The Mad Art Lab: Story Quilting

A wildly fun one-time class where each student draws or paints a different "quilt" square, illustrating a randomly chosen part of a story, which are then "stitched" together to form a narrative quilt.  Students will get to see how their individual artwork comes together to form a story, and will receive a high-quality digital copy of the class quilt, all stitched together as a printable poster. 

This class is great as a lunch-time activity or after school project that can include a wider-than-usual age range-- but, it does have a strict student minimum of five learners, so be sure to invite your friends! 

Here's how it works:

1. Students will come to class, art supplies at the ready, and be assigned a word or phrase to illustrate for the quilt. The words/phrases will be drawn randomly from a hat. 

2. Once they have their word/phrase, they start drawing or painting it. They won't hear the story first, or even know how their assignment fits into the bigger picture. We will use our class time to work on our drawings, ask questions about drawing or painting techniques, help each other come up with ideas, and generally have some fun. 

3. The students will submit their scanned or photographed drawings within 48 hours following the class, which I will digitally stitch together into a high resolution printable poster. I will make sure that each drawing is cropped and color-adjusted, so all you need to worry about is making sure the pictures aren't dark or blurry. 

4. Once the quilt has been stitched together, I will post a fictional story using details from their art. Then I will send everyone in the class a copy of their quilt. You can save the quilt, or have it printed to hang as a poster or wall art. Completing the quilt can take anywhere from 2-5 days on my end, depending on my schedule and the number of artworks submitted. 

Important Notes:

- Students will need drawing or painting supplies, and need to submit their artwork by scanning or photographing it. 

- Student must attend class to get their prompt for their individual square. 

- All students must be enrolled separately to have their art included in the quilt, so if you have multiple kiddos wanting to participate, be sure to enroll them each individually.