Beth Klingher
Arts in Education and the Community
I work with schools all over the Northeast to provide arts integration residencies where I work collaboratively with classroom teachers to provide instruction filled with exciting art-based curriculum fully integrated with math, social studies, language arts and science curriculum.
I also love to work in and with local communities to create murals and mosaics. A few of my projects can be seen below.
Make A Wish Mosaic installed Summer 2022
Sloan Kettering Westchester
The Dandelion mosaic has been installed at Memorial Sloan Kettering Westchester! The outdoor space is to be used by pediatric cancer patients who are undergoing treatment at the hospital. The garden was created by the Make-A-Wish foundation in honor of Sona Koscinsky. The mosaic is 6 feet wide by 5 feet tall and is made of Mexican Smalti and Cinca unglazed porcelain.
A picture of the Dandelions before installation.
The complete 40 foot long mosaic timeline is done! Sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students at Worthington Hooker School in New Haven, CT created this mosaic timeline with the assistance of teachers Eden Stein and Carla Desir-Lewis. Over 200 students assisted in the process over 4 years. Thanks to the PTA for their support.
Worthington Hooker Middle School
New Haven, CT
2014 - 2019
Worthington Hooker Middle School
New Haven, CT
Spring 2019
During the spring of 2019, I worked with 4th, 5th and 6th grade students at Worthington Hooker School. We studied the art of Sol LeWitt, made LeWitt inspired pictures and, as a culminating activity, designed and painted this mural for the school cafeteria. It's about 5 feet tall by 15 feet wide.
Lincoln Middle School
Middletown, CT
Spring 2018
Students in 8th grade American History created a set of 12 mosaic panels to illustrate important events in the period between the Revolutionary War and Civil War as part of a HOTS residency.
Blake Street Bridge Mosaic Panels
All fourteen mosaic panels are now complete and installed on the Blake Street Bridge just outside of Westville. Here are pictures of the most recent panels illustrating the common animals to be found in the West River watershed.
The Process
Tiles are glued on Kraft paper using flour and water paste. The tiles are set into thinset which has been applied to the concrete columns, and then the back of the Kraft paper is moistened to loosen the glue. As the glue dissolves, the Kraft paper is removed revealing the tiles.
Integrated Day Charter School
Norwich, CT
Spring 2018
This mosaic mural was created by Mr. Deeble's 7th and 8th grade math classes. Students each created a small mosaic square based on Sol LeWitt inspired instructions. The completed squares were adhered to a retaining wall in the school playground.
Teaching Math Through the Art of Sol LeWitt
Lincoln Middle School
Meriden, CT
Spring 2017
Just finished a 12 day HOT School residency at Lincoln School in Meriden. 6th Grade students learned about Sol LeWitt, followed a LeWitt-inspired set of mathematical instructions, created their own instructions, and then designed and painted this LeWitt inspired mural.
Check out this video produced by Nathan Smedley, the math teacher at Lincoln Middle School
Colchester Mosaic Murals
Jack Jackter Intermediate School
Colchester, CT
Winter & Spring 2017
These murals were created by students at Jack Jackter School in grades 3, 4 and 5. As part of their social studies curriculum, the students researched the history of their town and developed a series of drawings to illustrate their history, why their ancestors might have immigrated to the town, and what makes their town great. During the spring, students worked to transform these drawings into three large mosaic panels which will be installed around the town.
Teaching Math Through the Art of Sol LeWitt
Jack Jackter Intermediate School
Colchester, CT
Spring 2016
This mural was the culminating activity of a 10 day HOT School Teacher-Artist Collaboration or TAC. The fifth grade students learned about Sol LeWitt, followed math-related directions, wrote their own directions and then designed and created this mural.
Blake Street Bridge Mosaic Panels
2016 - 2017
Seven mosaic panels are installed on Blake Street bridge in Westville, CT. The mosaics are a reflection and a reminder of the water and wildlife of the West River watershed below. Four of the mosaics symbolize the West River with the remaining panels representing botanical illustrations of three non-invasive native species. For more information on this mosaic, see the Westville website here: westvillect.org/beth-klingher
Teaching Math Through the Art of Sol LeWitt
Hartford Performs
Hartford Public Schools, CT
2015 - 2016
Students learn about LeWitt’s unique approach to art, comparing his instructions to his finished wall painting to better understand the connections between language, math and art. Using what they have learned, they create their own mathematical drawing and translate the math behind the drawing into a set of written instructions to be interpreted by another student. This entire process provides a hands-on, in-depth approach to better understanding and applying mathematical vocabulary and models of algebraic thinking.
Hopscotch Court
Eli Whitney Museum, Hamden CT
Summer 2015
This hopscotch court was created with 11 to 14 year old students as part of the Eli Whitney Summer Program in Hamden, CT. We used Cinca ceramic tiles and the reverse method to create the mosaic. Come play on the court and try it out!
Teaching Math Through the Art of Sol LeWitt
ATOMIC Conference
(Association of Teachers of Mathematics in Connecticut)
Cromwell CT
December 8, 2015
This workshop is designed to give educators the tools to integrate art into the math curriculum. Participants will learn about Sol Lewitt’s unique approach to art. Rather than creating his own paintings, LeWitt wrote a set of instructions for his art and others, following these instructions, actually created the paintings. Participants will use this same approach to create detailed instructions for a series of mathematically inspired drawings. Through this hands-on, visual approach, participants will find ways to provide students with a deeper understanding of many concepts, including geometry, algebra, ratios and proportions, transformations, combinations and permutations, and more. This workshop will focus on middle grades but can also be applied to students in grades 3 through high school!
Word History Mosaic Timeline
Worthington Hooker School, New Haven, CT
2014 - 2015
The timeline was created by 7th grade students as part of their world history curriculum. The project is a multi-year project which will span 3 - 4 years. During the first year, students created the first 2 panels of the timeline, encompassing the years before 1500 BCE through 1000 BCE. Each panel will be 3 by 5 feet and will cover 500 years of history. The final timeline will be 40 feet long and made up of 8 panels.
Students began the timeline by researching major events in history, eventually identifying 5 to 7 events to illustrate. Pictures of each event were scaled to an appropriate size for the timeline and drawn on brown kraft paper with sharpies. Since the sharpies "bleed through" the paper, the reverse picture of the design can be seen on the reverse side of the kraft paper. The paper is then cut up into smaller sections to make it easier to manage.The paper is turned over and tiles are adhered to the reverse design using a flour and water paste. Each section of the final mosaic is like a puzzle piece which is assembled into the final mural. The completed were adhered to a 3 x 5 board using thinset cement and mounted on the outside of the school.
Check out our facebook page: Worthington Hooker World History Mosaic Timeline
Teaching Math Through the Art of Sol LeWitt
3rd and 5th Grade at Martin School, Manchester, CT
May & June 2015
Sol Lewitt was a Connecticut artist famous for a series of abstract wall drawings based on his theory of conceptual art. Like the composer of a musical score, LeWitt wrote the instructions for his paintings and let others, often trained draftsmen, actually create the paintings. These abstract wall paintings often included geometric shapes, patterns and mathematical combinations and permutations which can be used as a springboard for teaching math.
I work with students starting in grades 3 all the way through high school to use LeWitt's approach to art to help teach mathematical concepts and vocabulary. Through this hands-on, visual approach to math, students gain a deeper understanding of many mathematical concepts, and learn ways to to communicate more effectively. As a culmination of these projects, students often create a large scale wall mural, as seen below.
Students participated in a 10 week TAC (Teacher-Artist Collaboration) during May and June called "Teaching Math Through the Art of Sol LeWitt." Students learned fractions, vocabulary and algebraic patterns while creating artwork based on LeWitt's system of writing and following written instructions.
