Say It Loud: Educator Guide

Case Study Booklet

In t he s e a r c h o f m e a n in g Fr e e t o e x p l o r e V is ua l s o f l i f e T h e s k e t c hb o o k o f a m a s t er

No 1

5 9 15 24

R e f l e c t i on s t u d i e s In full bloom Wh a t ’ s i n a s o u n d ?

Stores

Educator Guide

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Ma n y Tha nk s t o : He d y F i s c he r a nd R an dy S h u ll T h e Me l l o n F o und a t io n Ar t21 te a m a nd e d uc at o r s Jeffr ey Kurt z , C e nt e r f o r L e ar n in g an d T eac hi n g N ei ca L y n R a k e r Pr e si d e nt ’ s O f f i c e G r a ce To t h, T o l d e o M u s e u m o f A r t Sa r a h B a k e r a nd R e b ec c a K en n ed y, D e n is o n Mu seu m T o th e m a ny m use ums , ed u c at o r s , an d ar t is ts wh o sh a red thi e r m at e ri a l a nd i n s p ir e d o u r mu s eu m t o d o th e sa me.

De n i s on M us e um I nt er n s an d S ay I t L o u d Ed u ca ti o n W ri ters: Soph i a B e l l o ne Ma r e n C l a rk G r a ce K le i n Lil y M or ri s Bri dge t Ko e rw i t z Sp e ci a l t ha nk s t o S o ph ia R aak ‘ 2 0 , w h o f o r f o u r yea rs h a s wo r k ed si d e - b y - s i d e wit h mu s e u m s t af f r es ea rch i n g , wri ti n g , an d d e ve l o p i ng i nt o t h e yo u n g p r o f es s io n al a n d p a ssi o n a te

Contemporary art often explores controversial subject matter, and some of the artists featured in the exhibition present provocative images and ideas in their work.

While this Guide and the resources offer suggestions and strategies for framing and introducing challenging material, some content may not be appropriate for all audiences and learning environments. Teachers should preview all content before classroom introduction to determine whether the content is appropriate for their students’ ages, maturity levels, and learning environments. -art21

A b o ut t he g ui d e

When the Denison Museum had the opportunity to bring Say it Loud to campus, we saw it as a special chance to share unique artists and powerful work with our local community. The issues and topics in the exhibition are both contemporary and historical, subjects that touch each of us and our students. We hope these works can be used as vehicle to enhance classroom learning and deepen conversations happening across disciplines.

The Educator Guide In Fall 2019 the Denison Museum was able to offer a professional development workshop to local K-12 educators in Licking County, OH. Our primary, high-level goal was to get educators thinking about how to integrate and use ‘Arts’ across disciplines and subjects in the classroom. The workshop was made possible in part with the support of Jeff Kurtz and Center for Learning and Learning, the Provost’s office, and the Mellon Foundation. Museum educators, faculty, local teachers, and Denison students came together to build this guide. to serve as a living document of resources for educators. The lesson plans are ment to serve as inspiration or to scaffold to meet the needs in your classroom.

A Note to Educators This Guide is intended for a wide range of audiences, to empower viewers to articulate their ideas about, and interpretations of contemporary art. The educational materials support the inclusion of contemporary art in K–12 classrooms, on college and university campuses, and for adult and community audiences. The Guide and additional online content introduce opportunities for critical thinking and creative problem-solving relevant to middle school, high school, and college students. Teachers are encouraged to interpret the material provided by this guide to support their individual teaching methods and needs.

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IMAGE

ARTIST

TITLE

Khalik Allah

Hospital (Frenchie), 2013

Khalik Allah

Untitled, 125th Street, 2014

What is contemporary art?

Readings on Identity - p.24

What is contemporary art?

-p.22

Sanford Biggers BAM (For Yvette), 2016

List of Works - p. 12

Say it Loud - p. 10

Inde x

Trenton Doyle Hancock e - p. 54

Alicia Henry p. 66

Sanford Biggers - p.36

Khalik Allah p. 26

In d ex 5

Betye Saar - p. 124

Alison Saar - p. 112

Kerry James Marshall - p. 98

Titus Kaphar p. 78

6

Inde x

Kehinde Wiley - p. 190

Writing and teaching about slavery? p. 214

Mickalene Thomas - p. 172

Hank Willis Thomas p. 134

In d ex 7

Writing and teaching about slavery

a

learning with art21

Lesson Plans Notes - p. 238

Lesson Plans - p. 236

Contacts - p. 235

Learning with Art21 p. 219

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Inde x

Contacts

Notes

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SAY IT LOUD Artists:

Khalik Allah Sanford Biggers Trenton Doyle Hancock Alicia Henry Titus Kaphar Kerry James Marshall Alison Saar Betye Saar Hank Willis Thomas Mickalene Thomas Kehinde Wiley

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Say It

Loud

The exhibition title Say It Loud is taken from the James Brown song (written with his bandleader Alfred “Pee Wee” Ellis), “Say It Loud–I’m Black and I’m Proud,” in the tumultuous year of 1968. Eleven artists explore the complex cultural and political issues still facing America 50 years later. This exhibition illustrates the struggles and achievements of African Americans, and challenges dominant historical perspectives with powerful work that is visceral and squarely focused on narratives of ethnic identity, institutional racism, gender, and beauty, through contemporary art from the collection of Hedy Fischer and Randy Shull, as well as Stanford Biggers and Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.

LIST OF WORKS

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IMAGE

ARTIST

TITLE

MEDIUM

Khalik Allah

Hospital (Frenchie), 2013

Pigment print edition 3/9

Khalik Allah

Untitled, 125th Street, 2014

Pigment print edition 4/9

Sanford Biggers BAM (For Terence) 2016

Bronze with black patina, HD video (35 seconds)

Trenton Doyle Hancock

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

Schlep and Screw, Knowledge Rental Pawn Exchange Service, 2017

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Say it loud

IMAGE

ARTIST

TITLE

Trenton Doyle Hancock

When They Found Me I Wasn't There, Version #2, 2016

Alicia Henry

Untitled (Blue Nose, Male), 2015

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Say it loud

IMAGE

ARTIST

TITLE

Titus Kaphar

A Disturbing Silence, 2011

Kerry James Marshall

Black Beauty (Alana), 2012

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Say it loud

IMAGE

ARTIST

TITLE

Alison Saar

Cotton Demon, 1993

Betye Saar

Rhythm & Blues, 2010

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Say it loud

IMAGE

ARTIST

TITLE

Mickalene Thomas

Liz and Chair with Zebra, 2013

Mickalene Thomas

Tamika sur une chaise longue avec Monet, 2011

Hank Willis Thomas

Black Power, 2005

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Say it loud

IMAGE

ARTIST

TITLE

Hank Willis Thomas

life, 2017

Hank Willis Thomas

Public Enemy (II), 2016

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Say it loud

IMAGE

ARTIST

TITLE

Kehinde Wiley

Prince Albert, Prince Consort of Queen Victoria, 2013

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is

What

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Art?

contemporary

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What is contemporary art?

-from Art21

Art21 defines contemporary art as the

often say that the viewer contributes

work of artists who are living in the

to or even completes the artwork

twenty-first century. Contemporary

by contributing his or her personal

art mirrors contemporary culture and

reflections, experiences, opinions, and

society, off ering teachers, students,

interpretations. Two cornerstones of

and general audiences a rich resource

the Art21 philosophy are to allow artists

through which to consider current

to present their work in their own

ideas and rethink the familiar.

words and to encourage viewers to access their own abilities to consider,

The work of contemporary artists is

react, and respond to visual art.

a dynamic combination of materials, methods, concepts, and subjects that

Curiosity, openness, and dialogue are

challenge traditional boundaries and

important tools for engaging with the

defy easy definitions. Diverse and

work of contemporary artists. Beyond

eclectic, contemporary art is distinguished

the questioning of quality, of labeling

by the lack of a uniform organizing

a work of art “good” or “bad,” the

principle, ideology, or “-ism.” In a

study of contemporary art requires a

globally influenced, culturally diverse,

more open-ended methodology and

and technologically advancing world,

an inquiry- based approach. Asking

contemporary artists give voice to the

questions that ignite discussion and

varied and changing cultural landscape

stimulate debate is an important first

of identity, values, and beliefs.

step toward appreciating and interpreting works of art that can defy

Contemporary audiences play an active

expectations, may provoke strong responses,

role in the process of constructing

or contradict personal beliefs

meaning about works of art. Some artists

or societal values.

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contemporary art is part of a cultural Bringing contemporary art into

dialogue that concerns larger contextual

schools and communities enables

frameworks such as ideas about

educators to promote curiosity, encourage

beauty, personal and cultural identity,

dialogue, and initiate debate

family, community, and nationality.

about the world and the issues that aff ect our lives. Art21 artists serve as creative role models who can inspire people of all ages to consider how ideas are developed, articulated, and realized in the contemporary world, and they off er educators opportunities to support diverse learning styles.

Contemporary artists address both current events and historical ideas.

These references help educators and students make connections across their curricula and support interdisciplinary thinking. As artists continue to explore new technologies and media, the work they create encourages critical thinking and visual literacy in an increasingly media-saturated society.

The resources off ered by Art21 enable students to understand that

Learn more at art21.org/learn

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Readings W h a t a r e so m e ways i n w h i c h p e o p l e ex p r e s s t hei r i d e n t i t y ? In li te ra t u r e ? In mus i c ?

I n c l o t h i n g ? In t he i r h o m e s?

on Identity

Select one of the following works of literature and examine how the author establishes the identities of the primary characters: I n v i s i b l e M a n (Ralph Ellison) Catcher in the Rye ( J . D . Salinger) Raisin in the Sun ( L o r r a i n e Hansberry) The Aw a k e n i n g (Kate Chopin) The Color Purple (Alice Walker) Their Eyes Were Watching God (Zora Neale Hurston).

Write an essay or poem that answers the question “Who am I?� Consider the ways in which you express your identity or are defined by others. What aspects of your identity are easily noticed and which are hidden? To what extent is our identity determined by the society in which we live?

C h a p ter Ti tl e

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26 Allah finished his first film at the age of 19 and after getting it into the hands of the rapper Killah Priest, Allah went on to direct music 26

videos for different members of the Wu-Tang Clan. His filmmaking changed radically after he became a photographer. His 2015 film, Field Niggas, inspired by Malcolm X’s 1963 speech “A Message to the Grassroots,” received numerous awards. His most recent film, Black Mother, premiered at True/False Film Festival in March 2018 and had its New York premiere at New Directors/New Films Festival at The Museum of Modern Art and at Lincoln Center.

Allah’s photographs have been included in several group shows and solo exhibitions. His book, Souls Against the Concrete, featuring his portraits of Harlem at night, was published in 2017.

Courtesy of Daniel Krieger for The New York Times

Khalik Allah Khalik Allah was born in 1985 in Brookhaven, NY, and lives and works in New York City.

With no formal art training, Allah first pursued video work at the age of 14 and then photography, making his first pictures in 2010. He taught himself how to use a camera from watching videos on YouTube and later devoured books at the library on the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Frank, Nobuyoshi Araki, Daidii Moriyama, and Bruce Davidson.

Links to videos: Khalik Allah | TIME Lightbox https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_ continue=1&v=UFv7yDOPmKg Khalik Allah’s film “Field Niggas” Preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRk3gqrpTA&t=1s

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Ho sp i ta l ( F r e n c h i e ) , 2 0 1 3 Pi g men t pr in t e dit io n 3 / 9 1 4 x 2 1 in U n ti tl e d , 125th S tr e e t, 2 0 1 4 Pi g men t pr in t e dit io n 4 / 9 1 4 x 2 1 in

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K h al i k A l l ah

About the Work A filmmaker and photographer, Khalik Allah aims to display an untraditional and often paradoxical form of beauty that arises not from perfection, but from imperfection. Both the works are candid photographs taken after dark in which Allah presents unfiltered emotions in bright, highly-contrasted color.

Untitled, 125th Street depicts a young girl from Harlem at the corner of 125th and Lexington Avenue. While the darkness makes Allah’s viewers question her presence late at night, the raw happiness in the work quells the viewer’s worries.

In Hospital (Frenchie), Allah portrays a man who he became quite familiar with through his work. Called Frenchie, he was a 53-year-old Haitian man who suffered from bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. He is the subject of Allah’s 2013 short film Antonyms of Beauty.

Op p o si t e p a g e : De tai l U n t it led , 125th S tr e e t, 2 0 1 4 P i gm e nt p ri nt e d it io n 4 / 9 14x 2 1 i n De tai l Ho s p it a l (F r e n c h i e ) , 2 0 1 3 P i gm e nt p ri nt e d it io n 3 / 9 14x 2 1 i n

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Khalik Allah

Watch/Discuss Links to videos: Khalik Allah | TIME Lightbox https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=UFv7yDOPmKg Khalik Allah “Field Niggas” Preview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR-k3gqrpTA&t=1s

Discuss: Before Viewing List off some stereotypes, both positive and negative that you’ve heard. Are they true?

What is a stereotype? Do you think they’re real?

Where do you consider home? How do you feel about that place? What do you want others to know about that place and the people who reside there?

During Viewing What emotion does it look like these people are expressing?

Do these people look happy? Sad? How do they look?

Without any context, what would you assume about these people? Where are they from? What are they doing out at night?

Think about the color and saturation of this piece. How does it make the piece feel? If the piece was less saturated, or black and white, how would the mood change?

Do these photos seem candid or staged? What does that show about the artist’s intention?

After Viewing Do these pieces differ from other photos you’ve seen of Harlem? How? Did this challenge or change your perception of Harlem? How?

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Classroom Ideas Middle School Include the artist’s work in a social studies activity about media representation of certain locations Introduction: Slide Show Compare and Contrast •

Show a slideshow comparing Allah’s portraits in Harlem to media representations of Harlem

•

While viewing, ask students:

•

If you were in this picture, beside these people, how would you feel (the mood of the picture.)

•

Who do you think took this photograph and why?

•

Compare and contrast: show students which are media photos and which are Khalik Allah

•

Briefly introduce Khalik Allah (see bio above)

•

Ask students:

•

How do Allah’s photos compare to the media photos of Harlem?

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B A M ( F or Te re n c e ) , 20 1 6 Br o nz e w i th b l a ck pa ti na, H D v i de o 14 X4 . 5X 4. 5 C ou r te s y o f t he ar t i s t a nd Mo ni q ue M el o c he Ga l l ery, C h i ca g o

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34 Museum of Arts and Design, The Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum 34

of Contemporary Art Chicago, and The Art Institute of Chicago.

Links to videos: Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/sanford_biggers_ an_artist_s_unflinching_look_at_racial_violence/ discussion?referrer=playlist-talks_to_help_you_ understand_s

Sanford Biggers Sanford Biggers was born in 1970 in Los Angeles and lives and works in New York City.

He holds a BA from Morehouse College in Atlanta and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he sits on the board of governors.

Biggers creates work that integrates film, video, installation, sculpture, drawing, original music, and performance. He intentionally complicates subjects such as hip-hop, Buddhism, politics, identity, and art history in order to offer new perspectives and associations for established symbols.

His awards and residencies include a fellowship at the American Academy at Rome (201718), the TED2016 Fellows Program, a Joyce Foundation award (2015), and a Creative Capital Foundation grant (2008).

His work is in the permanent collections of Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The

MOTHERLAND ▷ Sanford Biggers| Construction, Deconstruction, Reconstruction http://griotmag.com/en/ motherland-plays-sanford-biggers-cinterviewitaly-american-academy-in-rome/ Article on artwork on view: At Tufts, Sanford Biggers’ ‘BAM’ Series Takes Aim At Police Shootings https://www.wbur.org/artery/2019/10/01/ sanford-biggers-bam-series-tufts

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BAM (For Terence), 2016 B r o n z e w it h b lac k pat in a, HD v i d eo 14X4.5X4.5 C o u r t e s y o f t h e ar t is t an d Mo n i q u e Mel o ch e G a l l ery, C h i ca g o

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S a S an f o r d B i g g e r s

About the Work The BAM series is comprised of Biggers’ personal collection of African relics.

Each figure is dipped in wax so that its features are indistinguishable and unrecognizable. The figures are later taken to a shooting range where they are shot, which is recorded on a high speed camera. After this, Biggers casts the figures in bronze. The BAM series is a response to the shootings of unarmed Black Americans at the hands of police. BAM (For Terence) is specifically dedicated to Terence Crutcher, a 40-year-old unarmed Black man fatally shot by two police officers in Tulsa, Oklahoma on September 16th, 2016.

Learn more about the series here: At Tufts, Sanford Biggers’ ‘BAM’ Series Takes Aim At Police Shootings

Oppo s i te Pa g e BA M (Fo r Teren c e ) , 2 0 1 6 BAM 1 6in a, H D v id e o Br on(F z eorwTi ter h en b lcaec) ,k 2p0at B ron z e w i th b l a c k p a t in a , H D v id e o 14X 4 .5 X 4 .5 14X4 Court.5X e s4.5 y o f t he ar t is t an d M o n iqu e M e lo ch e G a l l ery, C h i ca g o Cour tes y o f the a r t is t an d Mo n iq u e Me lo ch e Ga l l ery, C h i ca go

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Sa n f o rd Bi g g ers

Watch/Discuss Links to videos: Ted Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/sanford_biggers_an_artist_s_unflinching_look_at_racial_violence/ discussion?referrer=playlist-talks_to_help_you_understand_s MOTHERLAND ▷ Sanford Biggers| Construction, Deconstruction, Reconstruction http://griotmag.com/en/motherland-plays-sanford-biggers-cinterview-italy-american-academyin-rome/ Preparing to Discuss Race and Police Violence in the Classroom https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/u65602/Preparing%20to%20Discuss%20Race%20and%20 Police%20Violence%20in%20the%20Classroom.pdf Article on artwork on view: At Tufts, Sanford Biggers’ ‘BAM’ Series Takes Aim At Police Shootings https://www.wbur.org/artery/2019/10/01/sanford-biggers-bam-series-tufts

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Watch/Discuss Discuss:

Before Viewing Look in the mirror: what do you see? What makes you, you? (Notice humanity, notice how we are not animals, we are in fact human beings) What does it mean to be human?

What does it mean to not be human? To be less than human? Can other humans be less than human? Can we think of people not as people or not with an identity?

Why is identity important?

Sometimes our identity is dictated by the way we look and dress. How is the way you look and dress associated with your identity?

How does your identity affect the way you are treated by others?

You always wear athletic clothes vs a business suit? Feminine vs masculine ways of dressing? How you do your hair? Skin color?

During Viewing Why did Biggers dip the African figures in wax before taking them to a shooting range? What effect does wax have on, specifically, the Brown bodies?

How does the video add to the audiences/your experience viewing this artwork?

What narratives are being told in BAM? After Viewing How did the figurines identity change when they were dipped in wax? When they were shot? When they were cast in bronze?

Why do you think Sanford chose to use these particular figurines? What is the significance of them?

How does Biggers link the past and the present in this piece?

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Classroom Ideas

Read article about Ferguson/police brutality: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/opinion/ ferguson-anniversary-police-race.html?searchResultPosition=8 https://www.vox.com/2015/5/31/17937764/ferguson-missouri-protests-2014-michael-brownpolice-shooting

Brief introduction of Ferguson and what happened: Michael Brown, unarmed black boy shot and killed by white police officer Sparked lots of protests in Ferguson and nationwide Wilson (police office) not indicted Analyze/Discuss the article: What is the article saying? Can you say, for sure, what happened? Does this news sound real?

Is there anything that doesn’t sound real? What were the reactions of others surrounding the incident?

Is there a specific way you want to respond to this?

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Specific ways of response, knee-jerk reactions are taught to us by the world we live in; this is called systematic.

Often, systematic ways of understanding our world oppress--they hurt people, they put the wrong emphasis on what it means to be different.

How can we understand/explain systemic racism through the Ferguson incident, and other instances of police brutality?

Why did people in Ferguson and around the nation protest/demonstrate?

