INFO ON DOING LOCAL/DISTRICT ATC SWAPS

Artist Trading Cards (ATC).....WHAT ARE THEY?!?

  ATC are baseball card sized works of art that can be trades/swapped within your school, district, state, or beyond!  They can be created independently, collaboratively, as a skill check (shading, perspective, color...etc), as a one day project, part of a printing lesson...and on and on and on!! They are a fun and versatile addition to your regular lessons.

Though their media/subject matter can be just about anything...there are some norms that you need to set to make trades/swaps run smoothly.  

• STICK WITH STANDARD BASEBALL CARD SIZE - 2 1/2 X 3 1/2
• USE A THICK PAPER OR BACK IT ON A TAGBOARD TYPE MATERIAL
• CREATE A TEMPLATE FOR STUDENTS TO FILL OUT ON THE BACK OF THEIR WORK THAT INCLUDES THEIR NAME, GRADE, MEDIA, TITLE FOR THE ART WORK, AND SCHOOL NAME.  
• GROUP CARDS IN 10'S & RUBBER BANDED WHEN TRADING/SWAPPING
• IF YOU ARE TRADING/SWAPPING WITH MULTIPLE SCHOOLS IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE A POINT PERSON WHO WILL BE WILLING TO RECEIVE & SEND THE CARDS BACK OUT.  THIS IS NOT TO SAY IT IS A ONE PERSON SHOW....YOU NEED TO COORDINATE A GROUP THAT WILL HELP SWAP & SEND THE WORK BACK OUT.  THE LARGER THE GROUP(MORE SCHOOLS INVOLVED) THE MORE HELP YOU WILL NEED!!!  

HERE ARE EXAMPLES I'VE DONE 

WITH MY STUDENTS IN THE PAST

I KEEP THE ARTIST TRADING CARDS (IN BASEBALL CARD SLEEVES) IN MY ROOM FOR STUDENTS TO LOOK AT IF THEY ARE DONE WITH THEIR WORK EARLY OR IF THEY NEED INSPIRATION/HAVE ARTIST BLOCK

 I CREATE A DISPLAY OF THE WORK WE RECEIVE & HAVE AN EXPLANATION WITH THE DISPLAY SO TEACHERS/PARENTS/STUDENTS UNDERSTAND WHAT THE PROJECT IS ALL ABOUT!  

Mini Matisse's 4th Annual ATC Swap

HAVE YOU EVER DONE AN ARTIST TRADING CARD SWAP??

IT'S AMAZING! This ATC Swap is headed by the amazing Nic Hahn at Mini Matisse!!  She works so many hours to make this amazing event happen.  Here is her post about this year's swap.....

https://minimatisse.blogspot.com/2019/03/2019-minimatisse-global-artist-trading.html

NIC...YOU ARE A BLESSING TO THE ART ED COMMUNITY & WE ARE BETTER BECAUSE OF YOU!!!

I have my students make collaborative trading cards K-4th....and we sent 100 of them to the swap!!

Here is what TGE received from Mini-Matisse's ATC Swap 2019 

& is on display outside my classroom!

Cambridge International School

Bratislava, Slovakia

(11 yr olds)

Liceo Novello (High School)

Godogno-Lodi- Italy

Briscoe Elementary

San Antonio, Texas

(6-11 yr olds)

Langlade Elementary

Green Bay, WI 

(9-11 yr olds)

Glenridge Elementary

Clayton, MO

(1st - 5th grade)

Pecan Creek Elementary

Denton,TX

(2nd-5th grade)

McKinley Elementary

Xenia, Ohio

(5-7 yr olds)

Gower West Elementary

Willowbrook,IL

Good Hope Country Day School

St. Croix, US Virgin Islands

(4th grade)

Stowe Elementary

Des Moines, Iowa

(2nd-5th grade)

Artist Trading Cards With Mini-Matisse

Who has done Artist Trading Cards?
 If you haven't....they are so much fun!!
For the past several years I've participated in
Mini-Matisse's ATC Exchange.
( http://minimatisse.blogspot.com/search/label/ATC )

I do it a bit different than many of the teachers.  I have my students create the cards collaboratively.  Different classes & different grades do different aspects of the cards.  That way I'm not having to stop my curriculum.  I can add it in as a center and rotate students through.  This also allows me to keep all the ATCs.  I know...totally selfish.  ha ha  I just love them so much.  I keep a big binder in my classroom with all of them so my students can look through them for inspiration if they have artist's block!

CHECK OUT MINI-MATISSE'S BLOG & LEARN MORE ABOUT ATCs.
MAYBE YOU CAN START BY DOING AN EXCHANGE IN
YOUR DISTRICT WITH OTHER ART TEACHERS! 

Mini Matisse's ATC Swap 2016

Here are this year's offerings for the 2nd Annual Mini-Matisse ATC Swap!

I had all grades work on different aspects of the cards.  Can't wait to see what we get back from the swap!! The kids loved seeing other students' work from all over the world last year!!  

TGE+ATC=Art Around the World

 Did you participate in MiniMatisse's Global ATC Swap??  If not...you have got to do it next year!!  It has been so much fun to participate, create, anticipate, and finally receive!!!  

If you have no idea what I'm talking about....RUN DON'T WALK over to MiniMatisse's blog & find out all about it!!!! (After you read this post on Art With Mr. E first!!! ha ha)

HERE IS HER BLOG ADDRESS 

http://www.minimatisse.blogspot.com/

So I used the ATC as a warm up for a unit I was doing with 4th grade on birds. You can approach it a million different ways...you just need to find out what works for you in your situation.

.....AND NOW FOR THE AMAZING ATCs WE RECEIVED!!!...

(I attached a map to each collection so students could see where they were from in relation to Nashville,TN ...where we are!)