A School-based Approach to Interactive Youth Art in Somerville
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Parama Chattopadhyay has worked at East Somerville Community School since July 2022 as a Pre-Calculus, Statistics, and Geometry teacher for the Calculus Project, an innovative national program serving minorities and aspiring them to become mathematical masterminds. She then continued at the school that she is so fond of as an interim 8th grade certified math teacher covering a colleague’s paternity leave, and now as a general instructional support staff.

She has provided instructional support in Pre-K through 8th grade for all subjects, with a particular emphasis in art, music, and math classes.  In addition to working full time at East Somerville Community School, she also tutors Somerville youth at her SMART Academy through the Out of the Blue Art Gallery on the Armory basement floor.

Chattopadhyay, who goes by Ms. Chai at East Somerville Community School, was impressed with Ms. Gouvea’s 7th grade homeroom whenever she has covered her class, so she figured the students deserved a chance to visit the Out of the Blue Art Gallery at the Armory.

The vibrant seventh graders went on full tours of the Gallery on May 10, with 4 floors of art, complete with Chattopadhyay telling the story of each of the 30 local artists’ bios, artistic mediums, and connection to the Somerville community.

In addition, these same students got to see their peers’ art works on show on the basement floor corridor walls. The East Somerville Community School now has approximately 30 works on show through the Out of the Blue Art Gallery entitled Fantasy Creatures from Unity.

Last month, Ms. Chai decided that she wanted to give back to the East Somerville Community School which was so instrumental in completing her Sheltered English Immersion license to return as a full time-salaried teacher in the public school system.

So, she bought 30 canvases and a tackle box full of crayons, colored pencils, paintbrushes, and paints for the students to experiment to enter a competition to be on the Armory walls. Students had to submit a rough draft of their vision for a fantasy creature and, once approved, received a canvas and other art supplies to make their final product. True to Somerville’s reputation of having brilliant student artists, their final products were marvelous. Come on by the Armory basement floor and check out their works, on display until the end of the school year.

Also, students on show and their families attended and participated in Somerville Open Studios on May 6-7. The Out of the Blue Art Gallery supplied handmade instruments, sketchpads, microphones, speaker systems, paint supplies and snacks for the students and families to feel right at home.  The Armory was abuzz with Somerville youth tinkering on instruments like a Blue Man Group installation of tube instruments on show. Other students came up to the third floor to watch an Out of the Blue-curated jazz band or tap on a 50’s typewriter available for interactive writing and listening.

The East Somerville Community School participated not only at the youth level, but also at the adult level as well. Ms. Chai was particularly excited to walk the Pre-K students through this exercise, emphasizing the importance of using various mediums on canvases, while getting pointers from lead Pre-K teacher Ms. Mancio.

In addition, teachers from the music department including band director Timothy Moyer partook in the festivities by closing Somerville Open Studios Saturday night with his band Gateway Jazz.