MIAMI BEACH

Students' art project addresses heavy issues

STUDENT WORKS THAT ADDRESS ISSUES OF WAR AND GLOBAL WARMING ARE ON DISPLAY AT THE WOLFSONIAN-FIU AS PART OF A PROGRAM BETWEEN THE MUSEUM AND MIAMI-DADE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

BY JULIANA ACCIOLY

jaccioly@MiamiHerald.com

A page from "For The Record," a mixed-media project created by students at Myrtle Grove Elementary School in Opa-locka.

• What: Page At a Time

• Where: Wolfsonian-FIU, 1001 Washington Ave., Miami Beach.

• When: On display in the museum lobby, May 8 through June 1.

• For information: Call 305-531-1001 or visit ww.wolfsonian.org.

Among works in a new exhibition at the Wolfsonian-FIU, one team of artists takes on the issues of consumerism, globalization and exploitation of labor in a presentation in which drawings and fabric dolls are contained in a portfolio disguised as a handbag.

Open in it up, and you can leaf through juxtapositions of the mixed-media works representing exploited children who make cheap products, and on the other side of the coin, consumers in affluent societies who are simply content to shop for bargains.

''Sometimes we may not want to know or think about who made it or where and under what conditions these cheaper products are made,'' reads the artists' statement for Who Made That?

Pretty weighty sentiments for a bunch of fifth-graders.

The work, by an art class at Southside Elementary School in Little Havana, is among 10 ''books'' created by students at five schools, as part of Page At a Time, an annual collaborative project between the Wolfsonian-FIU and Miami-Dade Public Schools.

The books are filled with handmade pages, each designed and contributed by a student.

The pages are created and compiled over the course of the school year, and as part of the effort, the students visited the museum, explored its art collection and took part in activities in history, language arts and visual arts.

Their mission: to create a work around a chosen theme, through ideas explored in classroom discussions of those themes.

The students' works are on display in the Wolfsonian-FIU lobby through the end of the month.

Since the themes are driven by news and current events, the works are fairly serious.

Using materials such as organic plants, plaster, wire and cardboard, the more than 70 students addressed topics such as global warming, pollution, subliminal messages in newspapers and how popular music has helped resolve conflicts in American history.

''The project gets children involved in the world they are inheriting,'' says Kate Rawlinson, the museum's assistant director for education.

``They learn that they, too, have a voice and can come up with solutions for different issues.''

There is also an important secondary lesson.''

''The program teaches students that a book is not just a bound thing that sits on a shelf,'' Rawlinson said. ``Books can actually be works of art.''

The result is a series of original artwork such as Opus IV by students from South Pointe Elementary School. Made of foldable panels, the ''book,'' which revolves around the theme of the Iraq war, can be unpacked and stacked into a six-foot octagon displaying wartime imagery.

Nicole Taniguchi, 11, whose page includes a poem and a drawing depicting bomb explosions, anti-war protests and grieving families, explains her creative process.

''A poem does not show what you say,'' Nicole said. ``A picture does, and they go great together.''

In their Fish Bits accordion-book shaped in the form of an eel, students from Shenandoah Middle Museums Magnet School display the poor state of beaches and shorelines with illustrations, hidden words and statistics.

Students from Dante B. Fascell and Myrtle Grove elementary schools also participated in the program, which was started in 1996.

''The students feel encouraged by knowing that one day they can take their own kids to the Wolfsonian to see and their work will be there,'' said Benjamin Groff, an arts teacher at South Pointe Elementary.

``That instills in them a strong sense of ownership.''