The SAR community came together for a spectacular virtual art workshop on Sunday, February 21, enjoying a unique opportunity to connect through art. Led by world renowned Israeli collage artist and author, Hanoch Piven, the workshop launched the spring session of SAR’s Arts and Enrichment program.
Connecting as a community, attendees explored non-verbal self-expression utilizing at-home objects under the instruction of Piven, an illustrator whose compositions are assembled from common objects and scraps of materials, including items which might be associated with the subject.
Participants of all ages explored their identity through the creation of fun 3D family portraits utilizing objects easily found at home, from buttons, cables and Q-tips to feathers, foil and old computer parts. The exercise inspired the multi-generational attendees to create portraits utilizing items that represent themselves and their family members, including their experiences and values, particularly those that surfaced as they navigated the challenges of the past year.
Born in Uruguay, Piven moved to Israel with his family at the age of 11. He grew up in Ramat Gan and studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York, graduating in 1992. When he returned to Israel in 1995, he began to work for Haaretz newspaper. Piven’s colorful and witty portraits appear in numerous books for children and for adults, as well as in publications including: Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, and Entertainment Weekly.
SAR fourth and fifth graders participated in a wonderful Master of Arts Program with Piven this winter where they enjoyed weekly virtual sessions and created masterpieces inspired by his own collage technique utilizing common day-to-day objects. Piven calls this work “creative play” and develops creative thinking and skills such as observation and flexibility of thought. His work immersed students in an open process with no given answer that required finding creative solutions. They considered portraiture in different forms as well as an exploration of themselves through creation of self-portraits.
This community event launched the school’s next session of its Arts and Enrichment Academy, offering small group Zoom classes with the school’s teaching artists open to all levels and members of the SAR community. This program, conceived by Sharon Black, founder of SAR Academy’s Arts and Enrichment program, launched in the Fall of 2020 to welcome SAR family members to participate in virtual arts and learning opportunities. Black has served for more than 37 years at SAR Academy, where she leads a team of teaching artists in the school’s departments of music, visual art, gardening design and the library.