Have you ever heard of #BlackLivesMatter? Have you seen this hashtag used on social media before? Understanding systemic racism, why might this be important?

Now that we’ve talked about it, what do we do about it? How do we make change?

Have the people of Ferguson “made change” by starting and contributing to the #BlackLivesMatter movement?

Can art change minds? Can art be used to change thinking/feeling/actions? Can art criticize?

Think back to Biggers’ piece BAM. How is police brutality portrayed in this piece?

What does it mean when Biggers uses themes of police brutality in his work? How does it show power, who has power, and who does not?

Why do you think it is important to show themes such as this in artwork?

Now thinking back to our discussions of identity, does BAM show what it means to not be human, to dehumanize?

How does dehumanization result in a loss of identity?

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Other Resources New Yorker, The Playful Political art of Sanford Biggers, 2018 https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/the-playful-political-art-of-sanford-biggers Brooklyn Museum educator packet on Biggers https://d1lfxha3ugu3d4.cloudfront.net/education/docs/Biggers_Teachers_Packet.pdf Teacher Resource Packet - CSDT | RPI https://csdt.rpi.edu/culture/scifi/resources/biggers_teacher_resource_packet.pdf Americana Inquiry Guide https://www.pamm.org/sites/default/files/art_inquiry_resource_guide_americana_final.pdf Interview with paper magazine https://www.papermag.com/sanford-biggers-bam-art-1624310839.html Article with IconMann https://www.iconmann.com/home/2018/5/25/sanford-biggers Art21 | Sanford Biggers: Contemporary Mandala and the Hip-Hop Ethos http://magazine.art21.org/2012/03/23/sanford-biggers-contemporary-mandala-and-the-hip-hopethos/#.XbnSKUVKhjQ

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Preparing to Discuss Race and Police Violence in the Classroom Recent events involving the killing of black men by police have sparked expressions of outrage and injustice across the country. While the world watches these cases play out in the media and criminal justice system, these tragic events are teachable moments in classrooms across the District of Columbia Public Schools. In 2014, when the killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, MO ignited both riots and peaceful protests, we compiled resources and protocols in an effort to help teachers prepare for and navigate difficult discussions with their students on race, racism and police violence. Since Ferguson, numerous other events including the deaths of Freddie Gray and Alton Sterling – and most recently Keith Scott in Charlotte, NC and Terence Crutcher in Tulsa, OK have prompted us to revisit and update these resources.

Why engage? School is a place where students should be able to express feelings, ask questions and seek to gain a better understanding of complex and challenging events happening in the world around them. As a district, we believe that it is a responsibility of teachers to discuss difficult issues such as race and racism with our students.

For a thoughtful consideration of the impact of teachers’ voices on students, please read this piece from Teaching Tolerance’s “Perspectives”: Don’t Say Nothing. As author Jamila Pitts writes, “We may be uncomfortable talking about race, but we can no longer afford to be silent. We have chosen a profession, which—like parenting— requires that our comforts come second to those of children.”

In an effort to support teachers in DCPS to integrate discussions based on recent events into their classrooms, the following document provides: 

 

Ten suggestions for preparing and framing a conversation using democratic principles while also allowing students, especially those who have experienced racial profiling, to express their views in a respectful manner; Resources teachers can use to build their own background knowledge or to share with students to help frame classroom discussions; and A six-step protocol for engaging students in a process for examining, understanding, and responding to complex issues related to diversity and equity in schools. *

*

*

Ten Suggestions for Framing Classroom Discussion

The ten suggestions below have been adapted from TeachableMoment.org1, a project of Morningside Center for Teaching Social Responsibility.

When educators approach classroom discussions concerning incidents of racism, profiling or other similar topics, we must be keenly aware of the raw emotions that can surface among our students and people within the community. The following steps, not necessarily in chronological order, can help make the conversation as productive as possible.

1. Create a safe, respectful, and supportive tone in your classroom. Sometimes students don't participate in discussions about sensitive issues because they worry that they will be teased, their opinions willbe ridiculed, or strong feelings will arise because the topic hits close to home. To create a 1

Spiegler, J. (2014, December 4). Teaching about controversial or difficult issues. Retrieved from http://www.morningsidecenter.org/teachable-moment/lessons/teaching-about-controversial-or-difficult-issues

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safe andsupportive environment, make group agreements at the beginning of the year. Remind students that when they talk about groups of people, they should try to avoid speaking in absolutes: use the word "some," not "all". Hold community-building activities to create a positive and respectful classroom environment, and resolve conflicts proactively. Most importantly, model how to talk about sensitive and controversial topics bybeing honest and open yourself, respecting different points of view and accepting students' feelings.

2. Prepare yourself. Before you delve into a difficult topic with your students, educate yourself with background knowledge. TeachableMoment.org has up-to-date lessons on many key issues that provide both background information and suggested activities. Next, articulate your own point of view on the topic for yourself so that when students ask for your opinion, you will be prepared. Though many teachers try to keep their own points of view out of the classroom, if it is appropriate to share yours, try to wait until the end of the discussion.

Please see the DCPS Collected Resources page later in this document for suggestions of where to find useful resources to learn more and prepare yourself.

Also, consider in advance the possible "triggers" for your students. For example, if you are discussing police brutality, remember that you will almost certainly have students who have been victims of racial profiling in your classroom. Some of these students mayfeel relieved to discuss a topic so relevant to their lives, while others may not feel comfortable discussing this in a classroom setting. This doesn’t mean you should avoid potentially controversial topics, but you should be mindful not to highlight students who may wish to remain silent. Be aware that strong feelings could arise and plan in advance for how to handle them. Remind your students about the ground rules and explain that this issue may affect some students very personally. Depending on the topic, you may even want to speak in advance with those students, or their parents, who have a personal connection to it. Additionally, all of our schools have a clinical social worker who is trained to handle trauma with students. You may want to reach out in advance to the social worker or other support staff in the school who can be a support to students so they are aware.

3. Find out what students already know or have experienced about the topic. Start with what the students already know. You can assess their prior knowledge in a variety of ways: create a semantic web as a whole class and brainstorm associations with the topic; have them talk with a partner; or have them write in response to a prompt. If the topic is very delicate, you might ask them to write anonymously first, thenuse that writing to decide how to proceed in a later class. Make a list of all the questions they have, either publicly or for your own planning. These questions are an additional window into what students already know, or think they know, and what they don't know. Ask students to articulate where they got their information and opinions, and invite them to talk about how they know their sources are reliable. Remind them that, when learning about or discussing sensitive information, they should always ask, "What do I know and how do I know it?" While students should be pushed to corroborate information from multiple sources and consider perspective, be sure not to undermine the value of students’ life experiences as well.

4. Compile the students' questions and examine them together. After giving students basic information about your topic, elicit questions they still have. If they are focusing on content questions (who, what, where, why, when), expand their inquiry so they think beyond the basic facts and dig into deeper or "essential" questions. For example, if you are going to discuss the killing of Terence Crutcher, content questions might be: Who was Terence Crutcher? Where did he grow up? What do we know about his life in Tulsa? These questions are important, but questions such as “Why do you believe the police shot him?” and “How should communities react to this tragedy?” push students to make connections beyond one news story and lead to a more complex understanding of the situation. Another fruitful line of questioning might be asking how the issue affects their lives in Washington, DC and how it affects

society at large.

5. Make connections. Help students make connections between the topic at hand and their own lives. How does the issue affect them or their family, friends or community? Why should they care? If there is no obvious connection, help them find one. Often, starting with multimedia, whether photos, video or infographics, can hook students. You might also help them make connections by thinking about what else they know about, in current news or in history, that shares some of the same details.

6. Have students investigate and learn more. It is critical that students have a chance to find answers to their questions, conduct research, talk to people, and learn more in a way that makes the topic meaningful for them. First, however, make sure your students understand how to tell the difference betweenopinions and facts. You might make a T-chart and use examples from a news article on a topic you are studyingto demonstrate, then invite students to find and share their own examples from additional articles.

For example, if you were engaging your class on the topic of the recent rioting in Charlotte, students could read and compare information and opinion from sources such as the mainstream media and Twitter/Facebook. They might start with a news article for factual background information, then read an editorial to see how an opinion piece about the same topic is written. Students might then study a timeline about the events leading up to the incident or watch a video. Finally, they might learn about public perception of this incident by analyzing a Gallup poll that shows opinions on the topic broken down by race, geography, or other demographic groups. They might look for related news and opinions to prompt rich discussions and open up opportunities to hear other students' voices. Remember to point students to sources with contrasting political slants as well. For example, they might contrast reporting on the same topic in The Progressive versus The Weekly Standard, or the Center for American Progress versus the Heritage Foundation. Encourage students to seek out a range of people to learn more, including people who have strong opinions or special expertise on the topic. While students are gathering this information, emphasize that even "factual" information has a point of view. While they are researching, they should ask themselves: What is the point of view of this source? How reliable is it, and why? Lastly, examining current events within a historical context is an important way to help students develop a deeper understanding both of the past and today’s world.

Please see the DCPS Collected Resources page later in this document for suggestions of where to find useful resources for students to learn more.

7. Explore students' opinions and promote dialogue. After they have researched a topic thoroughly, students are ready to form and express their own points of view. It is important to encourage them to be open to different points of view. You might lead an "opinion continuum" exercise where they show whether they strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree or are somewhere in between or not sure on a variety of topics. Help promote dialogue, as opposed to debate. Dialogue aims for understanding, an enlargement of view, complicating one's thinking and an openness to change.

Provide opportunities for various kinds of group discussion where different perspectives get shared.

These opportunities can be found in lessons available on TeachableMoment.org and include think-pairshare, conversation circles, group go-rounds, panels, micro-labs, and fishbowls.

8. Be responsive to feelings and values. Even though you have set up ground rules at the outset and developed a respectful classroom environment, once a hot topic emerges you need to continue to monitor classroom tone. Remind students about the ground rules, especially if they are violated. Take the emotional "temperature" of the classroom periodically to find out how students are feeling, and encourage the discussion of feelings throughout. Build in different ways for students to participate, but also to opt out if a discussion is emotionally difficult. Give opportunities for students to write their thoughts, perhaps anonymously, instead of sharing verbally. Remind students that while you want them

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to participate, they always have the right to "pass" if they feel uncomfortable. Again, if you anticipate that a certain topicmay elicit too many strong feelings for a particular student, talk with them in advance.

9. Make home connections. Use parents and other family members as primary sources by having students interview them as part of their research. Communicate with parents about your approach to discussing controversial issues. You can do this by sending a letter home in the beginning of the year and encouraging parents to let you know if there are any sensitive issues for their family so you will be prepared.

10. Do something. If students are engaged in an issue discussed in class and feel strongly about it, they may want to do something about it. Your study should be an opportunity for taking informed action. This could involve learning more and doing more focused research. It could also involve helping students carry out a social action or community service project related to the issue. Students can learn more about how other young people did projects around recent issues in the news, such as starting a petition, organizing large student demonstrations, and speaking out on the topic. If the issue is a political one, they can engage in writing letters, speaking at public hearings, raising money, participating in demonstrations orwriting articles for a local or school newspaper.

DCPS-Collected Resources for Further Research/Reading Preparation In addition to reading widely, this teacher preparation activity from Teaching Tolerance is helpful to use prior to engaging in these types of discussions with students. While it’s framed specifically around teaching “The New Jim Crow”, the strategies are widely applicable. It may also help to listen to the reflections of Rebecca Lee, (featured here on NPR) a teacher in Tulsa who opened up conversations about the Crutcher shooting with three groups of students of different ages.

The following are links to sites where you can find additional collections of related resources: Teaching Tolerance resources for race, racism and police violence Teaching for Change: Teaching Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter Syllabus (Professor Frank Leon Roberts, New York University) Older, but still relevant, articles about racial profiling and killings by police: Aren’t More White People Than Black People Killed by the Police? Yes, but No Why Is the N.Y.P.D. After Me? Have You Ever Interacted With the Police?

When The Media Treats White Suspects And Killers Better Than Black Victims Melissa Harris-Perry’s Searing Tribute To Black Men Killed By Police The 12 key highlights from the DOJ’s scathing Ferguson report Resources for learning about recent activism: The Movement for Black Lives Campaign Zero Black Lives Matter NPR's Kelly McEvers talks with Jelani Cobb, whose article in the New Yorker charts the genesis and evolution of the Black Lives Matter movement Young People Grapple With Whether To Follow Colin Kaepernick's Lead (Youth Radio:NPR’s Youth Desk) Colin Kaepernick takes part in high school team’s protest of police killings

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Collaborative Problem-Solving for Equity & Justice: A 6-Step Model2 The purpose of this model is to facilitate an organized process for examining, understanding,and responding to complex issues related to diversity and equity in schools: 1. Problem Identification Identify or name the situation and relevant related issues. What is the conflict? What is the source of the conflict?

2. Perspectives Create a list of every person, group, and institution impacted by the incident. How is each of these people and institutions affected by the situation? Be sure to include possible victims, victimizers, members of the community, and anyone else who is touched by the incident directly or indirectly. It may be necessary to make some assumptions for this step, intensifying the importance ofincorporating as many voices and perspectives as possible into the process of compiling the information.

3. Challenges and Opportunities With the varied perspectives in mind, what are the individual and institutional challenges and constraints within which the situation must be addressed? What are the challenges based on the individuals directly involved, and what institutional constraints must inform an approach for addressing the situation? What are the educational and growth opportunities presented by the incident, both for the people directly involved and the institution?

4. Strategies Brainstorm approaches for addressing the situation, attempting to maximize the extent to which the negative outcomes of the situation are addressed while simultaneously maximizing the extent to which you take advantage of educational and growth opportunities. Keep in mind the varied perspectives and the fact that any solution will affect everyone differently. This is not the step at which to challengeand critique each other's ideas. Record every idea, no matter how unreasonable it may sound to individuals in the group.

5. Solutions Focus your strategies into a formal plan of action. Keep in mind the varied perspectives as well as the challenges and opportunities. Be sure to come up with at least two or three specific responses, whether they focus on the individual conflict or the underlying issues at an institutional level.

6. Expected Outcomes Name the outcomes you foresee as a result of the solutions you identified. Revisit the perspectives step to ensure a standard of equity and fairness.

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Gorski, P.C. (2009). Collaborative problem-solving for equity and justice: A 6-step model. EdChange (http://www.edchange.org/).

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Teacher Resource Packet

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SANFORD BIGGERS LOTUS TOOL

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About the Artist Sanford Biggers, who was born in 1970, grew up in South Central Los Angeles and was infuenced by the prints that his parents had in their home, including images by important American artists like Elizabeth Catlett, Charles White, John Biggers, and Ernie Barnes. Biggers recalls, “It was largely fgurative and Afro-centric images which were infuential for me as well as the grafti that I would see on the streets of Los Angeles and in the train yards.”* As a teenager, he discovered the Surrealist paintings of René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, and Max Ernst; he also developed an interest in Buddhist philosophy and spirituality. Over the past decade, Biggers has pursued these diverse interests, exploring the concept of cultural syncretism—the attempt to reconcile contrary beliefs, often while melding practices of diferent schools of thought—by using his art to combine image, sculpture, video, and music.

*Biography courtesy Brooklyn Museum; quotations of the artist are from Arcy Douglass, “East Meets West: An Interview with Sanford Biggers,” PORT, May 15, 2009; accessed at http://www.portlandart.net/ archives/2009/05/index.html 49

About STEAM STEAM education is an interdisciplinary approach to learning where rigorous academic concepts are coupled with artistic works and cultural practices as students apply science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics in contexts that make connections between school, community, personal interests, and the global marketplace.

Elements of STEAM • Science, which deals with and seeks the understanding of the natural world (NRC, 1996, p. 24), is the underpinning of technology. Scientifc processes include “inquiry,” “discovering what is,” “exploring,” and using “the scientifc method.”

• Technology is the modifcation of the natural world to meet human wants and needs (ITEA/ITEEA, 2000/2002/2007, p. 7). It includes computers, software learning tools, networking systems, hand-held digital devices, digital cameras, and other technologies, including those not yet developed, for accessing, creating, and communicating information.

• Engineering is the area in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to utilize economically the materials and forces of nature for the beneft of mankind” (ABET, 2002).

• Art is the expression or application of technology, science, math, and engineering skills and imagination through forms based on culture, personal style, and technique. Forms range from the cultural arts, drawing, painting, sculpture, design, music, and video (NAEA, 1994, p.

32).

• Mathematics is the science of patterns and relationships (AAAS, 1993, p. 23). It provides an exact language for technology, science, art, and engineering.

About Codex Quilts are based on patterns. Traditional African-American quilts from the 19th century often contained symbols that communicated messages, or told stories. Visual symbols are also used in other subjects such as mathematics and science.

In Codex, Sanford Biggers repurposes historical quilts that may have been used on the Underground Railroad as signposts, signaling “stations,” or safe houses. These works re-imagine cultural-historical artifacts of the past using materials of the present to consider possible futures.

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Visual Language Artists use symbols and images to communicate messages or stories to viewers. The phrase visual language refers to the idea that communication occurs through visual symbols, as opposed to verbal symbols, or words.

Just as people can ‘verbalize’ their thinking, they can ‘visualize’ it. A diagram, a map, and a painting are all examples of uses of visual language. Its structural units include: Visual Elements Line is a mark with greater length than width. Lines can be horizontal, vertical, or diagonal; straight or curved; thick or thin.

Shape is a closed line. Shapes can be geometric, like squares and circles; or organic, like free-form or natural shapes. Shapes are fat and can express length and width.

Forms are three-dimensional shapes expressing length, width, and depth. Balls, cylinders, boxes, and pyramids are forms.

Space is the area between and around objects. The space around objects is often called negative space; negative space has shape.

Space can also refer to the feeling of depth.

Color is light refected of of objects. Color has three main characteristics: hue (the name of the color, such as red, green, blue, etc.), value how light or dark it is), and intensity (how bright or dull it is).

Rotation: turning a visual element around a fxed point.

Translation: moving a visual element as if you were sliding it on a surface.

Refection: fipping a visual element as if refected in a mirror.

Dilation: scaling the element larger or smaller

Design Principles (Motifs) A visual element is usually a simple shape such as circle, square, diamond, etc. Repeating elements in regular or cyclical fashion can create interest, movement, and/or harmony and unity. Visual elements are usually repeated using one of the geometry transforms: • • • • 50

How Visual Elements & Design Principles Relate to STEM The color systems used by scientists and artists are entirely diferent. An artist will mix blue and yellow paint to get a shade of green; a scientist will mix green and red light to create yellow. The printed page in a magazine is yet another system.

The repetition of visual elements creates patterns in mosaics, lattices, spirals, waves, stars, fractals, etc. Rhythms in a pattern can be random, regular, alternating, fowing, and progressive.

Many quilt designs are based on the Cartesian coordinate system in mathematics such as making half-square (equilateral) triangles. Biggers’ quilts incorporate geometric diagrams and organic shapes in the existing quilts. The merging of the geometric designs, natural forms, and the grid has an indirect connection to STEAM education.

Clockwise from the top right: Gallery view Ringling Museum of Art, “Quilt #30, Nimbus,” 2013.

Courtesy the artist and Eric Firestone Gallery; “Sugar, Pork & Bourbon,” 2013. Courtesy the artist and Massimo De Carlo.

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Sanford Biggers’ Lotus includes a well-known diagram of a slave ship, repeated in an overlapping circular pattern to create a lotus fower that represents enlightenment, beauty and non-attachment in Buddhism and Hinduism. Biggers explores where stories and symbols from cultural traditions and mythologies overlap.

Questions for Viewing Engaging with a work of art is a meaningful and lasting experience. The following four-step process encourages close looking and careful thinking with any work of art that you view with your students, either in your classroom or in an exhibition.

LOOK Take time to look at the work of art.

• Describe what you see in the artwork. Think about line, color, texture, pattern, and shape. Can you fgure out what it is made of, or how it was made?

DESCRIBE Talk about what you see in the work of art.

• Write down words or sketch things that come to your mind when you look at the art. Why do the artworks make you think about those words/things?

THINK Interpret and assign meaning to the work of art.

• What do you think the artist was trying to communicate through the creation of this work of art?

• What questions would you like to ask about this artwork? Can you guess at the answers to any of them?

CONNECT Relate what you see to your own life, or to other works of art or images you have seen.

• Compare this work of art to other images/objects that you have seen, either in a museum or in your everyday life. How are they similar? How are they diferent?

In one sentence, describe the most interesting thing about this artwork?

•

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Using the Culturally Situated Design Tool (CSDT) Codelets are stackable blocks that are used to create designs in the CSDT. A collection of codelets is a “script”. Codelets connect to each other, where each transformation has its own block and a slot for the block to be inserted into. A sprite is a shape or symbol. First, launch the software. Next, click “Load Demo” to select a sprite (ex. lotus, rockstar_quilt).

Load Demo button.

On the far left are blue (codelet) blocks that can be used to simulate the artist’s design. Drag and stack the blue blocks in the center area, inside of the “When Clicked” (main) yellow block. You can change the parameters of each block by clicking inside of the white box (feld) next to the corresponding label.

Contains the codelets & plays the script.

Clears the player window.

Repeats sprite 23 times.

Rotates sprite 15 degrees.

Click the green fag button to see the result.

Students/users can change blocks and try diferent transformations or parameters until they create the design they want to save. They can also import their own symbols/shapes and sounds.

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Getting Started Here are the recommended steps to get students started with their projects:

1. Talk about the key concepts (e.g. math, science, visual elements, design).

2. Direct students to look closely at the artwork; use “Questions for Viewing.”

3. Give students time to do research about the artwork; or talk about the cultural and historical elements of the artwork.

4. Show students how the CSDT works; give them time to explore the tool.

5. Direct them to create their own designs, save/print or use in group projects such as murals, hanging wall and foor art.

About the Researcher Nettrice Gaskins is a Ph.D. candidate and researcher in Georgia Tech’s Digital Media Program and Experimental Game Lab. Her work investigates culturally situated arts-based learning and new media, their invention, and use in underrepresented, creative communities of practice. This includes the use of new media tools and platforms, and existing cultural art forms. She is a writer/columnist for Art21, the producer of the Peabody award-winning PBS series, Art in the Twenty-First Century. She has other works published online and in Meet Me at the Fair: A World’s Fair Reader, scheduled to be published by Carnegie Mellon University’s ETC Press.

Nettrice’s email: nettrice@gmail.com

Refererences • Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. (2007-2008).

Engineering accreditation criteria. Baltimore, MD: Author.

• American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). (1993).

Benchmarks for science literacy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

• International Technology Education Association (ITEA/ITEEA).

(2000/2002/2007). Standards for technological literacy: Content for the study of technology. Reston, VA: Author.

• National Research Council. (1996). The national science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

National Art Education Association (NAEA). (1994). The National Visual Arts Standards. Association Drive, Reston, VA (Web).

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54 Hancock was featured in the 2000 and 2002 Whitney Biennial exhibitions, becoming one of the youngest artists in history to participate 54

in this prestigious survey. His work will be presented in a solo exhibition at MASS MoCA in 2019.

Hancock’s work is in the permanent collections of Dallas Museum of Art; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth; The Museum of Modern Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem; Brooklyn Museum; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Akron Art Museum; and Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen.

Links to videos: https://art.utk.edu/visiting-artist-lecture-trenton-doyle-hancock/

Trenton Doyle Hancock

Trenton Doyle Hancock Art21 https://art21.org/watch/ art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s2/trentondoyle-hancock-in-stories-segment/ Trenton Doyle Hancock: Real Biography | Art21 “Extended Play,” 5 minutes: https://youtu.be/ OgZWl1ut_Jk

Trenton Doyle Hancock was born in 1974 in Oklahoma City; raised in Paris, TX; and lives and works in Houston. He earned his BFA from Texas A&M University and his MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Part fictional, part autobiographical, Hancock’s work pulls from his own personal experience, art historical canon, comics and superheroes, pulp fiction, and myriad pop culture references, resulting in a complex amalgamation of characters and plots possessing universal concepts of light and dark, good and evil, and all the gray in between.

Artist Trenton Doyle Hancock produced by Scott Newman and Marc Santo for Revel In, 5 minutes: https://youtu.be/oAC_7Ceo3Ok Artist Trenton Doyle Hancock discusses his story of the Mounds as it’s told through his paintings. : https://art21.org/read/ trenton-doyle-hancock-storytelling-charactersand-colors/ Trenton Doyle Hancock: Mind of the Mound, 3 minutes: https://youtu.be/OgZWl1ut_Jk

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D e t a i l s W h en T h e y F ou n d M e I W a sn ’ t T her e, V er si on #2, 2016 1 4 x2 1 i n, Ac rylic an d mix ed me dia o n ca n v a s, 72x72i n

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T r e n t o n D oy l e H an c o c k

About the work Hancock is known for his visual work that tell stories. Over the past three decades, Hancock has been building out an alternate world of the mythological “Moundverse” and its cast of characters. These characters are the driving force behind the artist’s meticulously detailed drawings, prints, paintings, and sculptures.

Over the course of Hancock’s career, Torpedo Boy (yellow figure on the left) has figured into most of his stories. This figure is cast as the epic hero who is flawed with very human emotions, foibles, and anxieties that get in the way of his daring attempts to protect the Mounds (bee-hive like figures in the next painting on the right in the gallery) . His intricate compositions are loaded with imagery from a collection of sources, including comic books, action figures,religion, motifs from childhood, and popular culture.

In this work Torpedo Boy is being offered an apple from the Knowledge Rental Pawn Exchange Service from the Ku Klux Klan hooded figure on the right. Notice the writing on both figures, what is the narrative? What is the symbolism of the apple?

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S ch l e p an d S c rew , Kn o wl e d g e R e n ta l P a wn E x c ha ng e Ser v i c e, 2017, Acr yl i c an d mix ed med i a on c a n v a s, 60x 60x 6i n

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W h e n T h ey Fo u n d M e I W a sn ’ t T h e r e , V e r si o n #2, 2016 14x 21i n , Ac ry l i c a n d mix ed me dia o n c an v as, 72x72i n

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T r e n t o n D oy l e H an c o c k

About the work Hancock continues his interest in storytelling in this work. Over the past three decades, Hancock has been building out this alternate world, each of his works is a part of this ongoing drama, in which beehive-like “Mounds,” representing, in his words, “the Earth and stability,” battle with skeletal “Vegans,” who he describes as “a mob…unleashed to upset that stability.” The Mounds and the Vegans are two forces that are constantly dueling with one another and serve as a representation of the eternal battle between good and evil.

The artist has long been admired for his ability to meld deep and personal narratives with a physically rigorous approach to painting. He creates an everexpanding lexicon to tell the tales of the Moundverse and its cast of characters.

In this work, Hancock engages the full breadth of his aesthetic arsenal, unfolding his mythology with a pantheon of new quasi-deities and villains alongside Torpedoboy, Hancock’s superhero doppelgänger.

Watch the video: Trenton Doyle Hancock, Mind of the Mound

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Tren to n Do yl e Ha n co ck

Watch/Discuss

Links to videos:

Trenton Doyle Hancock Art21 https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s2/trenton-doylehancock-in-stories-segment/ Trenton Doyle Hancock: Real Biography | Art21 “Extended Play,” 5 minutes https://youtu.be/OgZWl1ut_Jk Artist Trenton Doyle Hancock produced by Scott Newman and Marc Santo for Revel In, 5 minutes https://youtu.be/oAC_7Ceo3Ok Artist Trenton Doyle Hancock discusses his story of the Mounds as it’s told through his paintings. https://art21.org/read/trenton-doyle-hancock-storytellingcharacters-and-colors/ Trenton Doyle Hancock: Mind of the Mound, 3 minutes https://youtu.be/OgZWl1ut_Jk

Discuss:

Before Viewing Think about objects you collect or objects that are collected by friends or family members. Where are items found for these collections?

How are they stored? What are other types of collections people create?

Why do people make collections?

Have you ever had an epiphany?How did you know, and what was it like?

What is the difference between a character and a caricature? www.pbs.org/ art21/education/individuals/lesson1.html

What is a character? Think of a movie or a TV character. Is it fictional? Are they real people?

During Viewing Do these look like characters?

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Watch/Discuss After Viewing How are Hancock’s characters not fake? What makes them real? Are they real even though they look like characters? *From www.pbs.org/art21/education/ individuals/lesson1.html

After Viewing Hancock describes how he organizes his belongings into mounds, stacks or piles. He also uses mounds as a motif in his artwork. What are the similarities and differences between the mounds in his physical space and the mounds in his art?

Hancock has many objects in his studio that once belonged to his family. He calls these objects “echoes,” and says that because they are in his presence the objects “echo” into his work. How are these “echoes” apparent in his work? What are the important items that you have from your friends or family that create specific “echoes” for you?

How does the saga that Hancock is illustrating relate to mythology and myths passed down through time? www.pbs.org/art21/education/rituals/lesson1. html

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Classroom Ideas

Sho rt d e sc ri p t io n . L o r em ips u m do lo r si t a met, co n sectetu r ad i p i sc i ng e l i t . Q u is qu e u t eg e s t as .

Sc h lep a n d S c r e w, K n o wl e d g e R e n ta l P a w n Exc ha ng e Ser v i c e, 2017, A c ry lic a n d mi x e d m e d i a o n c a n v a s, 60x60x6i n

CASTS OF CHARACTERS Create a cast of characters. Think about what identity each character might represent (for example, power, weakness, love). Assign each character a different color, pattern, material, medium, or discipline that embodies its assigned identity. Make a creative forum for these characters such as a screenplay, a story, work of visual art, a musical, or theatrical work. www.pbs.org/art21/education/ individuals/lesson1.html Create a work of visual poetry that brings together storytelling, word play, and illustration.

Create a contemporary superhero/heroine. To what issues and values would this hero or heroine be dedicated? Who would be his or her arch-enemy, or what would be his or her greatest challenge? What would his or her strengths and weaknesses be? What would his or her costume look like? Create that costume and a cartoon or comic narrative to illustrate the hero or heroine’s experiences. www.pbs.org/art21/education/individuals/lesson3.html *specific to Schlep and Screw, Knowledge Rental Pawn Exchange Service, 2017 Superheros Think of a superhero. Do you think of The Incredibles? Do you think of Superman? Batman? Iron Man? Do you think of wonder woman? How do you normally think of a superhero?

How about a villan? A “bad guy”? Is there a bad guy in this work?

Look at Hancock’s work. What about it looks like a superhero, if anything? Does it seem like an Iron Man or a Batman? How is Hancock’s art addressing a superhero/villain situation?

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Classroom Ideas (For older groups) How might Hancock’s art suggest a hero or a societal hero or villain? What, if anything, seems to point to that? The color? The position of the hero and the villain? (for older audiences) This painting is often looked at in the context of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. How do these superhero-supervillain looking figures represent racial tensions during that era?

Caricature What is a caricature? How are caricatures like cartoons? Do cartoons and characters always show the truth? How can you trust a caricature or cartoon if they are distorted?

How does Hancock’s work portray a caricature? Does it, at all?

Aliens Is there anything that looks a little supernatural about this work? Does the figure on the right look like a ghost? What might that mean?

“ I , I , I , I , Etc . . . ,” 2 0 0 2 G r aphi te , acry l i c and i nk on p a p e r , 1 1 1 /2 × 9 3 /4 i nc he s C o u r t e sy J am e s Cohan G al l e ry , N e w Y o rk and Dunn and Brow n C o n t e mporary , Dal l as

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“Henry’s textile wall hangings come in a series of forms, many of which are faces, constructed from dyed cotton, leather, felt, linen, and burlap. These are layered and hand-embroidered into figurative cutouts, not unlike paper dolls. But unlike paper dolls, they are posed in grotesque configurations, with missing limbs, empty eye sockets, and mouths agape. Henry contrasts dark indigos, deep reds, and blacks with light yarn and thread, so the embroidery stitched across faces and around mouths reads like sutures and scars. The mix of textures suggests bruises and lesions, making the figures all the more mournful.”

-https://burnaway.org/review/the-stitch-of-death-alicia-henry-at/

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Courtesy of Women’s Studio Workshop

Alicia Henry Alicia Henry was born in 1961 in Chicago and lives and works in Nashville. She received her BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her MFA from the Yale School of Art. Alicia Henry has been called an “antiportraitist.” Rather than focusing on unique features or expressive posture to offer insight into a subject’s psychological truth, her figures depict the face as a shield to protect vulnerable aspects of the self.

Henry has been the recipient of the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art award, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painter and Sculptor grant, Guggenheim and Ford Foundation fellowships, and residencies at the MacDowell Art Colony and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Her work has been in solo and group exhibitions at insitutions such as Cheekwood Museum (2018), Hunter Museum of American

Art (2014), Frist Art Museum (2003), Islip Art Museum (2002), and The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (2002).

She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ghana and a volunteer on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. She is currently a professor of art at Fisk University in Nashville.

Links to videos: https://youtu.be/0bsc3omkzV8 Hunter Museum of American Art, Artist Alicia Henry Speaks about works and development as an artist, 4 minutes

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U nti tl e d ( B l u e N o se , M a l e ) , 2015, Mi xed Medi a , 32x17i n

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About the work In Untitled (Blue Nose, Male), Alicia Henry uses the ambiguity of the blue-nosed man to portray a figure without a definite identity. Henry uses texture and mixed media to heighten the “unknown” or “unspecified” parts of her work; she makes the viewer question if this man is even human. This piece, and all her pieces, do not reflect specific subjects, just mere inspirations. The main part of the work, the nose, mimics a clown nose. Henry makes a statement about Black bodies and how they are often discounted for facetious or comedic reasons. The emotion of the face, or lack thereof, is completely undermined by the nose and the polka-dotted collar. She conveys emotional characteristics without human expression.

This work interrogates political and cultural notions of household, family, and identity. Henry describes her work as multimedia and anti-portraitist. All of Henry’s works are untitled. Just as her works don’t conform to a specific definition, neither do their titles. Alicia Henry crafts identity from ambiguity.

Look at this face: •

Why is it made of fabric?

•

What does it remind you of?

•

What, if anything, does it imply about beauty?

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A l i ci a Hen ry

Watch/Discuss

Links to videos:

https://youtu.be/0bsc3omkzV8 Hunter Museum of American Art, Artist Alicia Henry Speaks about works and development as an artist, 4 minutes

Discuss: Before Viewing What do we see when we look in the mirror? Do you see specific features?

Do you see eyes, a nose, ears, or hair? What do you concentrate on when you see these features, anything specific?

Think of a face. How do you picture a human face? (eg. hair, eyes, glasses, freckles) What features do you assign to it?

What emotions do faces convey? How? How do we identify each other? When you look in a magazine, how can you recognize a celebrity or sports star?

During Viewing What do Alicia Henry’s faces do?

Do these faces fall in line with what you had in mind? How? If yes, why? If not, why?

After Viewing How do faces reflect identity as a larger concept? Do faces define identity?

Can a face convey everything about a person? In what ways does Henry’s work answer these questions? Can we say who the Blue Nose Man is just by the face? Can we talk about the identity just looking at the face?

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Classroom Ideas

Masks, Faces, Emotion Activity: Look in the mirror. Look at your face.

Think: What do faces do? How do we show emotion on our faces?

Apply: Looking at the Untitled Blue Nose, Male, how does this work fit into the role of a typical face?

How does it redefine what faces are supposed to do?

How does the Blue Nose Male show emotion? Does it?

Can you say anything specific about a face like the Untitled Blue Man? How do her portraits show the features of a person?

Think: Picture a mask.

OR Activity: Ask students to cut out or create a mask of their own using the template.

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Classroom Ideas Apply: What do masks do? (Masks hide faces; masks conceal features. Think of a clown or face paint, think of a superhero, think of a villan.

How can a face be hidden?

Why would a face be hidden?

If you could hide your features, how would you construct a mask?

Would your mask look like Alicia Henry’s mask?

Do they look like a clown?

Can you pinpoint anything about the face?

Can you say anything for certain?

Then, after having cut out the masks, ask students to look at each other with the mask on. How do we know that we’re still people? How can we identify a person even with a mask on?

Relate it back to Alicia Henry: How does Henry’s work look and appear like a mask?

Are they masks you can wear?

What if you could wear the Blue Man Nose mask?

How is the Untitled, Blue Man Nose mask different than the mask you are wearing?

Think: What are emotions? How do faces show emotion? How do masks conceal emotion? Can faces ever not show emotion?

Connect: Greek comedy and tragedy used masks to convey emotion.

Relate: Do Alicia Henry’s works show emotion? Can you tell if the person in the portrait is happy or sad? Can you tell if they feel anything at all?

Image source https://www.huffpost.com/entry/customer-experience-desig_b_6141018

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Classroom Ideas

Portrait •

Think: Look at a traditional portrait versus Henry’s portraits. In what ways are they alike, in what ways do her portraits defy traditional notions?

•

Compare: Frida Kahlo, for example. Her “portrait” is different than Alicia Henry’s, very clearly.

In what ways do these portraits compare, if any? How does each portray identity, if at all?

•

Activity: Have students bring in pictures of their own household, or family picture. Look at the picture, look at how portraits fall into roles. Look at the way each feature is constructed, how each eye, nose, and mouth is created.

Relate: Do Henry’s portraits fall into the typical model of a portrait? Does the Untitled Blue Nose Man look like the portrait the students brought?

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Classroom Ideas

Ni cko l a s M ura y F r i d a o n B e nc h, 2 n d Ed – N e w Y o r k C it y – 1939

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Ni cko l a s M ura y F r i d a o n B e nc h, 2 n d Ed – N e w Y o r k C it y – 1939

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Other Works In the event of not using Henry’s Blue Nose Man, another discursive work is untitled (tall figure) 2015, dye, thread, cotton, charcoal, linen, felt, acrylic, 80 x 24�

Image credit: http://zeitgeist-art.com/aliciahenry

78 Kaphar is a recipient of numerous prizes and awards including a Gwendolyn Knight and Jacob Lawrence Prize, a Creative Capital grant, a 78

Robert R. Rauschenberg Artist as Activist grant, and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant.

Kaphar’s work has been included in solo and group exhibitions at National Portrait Gallery (2018-19), MoMA PS1 (2015), The Studio Museum in Harlem (2014-15), Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art (2012), and Seattle Art Museum (2009).

His work is included in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, Perez Art Museum Miami, Brooklyn Museum, The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Seattle Art Museum, among others.

Links to videos: © Titus Kaphar. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

Titus Kaphar

Titus Kaphar was born in 1976 in Kalamazoo, Ml, and lives and works in New York City and New Haven. He received his BFA from San Jose State University and his MFA from the Yale School of Art. Kaphar’s work interacts with the history of art by appropriating its styles and mediums. It operates on layers of history, remixing traditional styles of portraiture to include subtextual presences of historically marginalized figures. His works have been described as “reconstructive histories,” creating new stories somewhere between fact and fiction to uncover the legacy of historical, cultural, and personal erasure.

Titus Kaphar TED Talk Painter Titus Kaphar | 2018 MacArthur Fellow https://www.ted.com/talks/ titus_kaphar_can_art_amend_ history?language=en

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A D i stu r b i n g S i l e n c e , 2011, Oi l on c a nv a s w i th a nti que fr a me, 5 2 x 48x 12.5i n

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T i t u s K ap h ar

About the Work A Disturbing Silence is part of Kaphar’s immersive installation titled “The Vesper Project,” which was inspired by the concept of confabulation, in which one falsely creates or misinterprets a memory. The installation followed the story of the Vesper family, an 1800s family who were able to pass as white despite their mixed heritage making them “negro” in the eyes of the law. The works in his project were mixed with an intricate installation that included the original frame from a 19th century house that gradually became more and more surreal, representing a psychological space in which one slips into madness.

Look at this piece: •

The majority of this man’s face is shrouded, leaving only the eyes showing.

The covering of fabric and tar is imposed upon him. What does it mean to be covered?

•

What is he able to portray despite the covering? What does it mean that the covering is imposed?

Learn more about the Vesper Project:

Opp o s i t e p a ge A Dis t u rb in g S ile n c e , 2011, O i l o n c a n v a s w i th a nti que fr a me, 5 2 x 4 8 x 1 2 . 5 in

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Khalik Allah

Watch/Discuss Links to videos: Titus Kaphar TED Talk Painter Titus Kaphar | 2018 MacArthur Fellow

Discuss Before Viewing Traditionally, in what roles have you seen people of color represented in artwork? What roles have you seen them play in more modern artwork?

Is there a character in a movie, book, TV show, etc. that you feel like you really relate to? How has that character affected you, or how did that make you feel?

How is history written? Who writes it? Is it perfect?

Is memory perfect?

Have you ever talked about or thought about a memory and been told or realized that the memory is not real?

During Viewing Make up a story about this man’s life. Who do you think he is? What is he like? When/where does he live?

What is the effect, both literal and metaphorical, of the black sheet for you?

Think about the way in which his face and the portrait is covered. What could this represent?

How does this make you feel? What do you think the man is feeling?

After Viewing Who do you believe the man in the portrait was? Do you think we are supposed to know his name? Why or why not?

Think about issues of representation in art and in history. In what way does this piece comment on the representation of black men? How does the veil over his face play into this commentary?

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Watch/Discuss

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Classroom Ideas 1.

Middle/High School a. Include Kaphar’s work in a discussion of early American history as a way to introduce/discuss the ways in which America was built on slavery i.

Introduction: Quick Write/Reflection 1. Ask students to quickly write down the traditional ways in which the United States’ founding fathers are depicted and/or talked about.

2. Discuss with the class and compile a list ii.

Activity: Art Comparison 1. Walk through a slideshow of portraits of America’s founding fathers a. Ask: i.

What does the pose of the figure tell us about them? Are they weak or strong? ii.

What do you think the artist was trying to portray about this person? iii.

What is the purpose of this painting?

2. Parallel these pieces with some of Kaphar’s works that include the founding fathers a. Ask: i.

Who has Kaphar added into these paintings? Who is no longer shown or what has changed about them? ii.

How are the new additions depicted? What does their pose, gaze, and their emotions say about them? iii.

What do you think Kaphar is trying to make us consider with these paintings?

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Classroom Ideas iii.

3. Introduce Kaphar: TED Talk Assignment: “Amend” history 1. Ask students to work in groups to… a. Find a topic in which the work and/or influence of people of color has been erased (ex. Rock & roll, the auto industry, etc.) b. Find a piece of art that may need to be “amended” 2. Write-up a. Students will research and write a short write-up on the history that has been forgotten as compared to the history that is largely told.

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Classroom Ideas 2.

High school a. Mention his work as an example of memory errors and confabulation (this can be integrated into many different subjects, including English/Literature, History, Psychology, etc, whenever it is relevant)

Pre-Work: Article (or read in class, read together, etc.)

Focus on Kaphar’s responses to the questions “How did ‘The Vesper Project’ begin?” and “So the story is not made of your memories, it’s more of a narrative about your work?”

Introduction: “Two truths and a lie” style game 1. Model for students a. Tell a story of a “formed” memory from your childhood that has developed due to repeated stories about it being told my your relatives. i.

Students vote (and no middle ground!): 1. One side of the room is “real” vote 2. Opposite side is “fake” vote b. Reveal: Talk about what “formed” memories are 2. Students participate a. Ask students to write down one “true” memory and one “formed” or “fake” memory b. Students volunteer to tell one of the stories (their choice), and the others move to cast their votes on if it was real or not 1.

i.

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Classroom Ideas ii.

Discussion 1. After the game, ask: a. How did you know if someone’s memory was real or not? Could you tell? b. How do you know that your own memory was real?

2. Discussion of memory fallacies

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Classroom Ideas Middle/high school a. Use the basis of “The Vesper Project” as a creative writing assignment.

Introduction: Explore the online panorama 1. Independent Questions: a. What do you see? b. How does this make you feel? c. What elements of this installation makes it feel real? What makes it feel fake? i.

Does it feel more real or fake to you?

2. Read the “History” and “Story” pages on the website in small groups a. Compare/contrast i.

What is different? What is similar? b. Which one, if any, do you think is real?

What makes you think that? i.

Creative Writing Project: A “story” and a “history” Prompt: Choose one true event from your life and tell a “story” and a “history” that lead up to that event (page length variable on class). One of the two, “story” or “history,” should be the true story. In addition to these two papers, write a short, 1-page explanation of which of the two is the “true” story and why you chose to make it so.

3.

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Other Resources Smarthistory Teaching Guide: Titus Kaphar, The Cost of Removal https://smarthistory.org/seeing-america-2/politics-and-power-2/guide-for-teaching-kaphar-costof-removal/

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Lesson Plan: Reframing History (Titus Kaphar’s ​Shadows of Liberty​ and Portraits of George Washington) Suggested age group: Middle to high school Subjects: History, Art, Philosophy, Learning goals: ● Visual Literacy ○ Students will closely examine portraits ○ Students will analyze the portrayal of individuals in art ● Social Consciousness ○ Students will reframe their view of historical figures in the recognition of facts that have been historically left out of the conversation or ignored ● Critical Thinking ○ With guided questions, students will work to develop their own analysis of a portrait ● Communication and Collaboration ○ Students will work in small groups to analyze and discuss their thoughts on the portrait they are given--not necessarily having to come to the same conclusion about it, but simply to help each other and share ideas Introduction​: Discussion of Washington ​ Crossing the Delaware 5 minutes ​ Show Washington Crossing the Delaware Ask students: ● Have you ever seen this painting before? → Do you know where you’ve seen it? → Have you seen it in textbooks? ● Who is in this painting? ● What event is shown?

Vote: Do you believe the painting is accurate or not?

After vote, ask why they believe that Discuss historical inaccuracies: 1. Time of day: The crossing occurred at night. In the painting it appears to be dawn.

2. River: The river shown appears to be modelled after the Rhine, a river in Europe. The section of the Delaware that the American army crossed was quite narrow.

3. Flag: The flag shown in the painting was not in use until a year after the battle.

4. Boat: The boat is too small to accomodate 12 men.

5. Washington: He was only 44 during the battle and appears much older.

6. Pose: Washington would not have been standing. The boat would have capsized.

Point out to students: Sometimes we portray history inaccurately, especially in art. Sometimes, however, we ignore or leave out specific parts of history, and now there is a movement of bringing up those things we’ve ignored.

If time: Ask for examples any students know of

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Activity​: Portrait analysis 40 minutes Assign students into small groups (3-5 students, depending on class size) Pass out William Clarke’s portrait of George Washington For 5 minutes, allow students to discuss their interpretation of the painting with, but not limited to, the guiding questions.

After, students share Show the exhibition label on the National Portrait Gallery’s ​website Pass out Titus Kaphar’s portrait of George Washington For 5 minutes, allow students to discuss their interpretation of the painting with, but not limited to, the same guiding questions. ​Don’t tell them what’s on him!

After, students share Ask students (3-5 minutes): ● How are the two portraits similar? How are they different? ● How does each one make you feel? ● How does each artist portray Washington (positively/negatively)?

Reveal to the students that the additions are strips of canvas with the names of all of Washington’s slaves that are nailed to the painting.

Written Reflection (quickwrite, 2mins): How does the fact that the names of Washington’s slaves are nailed to his figure reframe your view of ​both paintings?

Share/discuss the reflections (5 mins) Introduce Titus Kaphar Mention his focus on history that has been ignored or lost and what/who has been ignored in both history and art AMEND​ history Watch TED Talk​ (12 minutes) Preferably, watch all the video. If not possible, start at 6:27 Conclusion​: Written and verbal reflection 5 minutes Quick write (3 minutes): What are your takeaways from reframing your view of a traditional painting? What are your feelings about the activity and Kaphar’s talk?

Share out: Ask the students to choose one important word that stands out to them from their written reflection. Go around and have each student share the word to the group.

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William Clarke (American), ​George Washington​, 1800 Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery

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Guiding questions: ● Where is you eye drawn when you look at this painting? ● What is going on in this painting? Where is Washington? How do you know? ● How does Washington look? What does that show about him? ● Why is he on a horse? What does it symbolize about Washington or the situation he is in? ● What are some of the main colors you see in this painting? What significance do they have? ● What is the artist trying to display about Washington with this photo?

Guiding questions: ● Where is you eye drawn when you look at this painting? ● What is going on in this painting? Where is Washington? How do you know? ● How does Washington look? What does that show about him? ● Why is he on a horse? What does it symbolize about Washington or the situation he is in? ● What are some of the main colors you see in this painting? What significance do they have? ● What is the artist trying to display about Washington with this photo?

Guiding questions: ● Where is you eye drawn when you look at this painting? ● What is going on in this painting? Where is Washington? How do you know? ● How does Washington look? What does that show about him? ● Why is he on a horse? What does it symbolize about Washington or the situation he is in? ● What are some of the main colors you see in this painting? What significance do they have? ● What is the artist trying to display about Washington with this photo?

Guiding questions: ● Where is you eye drawn when you look at this painting? ● What is going on in this painting? Where is Washington? How do you know? ● How does Washington look? What does that show about him? ● Why is he on a horse? What does it symbolize about Washington or the situation he is in? ● What are some of the main colors you see in this painting? What significance do they have? ● What is the artist trying to display about Washington with this photo?

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Titus Kaphar (American), ​Shadows of Liberty​, 2016 Courtesy of the Artist

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Titus Kaphar’s Work Shadows of Liberty​ 2016 A portrait of George Washington with the names of all his slaves written and nailed to his figure on strips of canvas Ferguson Protestors​ 2014 (for TIME magazine) Seeing Through Time​ 2018 Other Portraits George Washington​ (painting), 1800, by William Clarke Painted after George Washington’s death -- refers to Washington’s military and presidential achievements George Washington​ (bust), 1819 copy after 1792 original, by Massimiliano Ravenna (original Giuseppe Ceracchi) Portrays George Washington as a Roman emperor -- made by Ravenna for sale in the US George Washington​ (painting), 1976, by Louis S. Glanzman (no info on website, but my notes) -- Posture portrays forward thinking-ness, the red white and blue is portrayed in many different facets (red in the background, obviously, white in his clothing and eyes, blue of his eyes). The importance of the blue in the eyes as the only piece of blue in the painting portrays Washington as an essential part of patriotism or portrays his patriotism at his core Commemoration of Washington or Apotheosis of Washington,​ 1800-1816, by John James Barralet Printed after his death, shows Washington rising to the heavens from his tomb, “assisted by Father Time and Immortality.” Notably, a Native American is shown in the print to be mourning at his feet. There are multiple figures that allegorically represent America, Faith, Hope, and Charity, also shown mourning.

George Washington,​ 1780, by Noël Le Mire

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“My introduction was like everybod You see an art hi that has works b and Leonardo da Michelangelo. Ye are great. But I d reflection of mys these things I’m 96

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n to art history dy else’s. story book y Rembrandt a Vinci and es, these things don’t see a self in any of looking at.”

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Kerr y Jam e s M a rsha l l

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Kerry James Marshall 98

©KATHERINE MCMAHON

Kerry James Marshall was born in 1955 in Birmingham, AL. He grew up in South-Central Los Angeles and now lives in Chicago. He studied at the Otis Art Institute (now the Otis College of Art and Design) in Los Angeles, earning his BFA and an honorary doctorate.

Marshall is a painter, photographer, printmaker, and installation artist whose remarkable talent has earned him a coveted MacArthur Fellowship. He is known foremost for his large-scale narrative paintings that focus on critical issues of race and history in African American daily life and black subjects excluded from the artistic canon. His black protagonists

are always, in his words, “unequivocally, emphatically black.” His work is rooted in his life experience. Having been born in the Deep South prior to civil rights and growing up in the tough climate of SouthCentral Los Angeles, near the Black Panthers headquarters, he feels his work has a social responsibility.

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles presented Kerry James Marshall: Mastry in 2017, the first major museum survey of the artist’s work, focusing on his paintings from the past thirty-five years. The show first opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2016), followed by The Met Breuer (2016-17).

Marshall’s work is in the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art, National Gallery of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Walker Art Center, and Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.

Links to videos: Kerry James Marshall Art21 https://art21.org/watch/ art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s1/kerry-jamesmarshall-in-identity-segment/ “Kerry James Marshall wants to see black people in art, all the time,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2 minutes https://www.sfmoma.org/watch/ kerry-james-marshall-wants-to-see-blackpeople-in-art-all-the-time/

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B l a c k B e a u ty ( A l a n a ) , 2012, A r c hi v a l di g i ta l pr i nt. 27. 5x17. 5 i n

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About the work In Kerry James Marshall’s Black Beauty, Marshall confronts what both Black and Beautiful mean. Marshall’s style makes the work appear very similar to a painting, blurring the lines between the media. In this work, Marshall uses photography to explain what existing in a “colored world” means. The blue lighting of the portrait closely aligns with the the 1980s screenplay titled In Moonlight, Black Boys Look Blue and the 2016 film Moonlight. The theme of blue lighting and references to black skin appearing blue under the moonlight ran throughout both pieces, implying that in the moonlight, Black bodies relate to the world differently.

Watch this Video: Moonlight Movie CLIP, Decide for Yourself (2016) - Trevante Rhodes Movie

•

What do you think it means that Black boys look blue in the moonlight?

•

How does it relate to Marshall’s piece?

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K erry j a mes Ma rsh a l l

Watch/Discuss Links to videos: Kerry James Marshall Art21 https://art21.org/watch/art-in-the-twenty-first-century/s1/kerry-james-marshall-inidentity-segment/ “Kerry James Marshall wants to see black people in art, all the time,” San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2 minutes https://www.sfmoma.org/watch/kerry-james-marshall-wants-to-see-black-people-inart-all-the-time/

Discuss: IF USING Black Beauty (Alana) Before Viewing Kerry James Marshall uses portraits to “say things.” He uses painting and photography both, something a lot of people don’t normally do. Look at this work: does it look like a painting or a photo?

During Viewing What makes you say that? How does it look like a painting? How does it look like a photo?

After Viewing The person in this work is alone. How do they fill the space, what does the lighting do for the space?

OR What are your first thoughts when seeing this work? Do any initial words or phrases come to mind?

How would you describe this work to someone who could not see it? Use as many sensory details as possible.

Why do you think the artist chose to use these specific materials and colors for this sculpture? https://dsmpublicartfoundation.org/lesson-plan/a-monumental-journey/

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Watch/Discuss Before Viewing Ask students to make a list of those things that are connected to their i d e n t i t y (e.g., people, experiences, race, religious values, interests, objects, places). Another way of asking this question is, “What makes you, you?”

After Viewing • Marshall says he wants to “reclaim the image of blackness as an image of power.” What do you think he means and how does he try to do this?

•

What do you learn about Marshall’s identity from this segment?

• Marshall says that he is either working with a set of conventions that have already been established or he is working against a set of conventions. Pick at least two works by Marshall that you saw in the video and tell which view you think they express and why.

• Do you think artists look at works in a museum differently than other people? How so?

What connections exist between art of the past and the work Marshall is doing today?

• What inspired Marshall to create comic strips?How are Marshall’s comic books different from other comic books?

• have?

What social responsibilities does Marshall assume? What social responsibilities do you

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Classroom Ideas •Study a painting by Marshall and list all of the visual references to the U.S. civil rights movement you see. Research what they mean. If the painting includes a picture of Martin Luther King Jr., for example, find out why his inclusion is significant. Write an essay that connects these elements and tells why they uniquely express Marshall’s identity.

• Marshall is particularly interested in learning about how other artists think and what processes they use. Some of this he learns by looking at art in different stages. See if a local artist would allow you to visit his or her studio to see and discuss works in progress.

• Visit a museum (or select an art book from the library) that shows paintings from before 1900. Select one that gives you ideas about an art w o r k you would like to create. Make a quick pencil sketch of the composition of the work. Later, create an artwork that uses the same composition.

• Design a greeting card in a particular artistic style or form that conveys a specific message or sentiment.

• Study paintings that represent the “grand narrative style” Marshall has incorporated in his art. Working in groups, design a mural that utilizes this form.

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Classroom Ideas Photojournalism Think of the way you see and hear news. Maybe it’s through a television, maybe it’s on the radio, but news is all around us. What was the most recent way that you heard news? Did someone tell you? Did you see it on TV? The way these stories and news are told is called journalism. In their work, Kerry James Marshall uses similar story-telling methods, but he uses camera and image, not TV or radio. Marshall uses something a little bit different called “Photojournalism.”

What is Kerry James Marshall trying to say with this image, what is the news?

Who is speaking? Are they telling a story here?

What stood out to you about the picture, is it the eyes? How about the darkness, the earring, or the necklace?

How does the picture share a story or tell you news? What about the picture makes you say that?

How is this different than the other ways you receive news?

This is another important image in photojournalism: Image credit: https://www.historyonthenet.com/ authentichistory/1930-1939/2-fdr/1-newdeal/ https://guides.loc.gov/migrant-mother

How do these news images compare? Are they alike? Are they different?

What about the colors?

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Classroom Ideas Reflection What might this picture say about Marshall? What are the implications of photographing other people? How might pictures of others reflect what Marshall thinks of themself?

Examine this question in the three contexts: me, family/friends, world: What does this picture mean to me?

What might this picture mean to my friends?

What might this picture mean to the world? To society? How do other people, not like me, see this picture?

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Classroom Ideas Descriptive, not visual •

Virgil Thomson was an American (music) composer; much of his music focused on what it sounded like to “be American,” taking an idea--a very abstract idea, and making it sensory in a way that hadn’t been done previously. Thomson called these “musical portraits.”

•

An example of 11 of Thomas’ musical portraits, Wellesz Theatre, 21 minutes. https://youtu.be/z1WNK_AO7_Y

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Try to do the same thing with Marshall; try to take his visual work and describe it. Use words and phrases to describe what the person in the picture looks like. Then, try to find words to describe what they might be thinking or feeling.

•

After the activity: Was it hard to do this? Why? What is it about using words to describe something you see that made it so difficult?

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Other Resources Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation Educational and Family Resource A Monumental Journey: https://dsmpublicartfoundation.org/lesson-plan/a-monumental-journey/ For more information on Kerry James Marshall, see www.carnegieinternational.org/html/art/marshall.html VIDEOS AND FURTHER READING https://www.moca.org/storage/app/media/Education/KJM_ClassroomCurricGuide_MOCA_final.pdf Find a good collection of short videos created by museums and the PBS series, Art21: https://www.youtube.com/results?q=art+21+kerry+james+marshall Barbara Isenberg, “For Kerry James Marshall, the mission is clear: Bring portraits of black life into very white museums,” Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2017, accessed March 8, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-kerry-james-marshall-20170307-htmlstory. html Holland Cotter, “Kerry James Marshall’s Paintings Show What It Means to be Black in America,” New York Times, October 20, 2016, accessed March 8, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/arts/design/kerry-james-marshalls-paintings-show-what-itmeansto-be-black-in-america.html Victoria L. Valentine, “‘The Figure Remains Essentially Black in Every Circumstance’: Kerry James Marshall Previews His Master Paintings at MCA Chicago”, Culture Type, May 2, 2016, accessed March 8, 2017, http://www.culturetype.com/2016/05/02/the-figure-remains-essentially-black-inevery-circumstance-kerry-james-marshall-previews-his-masterpaintings-at-mca-chicago/.

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Other Resources

Another great work by Marshall: 7am Sunday Morning, Acrylic on canvas banner; 120 × 216 in. (304.8 × 548.6 cm). Collection Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Joseph and Jory Shapiro Fund by exchange, 2003.16 Photo: Michal Raz-Russo, © MCA Chicago

Questions about this picture: Picture your neighborhood. What do you think of? Houses, streets, street lights and stop signs?

What comes to mind?

What does looking at Marshall’s picture make you think of? Does it reflect your own neighborhood? What’s the same, and what’s different?

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“I wanted to ma a story, that wou people. I wanted moved by my wo it was specif ical intentions were matter. I wanted drawn in and aff sculpture.�

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ake art that told uld engage d them to be ork, whether lly what my or not did not d them to be fected by my 111

A l i s o n Saar

112 was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1989. In 2012 the United States Artists Program named Saar one of fifty USA fellows.

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Select public works include: Monument to the Great Northern Migration, Chicago; Swing Low: Harriet Tubman Memorial, Harlem; and Embodied, Los Angeles.

Her work is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Studio Museum in Harlem, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, High Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, and North Carolina Museum of Art, among others.

Links to videos:

Alison Saar Alison Saar was born in 1956 in Laurel Canyon, CA, and lives and works in Los Angeles. She received her BFA in studio art and art history from Scripps College in Claremont, CA, and her MFA from Otis-Parsons Institute (now the Otis College of Art and Design).

Her sculptures, installations, and prints incorporate found objects including roughhewn wood, old tin-ceiling panels, nails, shards of pottery, glass, and urban detritus. The resulting figures and objects become powerful totems exploring issues of gender, race, heritage, and history.

She has received three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and

Otis College influences of her parents, biracial identity, materials, history, how her life milestones affect her art, banality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlN0RjKsq4 VMFA (she mentions “making love�) goal or her art, ceiling tiles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ-j1Iqj9eQ Phone interview, technique, method, legacy, themes https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=oIYNgrPxB78

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C o tton D e m o n , 1993, K a o l i n, c ei l i ng ti n on w ood, c otton bol l , g l a ss, b r a n c h , 55x 16x 15i n

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A l i s o n S aa r

About the work Allison Saar’s hand-carved sculpture Cotton Demon is an expression of Black bodies, and an allusion to Central African Kongo Nkisi Nkondi or “power” figures. The figures are believed to control spiritual forces and are used to resolve arguments and avenge crimes. They contain carefully chosen materials in their bellies as well as in their hands. The belly of this figure contains a cotton boll, referencing African American slaves for whom the spirit may be responsible. The figure’s left hand holds a carved stick, turned away from the viewer, while the figure’s right hand is an open palm with jewels embedded in the fingers, almost as if it were offering something to the viewer. The face of the figure is ambiguous, unable to be deciphered or understood, lacking emotion. The lips are metal, nailed into it.

Think about it: •

What might the metal mouth mean?

•

What does it mean for the mouth to be nailed shut?

•

What might the hand be giving the viewer?

Op p o s i t e Pa ge – D e t a i l C o t t o n D e m o n , 1993, K a o l i n , c e i l i ng ti n on w ood, c otton bol l , gl a s s , b ra n c h , 55x 16x 15i n

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A l i so n Sa a r

Watch/Discuss

Links to videos:

Otis College influences of her parents, biracial identity, materials, history, how her life milestones affect her art, banality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlN0R-jKsq4 VMFA (she mentions “making love”) goal or her art, ceiling tiles https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=MJ-j1Iqj9eQ Phone interview, technique, method, legacy, themes https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=oIYNgrPxB78

Discuss: Before Viewing •

How does your family influence you and what you do? Do ever make art about your family?

•

Is the past important? Why or why not?

•

What materials or supplies can you find at school? Are they like the ones you can find at your house or at your friend’s house? What about outside?

•

How do the places we come from become part of our personal stories?

During Viewing •

What makes this art?

•

What does this make you think about?

•

How is Saar using different materials?

•

What parts stand out to you the most? Why?

•

What is the significance of color and texture in the art?

After Viewing •

How is Saar’s art like other art you have seen before? How is it different?

•

What do you think this art is saying?

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Classroom Ideas 1. Gather supplies (cutouts from magazines and newspapers, other collage materials). a. Is there something that happened in your family’s history that feels important to you or your family? It can be from your life or form before you were born. b. Arrange the cutouts together on a piece of paper, or other surface that the teacher chooses, so that they tell that story. c. Students can share their work with the class and explain the story it tells, and the role of that story in their family.

2. Interpreting art with poetry - based on Dayton Art Institute a. Looking at Alison Saar’s “Cotton Demon,” start thinking about what it might mean. b. Read one of the following poems: Page poem “Dirt” by Kwame Dawes (slavery, ownership, agriculture) https://poets.org/ poem/dirt Short Poem “American History” by Michael S. Harper (Alabama church bombing and middle passage) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42831/american-history56d2217856b08 c. Use the following points as discussion starters for these two works by African-American (Saar) and African-Jamaican (Dawes) or African-American (Harper): i.

Describe what you see when you look at Saar’s sculpture. Describe what you read in the poem. List any obvious similarities (e.g. the idea of the body and nature in Dawes’s poem or the hidden violence in Harper’s poem and the red stones and stick that color or the cotton boll that embeds itself in Saar’s sculpture) ii. Based on your understanding of racial inequalities, women’s issues and your own personal life experiences discuss what you think each of these works represents. In other words, what is the message or intent that you think the artist/poet is trying to convey to the viewer/reader? iii. How are the sculpture and the poem similar in their intent? d. After a thorough discussion of the sculpture and the poem, ask students to compose a short work of prose that conveys their personal response to these two works. e. BONUS STEP/ACTIVITY: ART PROJECT i.

Instruct students to select box and tube shapes (or whatever sculpture materials you choose - cardboard, cardstock, cans, pipecleaners) and combine to form a sculpture. Suggested sculpture is a chair, but a humanoid figure is another. Attach parts with hot glue. Embellish the surface with paint and/or collaged materials ii. Students can then incorporate their writing onto the sculpture in a creative way. For example, writing words directly onto it with paint or markers, or cut out letters and words from newspapers and magazines and collage them onto the sculpture

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Dirt

Kwame Dawes We who gave, owned nothing, learned the value of dirt, how a man or a woman can stand among the unruly growth, look far into its limits, a place of stone and entanglements, and suddenly understand the meaning of a name, a deed, a currency of personhood.

Here, where we have labored for another man’s gain, if it is fine to own dirt and stone, it is fine to have a plot where a body may be planted to rot.

We who have built only that which others have owned learn the ritual of trees, the rites of fruit picked and eaten, the pleasures of ownership. We who have fled with sword at our backs know the things they have stolen from us, and we will walk naked and filthy into the open field knowing only that this piece of dirt, this expanse of nothing, is the earnest of our faith in the idea of tomorrow.

We will sell our bones for a piece of dirt, we will build new tribes and plant new seeds and bury our bones in our dirt.

American History

BY MICHAEL S. HARPER Those four black girls blown up in that Alabama church remind me of five hundred middle passage blacks, in a net, under water in Charleston harbor so redcoats wouldn’t find them.

Can’t find what you can’t see can you?

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Other Works http://www.phylliskindgallery.com/artists/as/index.html https://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/mother--daughter-griots-lesson-plan/ https://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/alison-saar https://bombmagazine.org/articles/thread-to-the-word-alison-saar/ https://hyperallergic.com/440597/i-wanted-to-make-art-that-told-a-story-alison-saar-on-hereloquent-sculptures/ https://blog.nmwa.org/tag/alison-saar/ http://www.daytonartinstitute.org/educator/language_arts/wordshavemeaning-lesson.php https://mashable.com/2016/10/10/black-mental-health-art/#11Ch_ddICiq3

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Other Resources “Alison Saar” Phyllis Kind Gallery, copyright 2000. http://www.phylliskindgallery.com/artists/as/index.html “Mother & Daughter Griots” Crayola. https://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/mother--daughter-griots-lesson-plan/ “Alison Saar” National Museum of Women in the Arts. https://nmwa.org/explore/artist-profiles/alison-saar Roach, Hadley. “Alison Saar: Thread to the Word: Alison Saar” BOMB Magazine. 17 November, 2011. https://bombmagazine.org/articles/thread-to-the-word-alison-saar/ Brewer, Gary. “‘I wanted to make art that told a story’: Alison Saar on Her Eloquent Sculptures.”

Hyperallergic. 1 May, 2018. https://hyperallergic.com/440597/i-wanted-to-make-art-that-told-a-storyalison-saar-on-her-eloquent-sculptures/ “Director’s Desk: Space Explorers.” Broad Strokes Blog from National Museum of Women in the Arts. published by Women in the Arts, 10 July, 2019. https://blog.nmwa.org/tag/alison-saar/ “Words Have Meaning.” Meet Your Museum: an interdisciplinary guide for teachers from The Dayton Art Institute. Copyright 2010. http://www.daytonartinstitute.org/educator/language_arts/ wordshavemeaning-lesson.php Dupere, Kate. “5 Black Artists Using Their Work to Fight Mental Health Stigma.” Mashable. 10 October, 2016. https://mashable.com/2016/10/10/black-mental-health-art/#11Ch_ddICiq3

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Artist Betye Saar. Photo: Jason Schmidt.

124 Saar’s solo exhibition Betye Saar: Call and Response will open at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 2019.

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Links to videos: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=2L3Yk3Jfga8 “Betye Saar - Lifetime Achievement in the Arts - MoAD Afropolitan Ball 2017” (Museum of African Diaspora) (2:40)

Courtesy of Roberts & Tilton

Betye Saar Betye Saar was born in 1926 in Pasadena, CA, and lives and works in Los Angeles. Saar received her BA in 1949 from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Saar was part of the Black Arts and feminist movements in the 1960s and ‘70s. In the late 1960s, Saar began to collect what are euphemistically known as “black collectibles”everyday objects that featured racist caricatures of African Americans, such as figures of Aunt Jemima and Little Black Sambo.

After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, this ephemera became the cultural debris of racism that she would recycle into art.

Saar’s work is included in the permanent collections of over sixty museums, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, The Museum of Modern Art, National Museum of African American History and Culture, and National Gallery of Art.

https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=4jTZQzQwT_0 “Studio Tour with Betye Saar” (Los Angeles Times) (1:52) https://vimeo.com/40370355 “Betye Saar, Awardee video for the California African American Museum by Ricardo Genzon and Ruth Robinson, 2011” (5:24)

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Rhy th m & B l u e s, 20 1 0 , M ix e d med i a a ssemb l a g e, 21x15x20i n

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Rhythm & Blues, 2010, Mixed media assemblage, 21x15x20in

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About the work Betye Saar works with second hand objects, which she refers to as “black collectibles.” She found this cage and the figure inside it at a flea market. Her power is in her ability to combine black historical objects like these to create a complex piece of art with a new, subversive meaning. For her, cages symbolize the ways that institutions contain and restrict Black bodies. “It is a symbol of abstract expression of confinement or limitation,” she says. In this piece, Saar focuses on the perspective of the chosen “black collectible” in the cage. He is subject to the clown outfit, the restriction of the cage, and the differentiating gaze of those looking at him. Without arms, the figure seemingly has no way to escape. The coals under the figure reinforce its captivity.

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Betye Sa a r

Watch/Discuss Links to videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L3Yk3Jfga8 “Betye Saar - Lifetime Achievement in the Arts MoAD Afropolitan Ball 2017” (Museum of African Diaspora) (2:40) How she came to do the art she does. The time period, the black movement, what inspires her, the process of making her art, how her medium and race and gender influenced her popularity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jTZQzQwT_0 “Studio Tour with Betye Saar” (Los Angeles Times) (1:52) Symbols she uses, the piece called “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima”, “I just like using an ordinary object, and changing the meaning of it”, narrative quality of art, being an older artist. https://vimeo.com/40370355 “Betye Saar, Awardee video for the California African American Museum by Ricardo Genzon and Ruth Robinson, 2011” (5:24) Her family, her foundation, the inspiration of Watts Towers, the role of the Mammy and her thinking as she made “The Liberation of Aunt Jemima.” “That’s my weapon: making art that exposes the lives of black people”

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Discuss: Before Viewing • Do you collect things/have you ever collected things? Why did you keep them? Does collecting change the way you look at things?

• What is a stereotype? Think of some stereotypes that you see today.

Can you describe a stereotype of a boy or a girl?

• Where has your curiosity taken you in the past? Where might it take you in the future?

During Viewing • What kinds of objects are combined in Saar’s pieces? What do they have in common and what makes them different from each other?

• Are there objects or types of objects that appear in more than one of her pieces? What are they?

After Viewing • Why is assemblage Saar’s chosen medium? Why is it important to her?

• Is Saar’s art a form of protest? How? • How many different possible meanings can you think of for a single Betye Saar piece?

• Why do these objects make you feel a certain way? How does their meaning change when they are brought together?

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Classroom Ideas 1. Symbol Scavenging a. Do a search of everyday objects, products or advertisements from a different time periods.(online or print) b. What symbols and icons do you see? How do they reflect the time period?

2. Juxtaposition a. Group Version i.

Separate into groups of 4 or smaller.

1. Select images from magazines and magazine ads, or small objects such as watches, toys, figurines. ii.

Talk in your group. What does it mean to you? What does it make you think about? Describe it. What stories can you make out of it? What stories are made out of it now and how can you change those? iii.

Tell the class what your group came up with and thought and why. b. Individual Version i.

List or find pictures of some of your favorite objects. ii.

Answer some of the questions from part a.ii iii.

Rearrange the list or pictures until it has a different meaning. What new thing(s) did you create? How does it make you feel?

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Resources “Betye Saar.” Artnet. http://www.artnet.com/artists/betye-saar/ “Betye Saar - Lifetime Achievement in the Arts - MoAD Afropolitan Ball 2017.”YouTube, Uploaded by Museum of the African Diaspora MoAD, 27 November 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L3Yk3Jfga8 Ingram, Cindy. “The Liberation of Aunt Jemimah by Betye Saar.” Art Class Curator. 28 February 2017. https://artclasscurator.com/betye-saar-theliberation-of-aunt-jemima/ Genzon, Ricardo and Robinson, Ruth. “Betye Saar, Awardee Video for the California African American Museum.” Vimeo. 14 April 2012. https://vimeo. com/40370355 Guerra, Juvenio L. “The Ordinary Becomes Mystical: A Conversation With Betye Saar.”The Iris. 4 January, 2012. The Getty. http://blogs.getty.edu/iris/ the-ordinary-becomes-mystical-a-conversation-with-betye-saar/ Kentake, Meserette. “Betye Saar.” Kentake Page, 30 July 2015, http:// kentakepage.com/betye-saar/ Smee, Sebastian. “This 93 year old artist has been taking on racism and sexism for decades - and is finally getting her due.” The Washington Post.

25 September 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/ museums/this-93-year-old-artist-has-been-taking-on-racism-and-sexism-fordecades--and-is-finally-getting-her-due/2019/09/24/4e9552ee-de43-11e98dc8-498eabc129a0_story.html “Studio Tour with Betye Saar.” YouTube, Uploaded by Los Angeles Times, 3 May 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jTZQzQwT_0

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Hank Willis Thomas

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P u b l i c E nemy (I I ), 2016 screen p ri n t o n retro ref l ecti v e v i ny l , m o unt e d o n dibo nd , 48x71i n

134 Contemporary Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, The Baltimore Museum of Art, and Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, among others.

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https://art.utk.edu/visiting-artist-lecture-trenton-doyle-hancock/

Hank Willis Thomas Hank Willis Thomas was born in 1976 in Plainfield, NJ, and lives and works in Brooklyn.

He received his BFA from New York University and his MA/MFA from California College of the Arts. He received honorary doctorates from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts in Portland, ME. Thomas is a conceptual artist working with themes related to perspective identity, commodity, media, and popular culture. His work deals with issues of grief, black-on-black violence, the contributions of corporate culture to the crisis of black male identity, and African American representation in advertising and media.

Solo exhibitions of his work have been featured at Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, California African American Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Aldrich

Thomas is a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, an AIMIA I AGO Photography Prize, and a Soros Equality Fellowship. His work is included in numerous public collections including The Museum of Modern Art, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum, High Museum of Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, and National Gallery of Art.

Links to videos: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=jylwR1SuHw4 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Black Identity in america https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=YdR0GOLF918 MoMA Focuses on his work with advertisements

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P u b l i c E n e m y (I I ), 2016 screen p ri n t o n retro ref l ecti v e v i n yl , mo unt e d o n d ib o n d, 4 8 x71i n

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Hank Willis Thomas

About the work Hank Willis Thomas’ Public Enemy (II) can only be seen with light.

Take a picture of it with flash photography.

Notice the child at the forefront of the image, and his hand. This work aligns with a historical perception of Black bodies at the forefront of conflict, guns and authoritative figures in the background. Taken from an archive, this picture reveals a brutal part of a history in the fight for respect of Black bodies.

Thomas’ work interrogates notions of what history actually is and who controls it, considering that, without a flash photograph, the meaning is buried.

Think about it: •

If history can only be revealed when a flashlight is shone on it, who controls the narrative?

•

Are the Black bodies in control of the narrative? Do they hold the power to reveal the imagery and the true narrative?

•

How does Thomas interrogate these questions? Who is the “Public Enemy?”

Watch #InequalityIs: Hank Willis Thomas on the role of artists in fighting inequality

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P u b l i c Enemy (I I ), 2016 screen p ri n t o n retro ref l ecti v e v i ny l , m o unt e d o n dibo n d , 48x71i n

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lif e, 2 0 1 7 , q u ilt ed pr is o n u n if o r ms , 6 0x35x1.25i n

Hank Willis Thomas

About the work At first glance, the piece looks like a unified quilt through stitching, built from strips of fabric. Upon closer look, Thomas calls his audience to understand that the fabric is made from strips of prison uniform. Hank Willis Thomas’ Life interrogates norms of the United States prison industrial complex. The unity of the Black and white strips is overcome with the realization of juxtaposition and institutionalized racism that lies beneath the surface.

Watch Artist Hank Willis Thomas @VMFA:

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B la c k P o w er, 2 0 0 5 , L ig h t je t pr in t , ed it i o n 4/ 5, 25x40i n .

About the work Hank Willis Thomas’ Black Power references a variety of Black culture. The work exemplifies the essence of Black Power when the subject of the work proudly displays their gold grills while smiling. The grill is a piece of jewerly popular among Black men in Hip Hop culture. Thomas uses the grill as empowering, considering the combination of proud display and the words “Black Power.”

In addition, the grill is a status symbol, displaying wealth and commodity culture--a common theme among Thomas’ other works. The grill in Black Power nearly resembles an advertisement, that opposed to the consumerist culture that ignores the complexities of identity and lived experience, is empowering.

Thomas invites his audience to consider the ways in which certain demographics are targeted by advertisers and what assumptions those advertisements are based on, specifically regarding the question of identity.

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Ha n k W i l l i s Th o ma s

Watch/Discuss Links to videos: List URL and source (art21 or Smithsonian for example) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jylwR1SuHw4 Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Black Identity in america, transitional https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdR0GOLF918 MoMA Focuses on his work with advertisements-- What is being sold?

Before Viewing How are advertisements effective? When creating an advertisement, what sorts of things do you think the artists and the creative directors behind advertisements think about?

What is your favorite commercial? What about it do you like? Do you also like the product?

During Viewing How are Thomas’ views on identity demonstrated in his work? What are his views on identity?

What does Hank Willis Thomas mean when he says “Whenever you market toward a demographic, you have to be prejudiced?”

Who is shown in Thomas’s pieces and what roles are they in?

After Viewing Why is it harmful for advertisers to make assumptions about large groups of people?

Why does Thomas think that it is?

What comes to mind when you think of power or a powerful person? What qualities and/or objects are typically associated with a powerful person?

Why do you think Thomas chose to focus on this man’s teeth and the grill on them?

Why is it harmful for advertisers to make assumptions about large groups of people?

Why does Thomas think that it is?

How is commodity culture and Black identity communicated through Black Power?

What is being “sold” in Black Power?

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Classroom Ideas Thomas mentions DuBois’ idea of ‘double consciousness’ in his work.

Read this W.E.B. DuBois passage from “The Souls of Black Folk” (1903) and learn how DuBois’ explained the concept.

“It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. The history of the American Negro is the history of this strifethis longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He does not wish to Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He wouldn’t bleach his Negro blood in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportunity closed roughly in his face.”

Du Bois, W. E. B. (1903). p 2-3.The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Dover

Publications.

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Classroom Ideas Explain the two sides of double consciousness What does it mean when DuBois says: “measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity”? Is there something ironic about this?

From the pieces shown in the video, where can you see elements of double consciousness?

Two views Have students find advertisements, old or new, online/magazines/ newspapers. Together have them put the ads in to groups. Pass out blank sheets of paper to see how they would theme out each grouping (eg.sports, clothing, health, beauty). Having spent additional time with the advertisements ask students to decipher what is really being conveyed and to who (Not just what they want their audience to buy, for example) **It may be helpful to have the student paint out the logo/ brand and see how this changes the original meaning.**

Art21 Magazine Article https://magazine.art21.org/2012/10/29/hank-willis-thomas-believe-it/#.XZOr2udKhmA Jack Shainman Gallery https://www.jackshainman.com/artists/hankwillis-thomas/

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“We the People” By: Hank Willis Thomas Lesson Plan Created by: Kayleigh Gottschalk, Newark Digital Academy (Newark City Schools, OH)

Purpose:​ Analyze contemporary artworks by Hank Willis Thomas to better understand the perspectives of American people through research and historical references.

Materials: ● Teacher Computer ● Power Point ● Projector (Make sure sound will work) ● Handouts ● Students need either their phones or computers for research Learning Targets: ● I can explain the cultural influences of the artwork “We the People” by Hank Willis Thomas ● I can analyze how Hank Willis Thomas was influenced by cultural factors to create his contemporary artworks. ● I can compare and contrast themes of visual culture in Hank Willis Thomas’s artworks.

Visual Art Standards: 1PE Examine the context details of visual imagery and explain the social and cultural influences on the images.

4PE Analyze the work of individual artists and explain how they are influenced by cultural factors.

5RE Compare and contrast various theories of aesthetics and visual culture.

Lesson Sequence: 1. Welcome and introduce the class to the lesson.

2. Begin PowerPoint 3. Review positive communication with peers and teacher: We are not here to debate or argue, rather to learn different perspectives on contemporary issues to build a better understanding of our peers, and our community.

4. Review Lesson Sequence 5. Review Learning Targets 6. “We the People” Essential Questions: Ask students following questions and share out. a. What do you see? b. What do you think it’s made out of? c. What is the size? d. What does it say? e. Have you heard this phrase before?

7. Historical References: a. Who Wrote it? b. What year was it written?

“We the People” By: Hank Willis Thomas Lesson Plan c. Why did we write it? d. For whom was it written? e. Think about the time period f. Who had freedom? g. What was legal?

8. About the Artwork 9. Knowing what you know now… a. How does this change the meaning of the artwork? b. Why did the artist choose the material? c. What is the message? d. What does it mean to you? e. What does it mean to Neawrk? To Ohio? To the United States?

10. Another Perspective: Karima Amin a. Karima Amin was a person visiting the gallery and was asked to tell what the artwork meant to them. b. Read the passage on the next two slides c. Do you agree or disagree?

11. About the Artist 12. Activity a. Break your class into groups (3 total groups) b. Pass out activity handout c. Students need to work together and discuss d. Reconvene and share out!

13. Artwork: Angola Bound 14. Song: Angola Bound by Aaron Neville a. Listen to song first, then have the song group share out 15. Angola Prison 16. How does this change your perspective of the artwork?

17. Revisit Learning Targets

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Artwork Group

Title: Angola Bound Artist: Hank Willis Thomas Size: Material: Location: Why was it made?

What does it mean?

Why is it important?

How does this connect to contemporary issues?

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Angola Prison Group

Where is Angola Prison?

What did Angola used to be before it was a prison?

What is Angola known for?

What are some nicknames for Angola?

What was daily life like for an inmate?

What is the most interesting fact you learned?

What famous people have done time at Angola?

How is Angola different from any other prison?

Where does the name Angola come from?

What is your overall thoughts on Angola?

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Song Group

Angola Bound: By Aaron Neville Too many mornin' gotta wake up soon Oh Lord, and eat my breakfast by the light of 'de moon Oh Lord, by the light of 'de moon If you see my Momma, tell her this for me Oh I've got a mighty long time, Lord knows I'll never go free Oh Lord, I'll never be free Angola bound, now, Angola bound Angola bound, now, Angola bound I got lucky last summer when I got my time, Angola bound Well my partner got a hundred, I got ninety-nine, Angola bound You been a long time coming but you're welcome home, Angola bound And go to Louisiana get your burdens on, Angola bound Oh Captain, oh Captain don't you be so cruel, Angola bound Oh you work me harder than you work that mule, Angola bound If it wasn't for the Captain, oh Lord, I'm shaggin' house I'd be with my woman, yeah, before the sun goes down You come up here skippin' and a' jumpin', oh Lord, it won't last long Gonna wish you was a baby boy, in your mother's arms Angola bound, now, Angola bound Angola bound, now, Angola bound Don't want no gal-boy lovin' cause I got my load, Angola bound Don't want no trouble out 'de boys I know, Angola bound Oh they always talkin' 'bout dangerous blue, Angola bound If I had my shank I'd be dangerous too, Angola bound Oh Captain say walk and the boss say run, Angola bound If I had my pistol I would do 'nere one, Angola bound If it wasn't for the Captain, oh Lord, I'm shaggin' house I'd be with my woman, yeah, before the sun goes down You come up here skippin' and 'a jumpin', oh Lord it won't last long Gonna wish you was a baby boy, in your mother's arms Angola bound, now, Angola bound Angola bound, now, Angola bound If it wasn't for the Captain, oh Lord, I'm shaggin' house I'd be with my woman, yeah, before the sun goes down You come up here skippin' and 'a jumpin', oh Lord it won't last long Gonna wish you was a baby boy, in your mother's arms Angola bound, now, Angola bound Angola bound, now, Angola bound If I'd always listened to what my Momma said, Angola bound I wouldn't be deep down in the trouble this way, Angola bound Oh my Momma, she told me, leave that junk alone, Angola bound Got hooked to the habit, had to carry on, Angola bound The jury found me guilty cause they wrote it down, Angola bound Judge said, junkie boy you're penitentiary bound, Angola bound Angola bound, now, Angola bound Angola bound, now, Angola bound Angola bound, now, Angola bound

What is the song about?

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Song Group

What Mood is created in the song?

What can we tell about the speaker? (The Main Character)

Why is it important?

How does this connect to contemporary issues?

“We the People”

Hank Willis Thomas

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Your Teacher Your Peers The Materials Our Time Yourself

We are not here to debate or argue, rather to learn different perspectives on contemporary issues to build a better understanding of our peers, and our community.

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Rules: RESPECT

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Review Learning Targets and Goals Analyze the artwork “We the People�

Read a different perspective Learn about the artist Hank Willis Thomas Break out activity Research Bring it all together and share out!

Revisit learning targets and next step

Lesson Sequence

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● I can explain the cultural influences of the artwork “We the People” by Hank Willis Thomas ● I can analyze how Hank Willis Thomas was influenced by cultural factors to create his contemporary artworks. ● I can compare and contrast themes of visual culture in Hank Willis Thomas artworks.

Learning Targets

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Who had freedom?

What was legal?

Why did we write it?

Think about the time period

What year was it written?

For whom was it written?

Who wrote it?

Constitution of the United States of America

Historical References:

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About the Artwork

Collection Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; Gift of Mrs. George A. Forman, by exchange, 2016 (2016:17). Š Hank Willis Thomas.

Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Image courtesy of Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

74 x 90 inches (188 x 228.6 cm).

Decommissioned prison uniforms mounted on Sintra,

We The People, 2015.

Hank Willis Thomas (American, born 1976).

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Knowing what you know now‌

What does this mean in Newark? To Ohio? To the United States?

What does this mean to you?

What is the message?

Why did the artist choose the material?

How does this change the meaning of the artwork?

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The words—"We the People"—really intrigued me because prisoners are people. Oftentimes in the general public people tend not to think of prisoners as people. They are the other. They are criminals. They are ostracized. They are marginalized. They are criminalized. We forget that these people come from families, these people come from communities.

And when one person is incarcerated, the whole family is incarcerated.

When multiple families have a member who is incarcerated, then you have a community that’s impacted by the imprisonment of people.

Another Perspective: Karima Amin

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We The People comes from the preamble from the Constitution, and I remember having to memorize it in school: “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” Which made me think of all the rights that prisoners don’t have—and those they do have are oftentimes ignored or subverted. It’s interesting that this artist chose those words “We the People.” It’s a declaration. These are human beings.

Another Perspective: Karima Amin

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About the Artist

Where is he today? Lives and works in Brooklyn New York

What is he known for? Conceptual artist working primarily with themes related to perspective, identity, commodity, media, and popular culture.

Where is he from? Born in 1976, from PlainďŹ eld New Jersey

Who? Hank Willis Thomas

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1. Break into your groups (3 total) 2. Each group is going to get a different assignment 3. Work together to answer all questions in the handout, feel free to discuss!

4. You have 20 minutes 5. Reconvene and share out!

Activity:

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Artwork: Share Out

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Angola Bound

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Song: Share Out

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Follow along while we listen to the song:https://youtu.be/klxDxqhBctI

Angola Bound: By Aaron Neville

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Angola Prison: Share Out

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Angola Prison

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How does this change your perspective of the artwork?

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● I can explain the cultural influences of the artwork “We the People” by Hank Willis Thomas ● I can analyze how Hank Willis Thomas was influenced by cultural factors to create his contemporary artworks. ● I can compare and contrast themes of visual culture in Hank Willis Thomas artworks.

Revisit Learning Targets

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“To see yours others to see form of valid interested in mysterious a way we relat other in the 170

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self, and for e you, is a dation. I’m n that very and mystical te to each world.�

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M i cka l e n e Th o ma s

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Mi cka l en e Th o ma s

(2018); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2016); Aspen Art Museum (2016); and Aperture Foundation (2016).

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Her work can be found in the permanent collections of The Art Institute of Chicago; Brooklyn Museum; Detroit Institute of Arts; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; International Center of Photography; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Whitney Museum of American Art; The Museum of Modern Art; National Portrait Gallery; and North Carolina Museum of Art; among others.

Links to videos: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Mickalene Thomas.

Mickalene Thomas and Rebecca Matalon in Conversation”, moca.org

Mickalene Thomas Mlckalene Thomas was born in 1971 in Camden, NJ, and lives and works in Brooklyn.

Thomas received her BFA from the Pratt Institute and her MFA from the Yale School of Art. Thomas constructs complex portraits, landscapes, and interiors in order to examine how identity, gender, and sense of self are informed by the ways women are represented in art and popular culture. She has drawn inspiration from multiple artistic periods and cultural influences throughout Western art history. She models her figures on the classic poses and abstract settings popularized by modern masters as a way to reclaim agency for women who have been presented as objects to be desired or subjugated.

Solo exhibitions of her work have included those held at Wexner Center for the Arts (2018); Henry Art Gallery

1. Vimeo: “MICKALENE THOMAS” https://vimeo. com/289057551 18min 22sec long 2. Smithsonian American Art Museum: “Meet The Artist: Mickalene Thomas on ‘Portrait of Mnonja’” https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Fm3XvKd_KPs 3min 43sec long 3. Smithsonian American Art Museum: “Meet the Artist: Mickalene Thomas on Her Materials and Artistic Influences” https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ZK_kiAklIHA 3min 16sec long

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Liz and Chair with Zebra, 2013, C-print, edition 1/5, 2APs, 60x60in Tamika sur une chaise longue avec Monet, 2011, Mixed media collage, 7.25x10.5 in

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M i c k al e n e T h o m a s

Liz and Chair with Zebra, 2013, C-print, edition 1/5, 2APs, 60x60in

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About the work A contemporary black artist, Mickalene Thomas focuses her work on the exploration of black femininity and sexuality, claiming a space in the artistic world that has been long empty. Thomas was extremely inspired by her mother, who was an assured and glamorous woman who, as Thomas stated, controlled the room as soon as she stepped into it.

She recreates the same energy in her work, emphasizing not only beauty, but also strength and power.

Thomas furthermore often references or re-stages famous historical paintings in her own photographs, paintings, and collages in which she places black women in the position of white women. She is passionate and concerned with representation in the artistic world, and hopes that her work allows young black girls to see themselves represented in museums. Thomas’s sustained interest in visualizing the black woman’s relationship both to art history and to contemporary culture at large.

Watch: Meet the Artist: Mickalene Thomas on Her Materials and Artistic Influences, SAAM

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M i c k al e n e T h o m a s

About the work Building off of her 2008 photograph Tamika sur une chaise longue, Thomas builds off her photoshoot with Tamika while adding additional elements of famous Monet paintings that are situated in the background, transforming the space and emphasizing its elegance and class. Tamika’s pose references the image of the “odalisque.” Incredibly popular in historic artworks from Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres’ Grande Odalisque and Manet’s Olympia, the odalisque referenced a slave woman in a harem. In comparisons to typical depictions of these women in which they are extremely light-skinned and submissive, Thomas depicts Tamika, a dark-skinned black woman, looking strongly into the viewer’s eyes, depicting her power and control.

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Tamika sur une chaise longue avec Monet, 2011, Mixed media collage, 7.25x10.5 in

Olympia, 1863, Edouard Manet, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

The pose of Mickalene Thomas’s figure in Tamika sur une chaise longue avec Monet references the common image of the odalisque throughout art history. Odalisque translates to “female slave” or a “woman slave in a harem.” Male artists have depicted women as passive, sexualized objects for centuries. Thomas turns that history on its head by depicting women as empowered and in control.

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Mi cka l en e Th o ma s

Watch/Discuss Links to videos: 1. Vimeo: “MICKALENE THOMAS” https://vimeo.com/289057551 18min 22sec long - MAJOR THEMES OF THOMAS’S WORK NUDITY - 8:09-9:20 , 13:40-14:05 , 15:30-15:45 Black power//feminine power Representation//diversity Sexuality//gender Power of images//visibility Identity//ownership Beauty//power//vulnerability Memories//nostalgia Photography//collage - images of many of her pieces Models//setting (collaboration) 2. Smithsonian American Art Museum: “Meet The Artist: Mickalene Thomas on ‘Portrait of Mnonja’” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fm3XvKd_KPs 3min 43sec long - INTRO TO THOMAS & ONE OF HER ARTWORKS Power//sophistication//beauty//vulnerability Ownership of space Representation of American experience//patriotism Female//racial representation Collaboration with models 3. Smithsonian American Art Museum: “Meet the Artist: Mickalene Thomas on Her Materials and Artistic Influences” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK_kiAklIHA 3min 16sec long - INTRO TO THOMAS, HER MATERIALS, & HER INFLUENCES Art Materials (couldn’t afford paint - felt, rhinestones, glitter Influences (William H Johnson) Representation//visibility

Watch/Discuss Elementary School (Video 3) Before Viewing What materials do you like to make art with? (markers, glitter, googly eyes, etc.)

Do you have access to lots of art supplies at home?

During Viewing Write down the art supplies Thomas used to make art while she was in art school.

Write down the art supplies Thomas was not able to use while she was in art school.

After Viewing Why did Thomas have to use alternative art supplies while she was in art school? Why couldn’t she use paint?

Have you ever had an experience where you/your family could not afford something you wanted?

Middle School (Video 2 & Video 3) NOTE: The video makes reference to Susan Rice who was the United States’ Assistant Secretary of State for African American Affairs (1997-2001), UN Ambassador (2009-13), & National Security Advisor (2013-17) Before Viewing What types of things do you associate with American identity/patriotism? (people, places, objects) Think about and write down aspects of your physical identity. What makes you look like yourself? (gender, race, body type, age etc., not just hair color/eye color etc.)

During Viewing Write down how American identity is shown in “Portrait of Mnonja”.

Write down what Thomas says is most important to her when creating art. (desired answer: visibility/representation) After Viewing Did the things Thomas associated with American identity/patriotism differ from those you identified? How so? Who/what is missing in the definition of what it means to be American?

Revisit the aspects of your physical identity that you wrote down. How often do you see people who look like you in the media? Do we need greater visibility of certain types of people?

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Classroom Ideas

High School (Video 1)

Tamika sur une chaise longue avec Monet, 2011, Mixed media collage, 7.25x10.5 in

Before Viewing What space do you have that you feel confident in and can take ownership of? Why? (bedroom, art room, basketball court, workplace, etc) Write down parts of your social and physical identity. What makes you who you are? (gender, sexuality, race, religion, body type, culture, native language, age, socioeconomic status etc.)

During Viewing Write down the ways in which Thomas uses setting/space. What are some things you notice about the settings/spaces she creates? How do the models use their settings/spaces?

Write down the ways in which Thomas conveys the following ideas in her art: Power Femininity//gender Sexuality Beauty Race//diversity After Viewing How does Thomas use her models to create ownership over their spaces? How do you take ownership over the space you mentioned before? (desired answer: confidence, power, comfortability) Revisit the parts of your identity you mentioned before. Which parts are you easily able to take ownership of? Which ones do you struggle with owning?

How often and in what capacity do you see people who embody your identities in media? Do you think if people who embodied the parts of your identity that you struggle with were more visible, you would have an easier time owning those parts of who you are?

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Classroom Ideas Elementary School In her artwork, Thomas likes to use pieces that are nostalgic and remind her of her childhood and childhood home. Ask students to bring an item in to class that reminds them of home and have them do a show-and-tell.

Tell students to think of a powerful pose; have each student go up to the front of the class and get into their pose after which they can explain why it makes them feel powerful.

OPTIONAL: Take notes of student responses as they present their poses. After the students are done individually presenting, have them all get into their poses at the front of the classroom and take a picture. Use the picture and responses to create a cute bulletin board that reminds you, the students, and classroom visitors of the power they all hold.

Middle School When Thomas explains why she uses collage in the Vimeo video (Video 1), she describes it as a way to “ascertain who I am and where I am in the world.” With that being said, have students create their own collages that represent who they are by using materials like magazines, colorful paper, stickers, etc. Ask students to bring in other materials or to bring in photos of themselves so they can physically add themselves to the work. Afterwards students can present and explain their collage to the class or you can have students pair-up and share it with a few partners.

English: If your class is reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee that it is ever so popular in middle school education, have your class make connections between the black and female characters in the novel and the ones captured by Thomas in her artwork. Which characters appear more powerful? Why? Did black/female Americans have the ability to obtain power/appear powerful in the 1930s American South? Do they have that ability today? Would Thomas’s artwork have been praised in the 1930s as it is today?

Drama: *THIS CAN ALSO BE ADAPTED FOR HIGH SCHOOL* Have students either choose or randomly select to play the part of a character from To Kill a Mockingbird or a character from Thomas’s works (suggestions: Atticus Finch, Bob Ewell, Tom Robinson, Calpurnia, Harper Lee, Mickalene Thomas, Mnonja, subjects from other Thomas pieces). Have students act out a conversation with each other as these characters about what it means to be American. What does an American look like? What is their race/gender/class/culture? Which Americans are allowed to be powerful and take ownership? Which are not?

NOTE: This activity covers sensitive material and could potentially be harmful if not handled correctly; make sure your class is able to have this conversation in a sophisticated way while knowin geveryone is acting as a character.

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High School

Classroom Ideas

In her work, Thomas focuses on capturing models who are powerful and own the spaces they are in. Prompt students to have someone take their picture while they are in a powerful pose filling up a space they want to take ownership of. Make sure students are being intentional about their pose, location, props, outfits, etc. (Students can reference their answers to the video questions above to get ideas). Have students email you their pictures so you can project them or print them out and have each student give a brief description of their photo after which the class can have a discussion if it is fitting.

NOTE: If students are not comfortable with being photographed, have them take a picture of somebody else in the same role.

2. History: Set up stations around the classroom each with an image of art depicting black folks or people of color from the location and time period you are studying in class. Ask the students to move around the classroom to the different stations and write down what they notice about the subjects and settings in the works. How are people of color being depicted in these works? How is it different from the way in which Thomas depicts them? Similar? What are the things going on in history that contribute to the similarities/differences in the way people of color are being depicted?

You can also turn this activity into a conversation about gender and choose images of women from the location and time period you are studying and ask similar questions.

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Édouard Manet Olympia 1863 Oil on canvas 130.5 cm × 190 cm (51.4 in × 74.8 in) Held by the Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres Grande Odalisque Painting, 1814 184

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Name: Before going into the exhibition:

â—? What space do you have that you feel confident in and can take ownership of? Why? (bedroom, art room, basketball court, workplace, etc)

WORK TWO:

WORK THREE:

â—? Write down parts of your social and physical identity. What makes you who you are?Think about and write down aspects of your physical identity. What makes you look like you?

WORK ONE:

Select three works in the exhibition and answer the following questions:

Who is the subject of this work?

How are they posed?

Where is the setting/space for this work?

Who holds the power in the work? (Artists, viewer, sitter?)

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Revisit the parts of your identity you mentioned before. Which parts are you easily able to take ownership of? Which ones do you struggle with owning?

How does Thomas use her models to create ownership over their spaces? How do you take ownership over the space you mentioned before? (answer: confidence, power, comfortability)

Mickalene Thomas

●

How often and in what capacity do you see people who embody your identities in media? Do you think if people who embodied the parts of your identity that you struggle with were more visible, you would have an easier time owning those parts of who you are?

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● ●

Intro exercise

Answer questions while waiting to start have students look at objects out in exhibition and fill out questions. ○ 5mins walk around- look ○ Select three works

Discussion:

Before Viewing ● What space do you have that you feel confident in and can take ownership of? Why? (bedroom, art room, basketball court, workplace, etc) ● Write down parts of your social and physical identity. What makes you who you are?Think about and write down aspects of your physical ​ identity. What makes you look like you? (guide them to gender, sexuality, race, religion, body type,​ etc.)

During Viewing ● Write down the ways in which Thomas uses setting/space. What are some things you notice about the settings/spaces she creates? How do the models use their settings/spaces? ● Write down the ways in which Thomas conveys the following ideas in her art: - Power - Femininity//gender - Sexuality - Beauty - Race//diversity - History- pass around other images- how are Michalene’s and others changing this narrative?

After Viewing ● How does Thomas use her models to create ownership over their spaces? How do you take ownership over the space you mentioned before? (answer: confidence, power, comfortability) ● Revisit the parts of your identity you mentioned before. Which parts are you easily able to take ownership of? Which ones do you struggle with owning? ● How often and in what capacity do you see people who embody your identities in media? Do you think if people who embodied the parts of your identity that you struggle with were more visible, you would have an easier time owning those parts of who you are?

Sorting exercise ● ● ● ●

How we view, filter images Why is it we can distinguish between an ad vs fine art?

Where were these ads? Who were these ads for?

Sort- classify, put in sections.

Curate the "you've come a long way baby" exhibition.

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n art is that it combinations them in a ds light on at they have efore or allows he world in a ent way.�

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Ke hi n de Wi ley

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K eh i n d e W i l ey

Kehinde Wiley 190

The exhibition Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic traveled widely, and Wiley’s work is in the permanent collections of numerous prominent institutions including The Jewish Museum; Brooklyn Museum; The Studio Museum in Harlem; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Seattle Art Museum; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Hammer Museum; Walker Art Center; North Carolina Museum of Art; and Zabludowicz Collection.

Links to videos: “Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic” video series Virginia Museum of Fine Arts https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=gx6rGZ4dx2E Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley was born in 1977 in Los Angeles, and lives and works in New York and Beijing.

He received his MFA from the Yale School of Art. Wiley’s figurative paintings and sculptures draw upon historical paintings, placing young black men and women in positions of autonomy, power, and authority. The juxtaposition in these heroic portraits brings them squarely into the twenty-first century, awakening complex conversations that many would prefer remain mute.

Wiley’s 2018 presidential portrait of Barack Obama was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, where it is on permanent view. In 2015 he was awarded the US State Department Medal of Arts.

Kehinde Wiley on President Obama’s Official Portrait - CNN https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=44TTnTO443k

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Pri nc e Al b e r t , P r i n c e C o n sor t o f Queen V i c tor i a , 2 0 1 3 , O i l o n c an v as , 7 2 x 6 0 in

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FRANZ XAVER WINTERHALTER (1805-73) Prince Albert (1819-61) Signed and dated 1842 Oil on canvas | 132.7 x 97.2 cm (support, canvas/panel/str external) | RCIN 401412

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About the work This portrait is part of Wiley’s series titled The World Stage: Jamaica. This series features Jamaican men and women assuming poses taken from 17th and 18th Century British portraiture. The juxtaposition between the sitter and the historical references questions the relationship between the island and her former colonial power. The subjects’ proud posturing refers to both the source painting and the symbolism of Jamaican culture, with its singular people and specific ideals of youth, beauty, and style.

This painting features a young Jamaican man posed as Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. Wiley took stylistic references from the famous British textile designer William Morris for the intricate background of this work.

This piece delivers power from royalty to laity.

Take Note: •

What is similar and different in the original work and Wiley’s version?

Watch: Kehinde Wiley ‘The World Stage: Jamaica’ at Stephen Friedman Gallery, London

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K eh i n d e W i l ey

Watch/Discuss Links to videos: “Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic” video series - Virginia Museum of Fine Arts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx6rGZ4dx2E Kehinde Wiley on President Obama’s Official Portrait - CNN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44TTnTO443k

Discuss:

Before Viewing ● Have you ever been to an art museum before and seen old, classic paintings? Who was in them? What did they look like? ● When you think of classical portraiture, what comes to mind? Who has been historically able to commission portraits of themselves and/or their family? ● When you go to an art museum, do you typically feel represented by what you see? Are you able to imagine yourself in the place of those in portraits and other paintings you see?

During Viewing ● Consider the angle of the figure both in our view of him and in his stance. What does this evoke? ● Would you expect to see this figure painted like this? What traditions and histories bring you to this conclusion? In what ways does this painting divert your expectations? ● Who is in this painting? What do you think about him? What do you think the painter thinks about him? ○ Do you normally see someone like this in a portrait? ○ In reference to this portrait of Prince Albert, in what ways does Wiley draw inspiration from and in what ways does he differ? ○ Consider the background of the piece. What does it remind you of? What does it make you think about?

After Viewing ● What does it imply to replace an image of a powerful white man with that of a modern black man? ● How does Wiley’s message on representation appear in other domains? (such as pop culture, media, literature, etc.) ● How did it make you feel to see someone not usually in portraits in one? ● In what ways does Wiley’s piece empower the modern black man?

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Watch/Discuss 1.

Elementary School a. Include the artists’ work in an social-emotional learning activity to promote self-love and confidence. i.

Introduction: Group Discussion 1. Sit in a group with the students. Ask: a. Do you know what a “portrait” is? Have you ever seen one? Where? b. If someone painted a portrait of you, how would you want to look? Happy? Sad? Confident? c. What makes someone look confident? ii.

Activity: Self-Portraits 1. In the group, show the students some examples of Kehinde Wiley’s portraits. Ask the students: a. How do these people look? Strong or weak? b. How do you think the artist feels about these people? Why do you think that? c. What do these portraits make you think of?

2. Have the students draw self portraits independently with inspiration from Kehinde Wiley: this could be literal or loose (they could use similar poses and backgrounds or they could just take the idea of uplifting and draw a self portrait that uplifts themself). a. At the end of the activity, ask the students if they want to share their portraits.

3. Conclusion a. Ask the students: i.

How did it make you feel to draw yourself in a powerful position? ii.

How do you think the people in Kehinde Wiley’s portraits felt to be in them? iii.

Would you like to be in one of Kehinde Wiley’s portraits?

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Classroom Ideas 1.

i.

High School a. Discuss modern issues of representation in media and its links to power through Kehinde Wiley’s portraits. i.

Introduction: Think-Pair-Share 1. 30 Second Quick-Write a. Have the students spend 30 seconds writing down all of their favorite TV shows and movies. After, have them count the number that have a main character who is NOT a villain and who is black.

2. Reflection a. Have the students spend 2 minutes reflecting on their own (writing). i.

What did they find? Were there many shows that feature main black characters? How does this reflect on media as a whole? b. Have the students discuss in small groups their findings (specifically focused on the question of media). c. Get back into the large group and discuss together, focusing on the idea of media and representation. Talk about what this implies in society (power dynamics) ii.

Activity: Mini Research Project 1. Get the students into five groups and assign each group one: a. Fine arts b. Film c. TV d. Literature e. Modelling 2. Let the students spend the rest of the class time researching: a. Issues of representation (both race, gender, sexuality, etc.) in their given field. i.

Any statistics, if there are any b. Any pushback or movements from society about these issues

Classroom Ideas Specific people in these industries who are representing the underrepresented 3. Have the students prepare a 5 minute informal presentation on their topic. Deliver it in class the next day.

Conclusion: Discussion 1. Ask the students: a. What are some similarities or differences throughout all of these fields? c.

iii.

b.

What does this show about our culture?

Have the students spend 3 minutes thinking independently about strategies or specific things that should be done so that more people can be represented.

After this, discuss in the big group and develop a “potential action plan for representation.�

2.

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Resources Virgina Museum of Fine Art Educator Resources https://www.vmfa.museum/learn-archive/activities/kehinde-wiley-a-new-republic/

PORTRAITS FOR A NEW CENTURY: KEHINDE WILEY ART LESSON https://artclasscurator.com/kehinde-wiley-art-lesson/ MINI ART LESSON: INSPIRED BY KEHINDE WILEY’S PORTRAIT OF BARACK OBAMA https://artinaction.org/mini-art-lesson-kehinde-wileys-portrait-barack-obama/ Seattle Art Museum Educator Resource Guide http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/Documents/ERC/4221_KehindeWiley_Educator%20Resource%20Guide.pdf

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Teacher Resource:

Who Am I?

Sponsored by the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation

Who Am I? This unit was developed by Ms. Jeniene Hall, a Language Arts teacher at Harvard Elementary School, as a part of a collaboration project between the Toledo Museum of Art and area educators. The unit consists of pre- and post- visit lesson plans to accompany a museum feld trip. It is intended for 6th–8th grade students.

Standards Being Addressed •

Visual Literacy

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Argument Writing (Claim/Evidence/Reasoning)

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Integration and Evaluation of ideas

•

Narrative Writing

•

Collaborative conversations

•

Explanatory/Expository Text Writing

•

Presentation with supporting evidence

(CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.7) (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.2) (CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1)

(CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.1)

(CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.3) (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.7.2)

(CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.4)

Unit Goals • • •

Students will begin to understand how identity and persona develop.

Students will think about what stories they want told about themselves.

Students will think about how they can ft in without disappearing.

Museum Visit Type and Goals Special Exhibition: Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic •

Participate in scavenger hunt and compare/contrast activities related to the exhibit.

Key Words • • •

Identity Self-concept Personality

Pre-Visit

• • •

Propaganda Elements of Art Principles of Design

• • •

Form Symbol Idea

• • •

Interpretation Persuasion Controversy

Lesson Title/Goals

Relationship to Unit Goals

Artist Study Read a short Biography of Kehinde Wiley and discuss. Practice comparing a Wiley painting to its 18th-century namesake.

Biography will help students to think about Kehinde Wiley’s identity and perspective on identity.

Pre-Visit: Kehinde Wiley Step 1: Read a short biography of Kehinde Wiley together and discuss. Here are a few possible sources: http://kehindewiley.com/about/ http://s3.amazonaws.com/brooklynmuseum.org-public/education/docs/Kehinde_Wiley_Teacher_Packet.pdf Ask students the following questions: •

Wiley didn’t see himself in the 18th- and 19th- century portraits. How do you think that felt? Do you have any experience with that feeling? What do you think that did to his self-esteem? What did it mean to him as an African American?

•

Discuss Wiley’s training, travels, and education. What impact did that have on his perspective? Why did he feel so strongly about representing contemporary people in his artwork?

•

Discuss the process of “street-casting.”

Step 2: Give each student a Venn diagram worksheet.

Step 3: Display the image of Napoleon Crossing the Alps, 1801–1805 by Jacques-Louis David. Ask the students to tell you what they see. Lead them in a discussion of what qualities David is trying to communicate about Napoleon.

Step 4: Ask student to identify the symbolism that points to that. Have them record their ideas on the Venn Diagram worksheet on the side labeled “David’s Painting.” Have the students look at the background as well as the fgure.

Step 5: Next show the students Kehinde Wiley’s painting Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005. Ask students to point out the symbols they can fnd and record them on their worksheet on the side labeled “Wiley’s Painting.” Lead the class in a discussion of the possible meanings of Wiley’s imagery.

Step 5: Together, work to complete the Venn Diagram on the board to further the comparison between the two paintings. Ask the students to record both what they see (observations) and what they think (interpretations). Lead them to consider both similarities as well as diferences.

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David’s Painting

Wiley’s Painting

Compare and Contrast: Napoleon Crossing the Alps

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Napoleon Crossing the Alps, 1801–1805, Jacques-Louis David.

Napoleon Leading the Army over the Alps, 2005, Kehinde Wiley.

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Sponsored by the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation

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Kehinde Wiley: Discovering a New Republic This unit was developed by Mrs. Ashlie Dempsey, a Language Arts teacher at Byrnedale Elementary School, as a part of a collaboration project between the Toledo Museum of Art and area educators. The unit consists of pre- and post- visit lesson plans to accompany a museum feld trip. It is intended for 6th–8th grade students.

Standards Being Addressed CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.1 Engage efectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 7 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.7.2 Analyze the main ideas and supporting details presented in diverse media and formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively, orally) and explain how the ideas clarify a topic, text, or issue under study.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.7.2 Write informatively/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

Unit Goals •

Students will read diferent articles about Kehinde Wiley, summarize them, and create informational slide shows about some of his most famous paintings, as well as the “original” paintings that inspired his art.

•

Students will write explanatory texts comparing and contrasting an example of Wiley’s artwork to the “original” artwork that inspired it.

Museum Visit Type and Goals Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic •

View Wiley’s special exhibit in order to fnd a work that personally inspires each student.

•

Participate in visual literacy writing activity to further develop skills in this area, which will help students write a detailed explanatory piece that compares and contrasts.

Key Words • • •

Kehinde Wiley New Republic Compare

• •

Contrast Explanatory text

Pre-Visit

(several lessons)

Lesson Title/Goals

Relationship to Unit Goals

Introduction to Kehinde Wiley

Students need to understand background information about Wiley in order to understand his artwork. Students also need to practice writing their explanatory text and using their close looking and describing skills. Back to Back drawing will also help demonstrate how important it is to be specifc while writing and describing.

•

•

•

Museum Visit

Post-Visit

Read the Toledo Blade article, Portraits transplant modern black people into classic imagery and summarize as a class Independently, students will fnd other articles (teacher will have a list of approved articles on Google docs) to read more about Wiley and practice summarizing on their own Participate in Back to Back Drawing using TMA playing cards to help students practice their close looking skills

Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic •

View Wiley’s artwork and engage in diferent visual literacy activities to help familiarize students with his large body of work and to practice close looking

Assess with Writing •

Students will use resources (online as well as the TMA Wiley book) to identify a Wiley piece that speaks to them. They will fnd a classic piece to compare to Wiley’s: one of their choosing, or one that Wiley specifcally replicated in his style, e.g. Wiley’s Napoleon Leading the Army Over the Alps was inspired by JacquesLouis David’s famous painting Napoleon Crossing the Alps

•

Students will complete a detailed Venn diagram comparing the two works of art. Students will write an explanatory paper that compares and contrasts the two works and shares them with small groups or the class.

Students will enjoy seeing Wiley’s art in real life, and not just on a screen or in a book. Engaging in visual literacy skills will help them write better descriptions in their compare/contrast explanatory papers after the visit.

Creating a Venn diagram during the prewriting stage will help students organize their thoughts before writing the explanatory paper.

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Pre-Visit Lesson Plan: Give One, Get One Step 1: Provide for students a series of news articles about Kehinde Wiley. Examples can be found in the Toledo Blade (http://www.toledoblade.com/Art/2017/02/05/Kehinde-Wiley-s-regal-portraits-transplant-modern-blackpeople-into-classic-imagery.html) and on Kehinde Wiley’s website (http://kehindewiley.com/works/a-newrepublic/). Have students read about Kehinde Wiley independently.

Step 2: Using the information the students have learned from the articles they read earlier, review with students the ideas behind the exhibit and discuss the lack of people of color in classical art. Discuss Wiley’s unique practice of “street casting” to help students get a better understanding of the efort behind the artwork.

Step 3: Ask the students to fnd a partner for the Back to Back Drawing activity. You will need a number of images or objects that the students are unfamiliar with.

Step 4: Assign one student in each pair (Describer) to describe an image* to the Drawer. Try to select something that is unfamiliar to both students. *Three-dimensional objects work best for this exercise, but photographs of objects or twodimensional images can also work.

Step 5: Activity (5–10 minutes for drawing) 1.

2.

3.

4.

Place partners back to back. Describer: stands facing the image.

Describer: conducts object observation, describing the chosen image to the Drawer.

Describer is allowed to describe the object using any language or information they choose.

Drawer: draws image as it is being described.

RULES: The Drawer CANNOT ask any questions, even if it is just a question of clarifcation or asking the Describer to speaker louder. The Describer CANNOT look at the Drawer’s drawing.

Step 6: When drawing is complete, Drawer should reveal drawing to Describer.

Step 7: Switch roles and repeat Steps 2–4 with a new image.

Step 8:

Ask the larger group to consider the following: Ask the students to tell you some of the challenges they encountered.

Ask the students what strategies they used to create their descriptions.

What kinds of vocabulary did they use? Did they encounter something that they didn’t have an adequate word to describe? How did they deal with this challenge?

Would it have been easier or more difcult had the Drawer been able to ask questions?

When do you need to give descriptions in “real life”? How might you improve these directions?

Pre-Visit Lesson Plan: Give One, Get One Optional Extension Activity: Have students pick a classical piece of art from the Toledo Museum of Art collection and try to recreate it in art, or using a combination of art and words. Ask students to think about updating the classical piece so it fts their own culture and era. Students can share their work with the class or in small groups.

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Post Visit Lesson Plan: Compare and Contrast Essay Step 1: Ask students to compare and contrast two pieces of art in an explanatory essay. Have students use evidence from the artwork to support their points.

Step 2: Have students share their essays with their families at home, educating family members about Kehinde Wiley and a work of classical art.

Optional Extension Activity: Have students practice writing a business letter by writing to Kehinde Wiley at his New York Studio. The contact address is on his website. Students can write in pairs or individually and share their feelings and reactions about the trip with Mr. Wiley.

Cary Hock- Newark

Kehinde Wiley Project

OBJ – 1-3PE, 2&4RE, 3&4PR Day 1 - Students learn about Kehinde Wiley through observation of his portraits.

Discuss his subject matter and how Wiley poses underrepresented groups in the style and posture of traditional people of wealth, power, and prestige. Explain that students will create a work of art that incorporates a photo portrait of themselves in the style of Wiley’s portraiture.

Read and discuss literature about Wiley and his influence in becoming an artist.

Photographs of students are taken in Wiley portrait style. Proper stature, chin up, proud look, looking away and up from the camera.

