Pablo Picasso’s daughter-in-law Sydney Picasso joined Delaware Art Museum director Sam Sweet at the Pilot School in Wilmington last week.
The Delaware native was greeted by students’ own Picasso-esque collages and Cubist-style portraits.
The artist, art historian and author talked about the unique perspective artists have, and the fact that they’re often misunderstood.
She emphasized the importance of art as a tool for creative expression, and urged the students to keep making it.
“I would insist on teaching children as young as possible,” she said. “And then not tell them ‘Well that’s not good.’ Because, you know, Picasso would take cigarette butts and turn them into an artwork.”
Pilot School director Alexandra Kokkoris says art plays a special role at the school for students with language-based learning problems.
“For a lot of our children, fine motor or visual-spatial organizational skills is difficult,” she said. “So in the classroom writing a sentence could be really difficult. But when they come into the art room, they’re finding success.”
She adds art class supports the rest of students’ learning.
“They go back into the classroom working on a more difficult task but their bucket is full now with feeling good about themselves,” she said.
Kokkoris sees Pablo Picasso’s work as especially relevant to Pilot students, because of the unique perspective through which he represented the world.
