needed for design details. There is a palete out there for us to pick from including soil, mulch, leaves, thrift shop clothing to borrow, recycled materials, findings from river or beach clean-ups, etc.. One of the "rules" of Art For the Sky is not to buy anything! All of these things can be found or donated. It's and adventure.
- If you have a music teacher,
please have your students learn the song Wings
To Fly (or
other Daniel Dancer song which may apply to your design) which
contains some of the lessons of Art For the Sky and
opens them up to the excitement of the program coming to their
school. They will be learning this song during Art For the
Sky week
and singing it in mass during the final assembly.
- Schedule the assemblies. These
are 45 minutes long and are usually done by dividing the school in 2 or 3 parts, by grade level so that the assemblies can be age appropriate.
- Schedule Meida System person to
be on hand for the first and final assembly. Good sound is really, really
important as the images are revealed to a movie with music. The school gets a copy of the DVD/film when it is all over in which they can sell back to parents if they wish and raise funds for the school.
- PICK SKY CAPTAINS, we will need 5 - 25 adults (depending on design complexity and number of participants), not responsible for classes, to oversee a particular area of the design on Event day. This has proven to be integral to organization, ease and a beautiful result. Be SURE to see the Sky Captains page!!!
- Finally, desginate a couple of "official photographers" to take digital images of the event on the ground, within the image. These special candied pictures will be your on the ground record of this experience and the best of them will be chosen for inclusion of the DVD/film of the project. GOOD ON THE GROUND PHOTOGRAPHS are essential for a great video! Be sure photographers have their cables with them so the images can be downloaded on my computer immediately after the event. All photographers should go to THIS PAGE to see the kind of images that really help MAKE the video.
If you have any questions, please contact us.
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