Day 2 – Watch "Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic" video series https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=kehinde+wiley+video&&view=detail&mi d=0FB9B51A1778628529660FB9B51A177862852966&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2F videos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dkehinde%2Bwiley%2Bvideo%26FORM%3DHDRSC3 Make background rough draft idea. Identify design and colors students will use in making their background for their portrait. Revisit Wiley paintings and focus on backgrounds. Discuss how colors are used, shapes, etc.

Demonstrate technique of wet fabric and chalk. Wet the fabric and lay on cardboard. Use chalk to create bold color design. Move chalk with finger ore use chalk firmly to create hard outlines.

Choose fabric for design.

Day 3 - Students create background pattern using chalk pastels on wet fabric.

Day 4 – Students create a block relief print to use on fabric background. Students will create a Block Print Stamp. They will make a design that will be used on their fabric background once their chalk design is finished. The design they create should be personal: initials, a word (LOVE, TRUST, STRENGTH, etc.), a symbol representing a favorite thing. Words/letters should be a mirror image. If making from foam, cut letters like normal and then turn over to make reverse image. If using string, image will need to be written backwards.

They will use a 4x4 inch piece of cardboard as a base. Students use foam sheets or yarn as the relief image to make a raised stamp.

• Foam - Draw and cut design out of foam, then glue to cardboard.

• Yarn - Draw image onto cardboard, trace with glue, then lay yarn on glue.

To make a handle, fold a thin sheet of cardboard into a ‘w’ shape. Glue to back of cardboard. Write

name next to handle.5. Finish wet fabric and chalk background. Use spray bottle to

rewet fabric. Once done, staple to cardboard.

Day 5 – Use relief block print to create design on fabric. Choose color and use tempera paint. Choose frame and put name on frame. Begin designing frame by using macaroni, craft sticks, cardboard to build relief.

Day 6 - Finish designing frame. Paint frame with gold paint. Cut out photo and glue to fabric background.

Day 7 – Add top color to frame with rag. Wipe color on so that it goes into the cracks but does not completely cover the gold.

Day 8 – Assemble piece. Add hanging wire to back of work.

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Writing About Slavery? Teaching About Slavery?

Senior slavery scholars of color community-sourced this short guide to share with and be used by editors, presses, museums, journalists, and curricular projects as well as with teachers, writers, curators, and public historians. Considering the legal, demographic and other particularities of institutions of slavery in various parts of the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia, and also considering how slavery changed over time, this guide is a set of suggestions ​ ​ that raises questions and sensitivities rather than serving as a checklist that enforces any set of orthodoxies.

This document is offered in the spirit of Laura Adderly’s response to it; all words we “know to talk about enslaved people of African descent in these Americas prove insufficient, both for the brutality against them, and for their remarkable overcoming.” This document helps us in our grappling to describe and analyze the intricacies and occurrences of domination, coercion, resistance, and survival under slavery. It complicates the assumptions embedded in language that have been passed down and normalized. Depending on context, some words clarify, some obscure. For that reason, as one contributor put it, this is a “worthy language struggle.” Those who have contributed to this crowdsourced guide include leading and upcoming scholars in the field of slavery studies. They come together to make this intervention in the spirit of building ethical community.

During the time of document generation, please feel free to add not only to the checklist but to its goals, objectives, organization, scope, etc. Afterward, please see contact below.

Language to Consider Adopting/Preferred Terms: ● Enslaved (Africans, people, mothers, workers, artisans, children, etc). ○ Using enslaved (as an adjective) rather than “slave” (as a noun) disaggregates the condition of being enslaved with the status of “being” a slave. People weren’t slaves; they were enslaved. ● Captive (Africans, fathers, families, workers, infants, etc). Note that this term nuances depending on geography vis-a-vis the slave trade, as Ana Lucia Araujo notes. ● Enslaver (rather than many of the terms below). ○ The term “master” transmits the aspirations and values of the enslaving class without naming the practices they engaged.

Language to Consider Avoiding: ● Slave master (see above) ● Slave mistress and enslaved mistress (to name sexual violence/relations/conditions) ● Slave breeding/breeders (for forced reproduction) ● Slave concubine and enslaved concubine ● Slaveholder ● Slave owner

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○

●

Alternatives: those who claimed people as property, those who held people in slavery, etc.

Planter (when referring to enslavers)

Principles to Consider: ● Avoid using “runaway slave.” Alternatives: “fugitives from slavery” or “self-liberated” or “self-emancipated” individuals. ● If you’re writing about sexual violence, rape, assault and coercion under slavery, please name that violence rather than obscuring it by using terms such as “interracial sex” or “sexual intercourse.” ○ The headline language in this JSTOR piece​ about abolition and venereal disease ​ is one example of using “interracial sex” to describe sexual violence. ● Please honor the humanity of the millions of people treated as chattel property by naming enslaved people whenever possible. ● North American 19C Black activists often were activists for decades after the Civil War. Calling them “abolitionists” reduces the scope and depth of their work which extended beyond slavery both in the antebellum period and beyond. ● Consider using not only the term “stolen labor,” but also “stolen labor, knowledge and skills.” ● No one was “born a slave”; instead people were born with “free” or “slave” status. ● Avoid using “people of color” as a blanket term when writing about Black people or other specific groups - unless you are referencing Cuba, where “gente de color” was a legitimate term used by peoples of African descent in the nineteenth century. ● Remember that slavery was the economic foundation of every country in the Americas, not just the United States. If you mean specifically the U.S., please use that term rather than “American,” unless you mean to reference the entire landmass. ● Be mindful that the vast majority of enslaved Africans lived in Latin America and the Caribbean; this includes Mexico, when more than half of the country we now call the United States was Mexico until 1848. Havana, Cuba and Salvador, Brazil were the most important port cities of the region. ● Be specific when using the names of nations that often were not nations at the time of consideration, or at least underscore their colonial political condition until independence --this points to questions not only of sovereignty but also of political agency on the ground. For example, abolition in Cuba does not occur until 1886, when it was still a colony of Spain. ● Be aware of shifting allegiances with regards to national identities as claimed by the people on the ground themselves: if a child was born free in Western Africa, captured and traded to Havana, and lives the majority of his adult life in New Orleans, how would you describe him? Understand and highlight his multilingual, diasporic, multiple existence.

Practices to Adopt​: (for editors/journals, etc). ● Accept when scholars capitalize Black; please don’t argue with them.

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● ● ●

●

Accept when scholars use the term “enslaver”; please don’t use its “inelegance” or “awkwardness” as a reason to ask for revisions.

Accept when scholars want to italicize or place in quotation marks the vocabulary of racial taxonomies, i.e. “mulatto, “quadroon,” “octoroon,” etc.

Consider “nation,” “language group” or “ethnicity” instead of “tribe.” “Newspaper articles, student papers, tweets, Facebook posts discussing the slave trade often refer to African “tribes” whereas none of the pieces refer to French or British [or Dutch or Portgueese] tribes,” notes scholar Ana Lucia ​Araujo.

Accept when scholars of slavery in Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking areas do not want to italicize racial taxonomies within an essay written in English, and instead want to simply write negro, pardo, mulato, etc. Italics mark difference (see below).

Pieces (about or that grapple with language) to consult: ● Ramey Berry, Daina. Introduction to ​Enslaved Women in America ​(2012) R ● Ramey Berry, Daina. “Jefferson and Hemings: How Negotiation Under Slavery Was Possible” By Daina Ramey Berry https://www.history.com/news/slavery-negotiations-freedom-concubines-thomas-jefferso n-sally-hemings ● Araujo, Ana Lucia. "Jefferson was not a benevolent slave owner and doesn’t need any apologists"​ ​http://www.historianviews.com/?p=360 ● Araujo, Ana Lucia. "The problem of using the term “mistress” to refer to enslaved women”​ ​http://www.historianviews.com/?p=249 ● Jones, Martha. “Julian Bond’s Great-Grandmother a “Slave Mistress?” How the ​New York Times​ Got it Wrong,”​ ​https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/160451 ● Owens, Emily. “On the Use of ‘Slave Mistress’” https://www.aaihs.org/on-the-use-of-slave-mistress/ ● “The Afterlife of Slavery: Language and Ethics,” Wakelet compiled by LaTanya S. Autry https://wakelet.com/wake/f589cdc4-7512-43ff-a489-5ed48062179f.​ ● Lara Harmon and DJ Older,, “Why We Don’t Italicize Spanish” https://intralingo.com/why-we-dont-italicize-spanish/ ● Walter Johnson’s “On Agency” might be a useful addition to the list of sources: https://glc.yale.edu/sites/default/files/pdf/on_agency_johnson.pdf.​ Johnson, Walter. “On Agency.” ​Journal of Social History ​37, no. 1 (Autumn 2003): 113–124.

This community-sourced document is protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. The ​details of the license are explained here.​

How to Cite:

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P. Gabrielle Foreman, et al. “Writing about Slavery/Teaching About Slavery: This Might Help” community-sourced document, Date, Time, URL. You are welcome to share, teach, clip, and cite this in it excerpts or in its entirety, but do cite it.

This applies to the document as well as to tweets about it. Please let us know if you teach it or post it in its entirety just so we track its utility and impact (@profgabrielle; pinned tweet). If you have questions about addition, citations etc., don’t hesitate to reach out @profgabrielle. Thanks to Jessica Marie Johnson for the example and language of citation ethics, we’re using here. http://dh.jmjafrx.com/citation/ Note: This document uses “community-sourced” instead of “crowdsourced” to acknowledge the ways in which the connotation of “crowd” has been historically racialized, as P. Gabrielle Foreman points out. The term is also more accurate; an online community contributed to this document and its multiple interventions.

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section

learning with art21 a

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about this guide The Learning with ART21 Guide is a resource for introducing contemporary art and artists into classroom and community-based learning. Educators are encouraged to use this guide and other available resources on the ART21 website to encourage dialogue, facilitate critical inquiry, support research and exploration, and enhance curricula in a wide range of subject areas.

Cover image: Trevor Paglen. Singleton/SBWASS-R1 and Three Unidentifed Spacecraft (Space Based Wide Area Surveillance System; USA 32), 2012. C-print, 60 x 48 inches. Courtesy the artist, Metro Pictures, Altman Siegel, and Galerie Thomas Zander. Š Trevor Paglen This page: Alfredo Jaar. Lament of the Images (Version 1), 2002.

Mixed-media installation, three Plexiglas plates with inscriptions, light wall, dimensions variable. Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Lelong, New York. Š Alfredo Jaar

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contents 1

What Is ART21?

What Is ART21 Education?

2

What Is Contemporary Art?

3

About ART21 Films

4

Artists as Creative Role Models

5

Artists and Interdisciplinary Learning

6

Facilitating Conversations

7

Active Viewing

8

In the Museum

9

Young Students

10

Standards

11

Go Further

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art21 flms

art21 online

Art in the Twenty-First Century

art21.org All ART21 materials are available for free online. A growing stand-alone resource, the ART21 website highlights the works and words of artists featured in our flms through interviews, artwork surveys, production stills, artist projects, and resources for educators.

The frst and only nationally broadcast public television series to focus exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists living in cities around the world,

Art in the Twenty-First Century introduces audiences to a diverse group of established artists and to the art they are producing now: art21.org/flms/ art-in-the-twenty-frst-century

New York Close Up This series of two- to eight-minute videos explores the lives of young artists living in New York City: art21.org/newyorkcloseup

Exclusive This series blends newly shot and previously unreleased archival footage of artists featured in the Art in the Twenty-First Century series and focuses on a singular aspect of an artist’s process: art21.org/exclusive

Artist to Artist This series features contemporary visual artists in conversation with their peers: art21.org/artisttoartist

William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible This one-hour Peabody Award–winning flm provides an intimate look into the mind and creative process of South African artist William Kentridge: art21.org/anythingispossible All flms are available for viewing online at art21.org. ART21 Art in the TwentyFirst Century and William Kentridge: Anything Is Possible are also available download-to-own from the iTunes store, or may be ordered on DVD from ShopPBS and Davis Publications. ART21 New York Close Up, ART21 Exclusive, and ART21 Artist to Artist flms are available on iTunes, YouTube, and Hulu.

blog.art21.org

ART21 Magazine (previously the ART21 Blog) provides a space for insightful writing on contemporary art and artists.

Regular columns, original editorial features, exclusive videos and interviews, and previously unpublished content from ART21’s rich archive all refect the organization’s approach to stimulating critical refection. Published six times per year, each issue of the magazine is devoted to a single theme. pbs.org/art21 ART21 on pbs.org chronicles the television series Art in the TwentyFirst Century, and presents the artists and themes featured in the PBS broadcast, complete episodes, and downloadable Educators’ Guides for each season. social-media Join ART21’s active online communities across multiple social-media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest.

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what is art21?

ART21 is a nonproft organization dedicated to introducing audiences to today’s visual artists, stimulating critical refection and conversation through the production of flms, books, artist projects, educational programs, and special events.

what is art21 education?

The ART21 Michael C. Sandler Education Program engages audiences in dialogue about contemporary art and the artists featured in ART21 flms. ART21’s educational initiatives include the ART21 Educators program and learning community, interpretive resources, professional development workshops and lectures, participatory events, and screenings.

ART21’s educational initiatives are based on the organization’s belief that the art and ideas of contemporary visual artists are powerful models for creative and critical thinking across subjects and disciplines. Inspired by our flms, in which contemporary artists talk about their motivations and methods, ART21 encourages educators and their students to think and work like artists, using thematic, inquiry-driven, process-oriented, playful, collaborative, and interdisciplinary strategies that refect how artists think and make work today.

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what is contemporary art?

ART21 defnes contemporary art as the work of artists living in the twenty-frst century. Contemporary artists dynamically combine materials, methods, and concepts that challenge traditional boundaries and defy easy defnition. Contemporary art is distinguished by the very lack of a uniform organizing principle, ideology, or “-ism.”

In a globalized world, contemporary artists give voice to the ever-changing cultural landscape.

The work of contemporary artists mirrors contemporary culture and society, offering audiences different ways to consider current ideas and rethink the familiar. Audiences play an active role in the process of constructing meaning about works of art, and some artists consider their artworks completed when the viewer contributes his or her personal refections, experiences, opinions, and interpretations.

ART21 content encourages audiences to access their abilities to consider, react, and respond to visual art.

Curiosity, openness, and dialogue are important tools for engaging with contemporary art. Instead of questioning whether a work of art is “good” or “bad,” the study of contemporary art requires a more open-ended methodology and an inquiry-based approach. Asking questions that ignite discussion and stimulate debate is an important frst step toward appreciating and interpreting works of art that can defy expectation, may provoke strong responses, or contradict personal beliefs or societal values.

Artists have long explored timely (and timeless) subject matter and represented the pertinent issues of their day.

Today, artists continue to push the boundaries of what art is and how it can be made, joining a legacy of artistic production as innovators, rule breakers, provocateurs, and concerned citizens responding to and representing their unique personal, social, and political perspectives.

ART21’s flms, texts, and educational resources empower teachers to develop their own understanding of the work and working processes of artists today and apply that knowledge to diverse teaching practices and contexts.

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about art21 flms In ART21 flms, contemporary artists speak directly to the audience in their own words, refecting on their lives, sources of inspiration, and working processes. ART21 flms offer an opportunity to go behind the scenes and into the studios, galleries, and public spaces where artists plan, create, and exhibit their work.

ART21 flms convey why artists make work.

When contemporary artists discuss their motivations and sources of inspiration students are able to better understand different roles artists play in society and how art is connected to current events, themes, and questions pertinent to the world around them.

LaToya Ruby Frazier describes her commitment to documenting her hometown of Braddock, Pennsylvania, in the ART21 New York Close Up flm LaToya Ruby Frazier Takes on Levi’s.

Mary Mattingly talks about her personal responsibility for the objects she owns in light of global manufacturing and supply chains in the ART21 New York Close Up flm Mary Mattingly Owns Up. Carrie Mae Weems discusses her project to re-present major events in the struggle for civil rights at a time when Barack Obama was running as the frst Black candidate for president of the United States, in the ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 5 “Compassion” episode.

ART21 flms show how artists make work.

When artists describe their methods inside or outside of the studio, students see the myriad ways that art is created today. From digital tools to traditional media and materials, from working independently to collaborating with specialists, ART21 flms offer an expanded sense of the artistic process and present new possibilities for how ideas can take form in a work of art.

Cindy Sherman talks about the props and costumes she uses to set the tone of her photographic portraits in the ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 5 episode “Transformation.”

Glenn Ligon produces one of his stencil paintings with a studio assistant in the ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 6 episode “History.”

ART21 flms show what artists make.

From museums and galleries to public spaces, the various contexts shown in ART21 flms suggest the numerous ways artists can present their work to the public. As artists discuss their work, students hear how their own ideas about a work of art relate to the artists’ ideas and intentions.

Cao Fei discusses her avatar and project for Second Life, RMB City, in the ART21 Exclusive flm Cao Fei: Avatars.

Allora & Calzadilla talk about their collaborative sound installation Clamor in the ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 4 episode “Paradox.”

Mark Dion takes viewers on a tour of his public work installed in the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle, Washington, in his ART21 Exclusive flm Mark Dion: Neukom Vivarium.

Shahzia Sikander shares how she prepares and creates her paintings based on the tradition of Persian miniatures in the ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 1 episode “Spirituality.”

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artists as creative role models Driven by a broad spectrum of questions, curiosities, and conceptual concerns, artists featured in ART21 flms approach their work through diverse materials and methods. How might the working methods of artists—not just the works of art they make—inspire creative approaches for teaching and learning?

The following strategies are part of an evolving list that draws parallels between the artistic process and the possibilities for educational inquiry.

Pursue questions and follow curiosities Many artists do not work in a single medium or technique but instead explore an idea, situation, or question through multiple media and visual strategies. Often motivated by a specifc question or curiosity, artists utilize diverse modes of production and representation to investigate the important issues and ideas of their time. See artists Mark Dion, Doris Salcedo, Mary Reid Kelley, Alfredo Jaar, Carrie Mae Weems, Do Ho Suh, Allora & Calzadilla, Mark Bradford, and Trevor Paglen.

Focus on process, experimentation, and play The artistic process includes conceptualization, experimentation, problem solving, revision, re-conceptualization, and production. Artists constantly make choices and learn through the process of developing ideas while they respond to opportunities, challenges, and roadblocks in dynamic and creative ways. See artists Cai Guo-Qiang, Oliver Herring, Gabriel Orozco, Janine Antoni, Keltie Ferris, Bruce Nauman, Elliott Hundley, and David Altmejd.

Collaborate Works of art can be produced in isolation or in collaboration with assistants, specialists, fabricators, or audiences.

Collaboration allows artists to consider alternative perspectives, ideas, and approaches, and can lead to productive chemistries between separate felds of practice.

These productive relationships can generate new forms of interdisciplinary thinking, making, and learning. See artists Allora & Calzadilla, Mel Chin, William Kentridge, Mary Mattingly, Ai Weiwei, assume vivid astro focus, Thomas Hirschhorn, and Mary Reid Kelley.

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Move from the personal to the social, political, and global Artists combine personal interests, curiosities, and questions with opportunities to learn from others and extend their ideas into public discourse. By connecting personal ideas and experiences to broader social narratives and conversations, a work of art can inspire social interaction and engage others in exploring important ideas and questions that resonate universally. See artists Robert Adams, Kara Walker, Do Ho Suh, Tabaimo, Carrie Mae Weems, Julie Mehretu, Shahzia Sikander, Tania Bruguera, Trevor Paglen, and Laylah Ali. Make connections to the past Artists constantly reference the past—building on signifcant themes, critiquing outmoded models, researching forgotten or contested histories, or borrowing traditional methods and techniques to realize new ideas.

Understanding historical precedent is an important part of providing context and informing our current experiences.

Through comparing and contrasting contemporary ideas and historical examples, students are able to see how ideas evolve and how the past informs present-day trends and ideas. See artists Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Ai Weiwei, Pierre Huyghe, Paul Pfeiffer, Mark Bradford, Fred Wilson, William Kentridge, Yinka Shonibare MBE, Eleanor Antin, