Overview
Children have an amazing capacity to learn, understand and create. Betsy Schulz and Linda Danninger worked with the 2003 preschool class from the Hanna Fenichel Center for Child Development to create a sculpture. At the start of the project the children took a field trip to Balboa Park to view the sculptures of Niki de Saint Phalle. They also looked at books about the artist’s work and were encouraged to create mosaics in class using paper, magnets, beads and other materials. When they were asked to create their own creature to mosaic, they picked a dinosaur. Schulz and the children made a model, and then Schulz scaled it up to create a 7’ x 3’ x 3’ sculpture the children could climb on. The parents, children and teachers mosaicked the piece from donated materials. The project gave the children an opportunity to understand and experience project-based learning and to relate the art inspiration to the final product.
| Name: | Dynamic Dinosaur, Jeweled Concrete Dinosaur Sculpture |
| Artist: | Betsy Kopshina Schulz (directed preschool students, teachers and parents) |
| Medium: | Concrete, rebar and tile |
| Size: | 7’ x 3’ x 3’ Sculpture |
| Duration: | January–May 2003 |
| Location: | 336–340 North Acacia Avenue, Solana Beach, CA |
| Client: | The Hanna Fenichel Center for Child Development |
| Thanks: | Linda Danninger, T. B. Penick & Sons, the Gans family, and preschool students, teachers and parents |
