#Art4Me Sparks Inspiration Worldwide

What does art mean to you? A group of ninth-graders aimed to explore answers by creating the hashtag #art4me. In an initiative intended to go viral, a ninth-grade class in New York worked together to invite young people from different parts of the globe to join and discuss the value of art according to their personal experiences. The project is in response to a New York Times article that featured Common Core practice prompts?set by teacher-collaborators Jonathan Olsen (@JonathanAOlsen) and Sarah Gross (@thereadingzone) and the ninth grade humanities class they team teach. A challenge was set for students: that is, to find a piece of 'art' from your own environment and post a photo on Twitter with the hashtag #art4me. The objective was to find out how far the hashtag will go.

The exercise was initially intended to stay within the four corners of the classroom but the installation presented in Queens made them reconsider to extend and grow the project more. The hashtag was introduced in the second week of October 2012. Some of the pictures included were taken by the people themselves, while others were downloaded or taken from the Internet with the proper attributions. The hashtag was a sure hit. Here are some of the tweets made on it. Even Chang-Jin Lee, whose 10-foot-high transparent inflatable Buddha in the East River, New York prompted this project, posted through Jonathan Olsen: This was the source of the inspiration: The Floating Echo. Chang-Jin Lee doesn't have a Twitter account. The hashtags.org team gathered the activity on #art4me and here's far it went -- 12,903 impressions per hour.