An interdisciplinary exploration inspired by the Alebrijes – the brightly colored Mexican folk art sculptures of fantastical creatures. Each lesson approaches the topic of alebrijes from a different perspective with activities ranging from art and culture appreciation, drawing and coloring, puppetry, collage and animation.
The Videos
YouTube
The Lesson Plans
Lesson Plan #1 – Mythical Creatures
Lesson Plan #2 – Draw an Alebrije
Lesson Plan #3 – Make an Alebrije Puppet
Lesson Plan #4 – Alebrije Stop Motion Animation
Animal Reference Picture Guide
About Polina Porras Sivolobova
Polina Porras Sivolobova is a Russian-Mexican multidisciplinary artist and teaching artist based in New York. She received a Master in Fine Arts and Art and Design Education from Pratt Institute. Same as in her art making, her teaching style is experiential, exploratory and culturally responsive. She started working as a teaching artist in 2002 with an immigrant community in Queens, New York and since then her teaching approach has been interdisciplinary. She seamlessly blends visual, performing and media arts and makes connections to diverse topics such as history, science, technology, literature, culture and storytelling. From 2007 to 2020 Polina worked with Marquis Studios, creating and teaching original curricula in New York’s public schools working with K- 12 students. Polina has worked in numerous New York City museums such as El Museo del Barrio, Queens Museum, The Bronx Museum of the Arts and the Noguchi Museum. She has worked with adults and seniors in libraries, museums and senior centers. Some of her most memorable projects as a teaching artist are: A spring parade with 2nd and 3rd grade special needs students, where they made masks, costumes and a giant puppet. An interdisciplinary program with The Young Women’s Leadership School about the Rwanda Genocide – students performed in a museum’s gallery, created wearable art and videos, and a puppet-play with Alebrijes. In late 2020 Polina started teaching Spanish using both asynchronous and synchronous modes of engaging with students and incorporating artmaking as well.