Michael Nagle for The New York Times
Zoe Isaacs, left, and her classmates in Ida Owens' sixth grade art class worked on their illuminated manuscripts.
By KAREN JONES
Published: March 14, 2012
SQUEEZING paint from a tube is too tame for the sixth graders in Ida Owens’s art class. They prefer making their own with malachite (a green mineral), spinach and cochineal — or dried insects. “They love cochineal,” said Ms. Owens. “To them it’s working with bugs.”
Photographs by Michael Nagle for The New York Times
The children create their own pigments with malachite, spinach and cochineal (dried insects), upper left, using 16th century techniques.
Her class at the Gordon Parks School for Inquisitive Minds (P.S./I.S. 270) in Queens is part of the Morgan Book Project, which aims to instill in children of the digital age an appreciation for books by providing authentic materials to write, illustrate and construct their own medieval and Renaissance-inspired illuminated manuscripts. The free program was developed by the Morgan Library and Museum with the New York City Department of Education for public school grades 3 through 7.