The Instructions:
Divide a square wall into four equal size squares.
1. In the top left square, draw a NOT straight horizontal line to divide the square in half. Color the top half red and the bottom half green.
2. In the top right square, divide the square in half with a diagonal line starting at the top left and ending at the bottom right. Color the top right triangle yellow. Divide the bottom triangle in half with a line from the bottom corner, perpendicular to the diagonal. Color the bottom triangle blue.
3. In the bottom left sqare, draw two diagonal lines to divide the square into 4 triangles. Color the bottom and left triangles purple. Color the right triangle blue. Leave the top triangle blank.
4. In the right bottom square, draw 4 parallel horizontal lines. Color at least one-half of the stripes red.
High School in the Community, New Haven, CT
May & June 2015
This mural was created by students at High School in the Community in New Haven as part of a project funded by HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Schools.) Students learned about the art of Sol LeWitt and then created their own wall drawings based entirely on algebraic instructions. This mural was designed by one of the students and then other students followed these algebraic instructions to create the mural.
Worthington Hooker School, New Haven, CT
Spring 2013
New Haven middle school students created this mathematical mural inspired by Sol LeWitt, as part of their 8th grade Algebra curriculum. Students wrote a series of instructions using systems of linear equations and inequalities and then created a mural based on these instructions.
City Wide Open Studios, New Haven, CT
Summer 2014
This mural was inspired by the work of Sol LeWitt, the founder of conceptual art. Rather than creating his own artwork, LeWitt wrote a set of instructions for each piece of art and others executed the artwork by following these instructions. Students from local high schools used this technique to create this mural based on a series of algebraic instructions. This mural was created for New Haven City-Wide Open Studios 2014.
Watch the video...
The Instructions
Draw three adjacent coordinate planes.
On the left hand coordinate plane:
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Graph the system of inequalities: y < -x + 8 and y > -x - 8 and shade the solution in blue.
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Graph the system of inequalities: y > x - 8 and y < x + 8 and shade the solution in yellow.
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Graph the inequality: y < -x – 32 and shade the solution in orange.
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Graph the inequality y > -x + 32 and shade the solution in red.
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Graph the system of inequalities: x < -24 and x > -32 and shade the solution in magenta.
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Graph the inequality: y < x + 52 and shade the solution in green.
In the middle coordinate plane:
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Graph the system of inequalities: y < 4 and y > -4 and shade the solution in green.
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Graph the inequality: x > 0 and shade the solution in blue.
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Graph the inequality: y > -x + 24 and shade solution in magenta.
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Graph the system of inequalities: x < -12 and x > -20 and shade the solution in purple.
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Graph the inequality: y < -x - 28 and shade the solution in yellow.
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Graph the inequality: y > x + 36 and shade the solution in orange.
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Graph the system of inequalities: x > 28 and x < 36 and shade the solution in yellow.
On the left right coordinate plane:
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Graph the inequalities: y > -x + 16 and shade the solution in blue.
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Graph the system of inequalities: y > x - 8 and y < x + 8 and shade the solution in orange.
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Graph the inequality: y < -x – 32 and shade the solution in purple.
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Graph the system of inequalities: x < 4 and x > -4 and shade the solution in yellow.
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Graph the inequality y < x – 40 and shade the solution in red.
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Graph the system of inequalities: y > x – 32 and y < x – 44 and shade the solution in green.
World Cultures - Mosaic Panels
7th grade students designed a series of mosaic panels to represent the cultures of the world. Students then used vitreous glass tiles to create their panels which have been insatlled on the front of the school.
Mosaic Squares
Students visited local museums to study the mosaics of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome. They then created their own mosaic squares using the various design techniques from these ancient cultures - opus regulatum (grid-based tesserae), opus tessellatum (tessare in rows or columns), opus vermiculatum (tesserae follows the shape), and opus palladianum (irregular tessare in all directions.)
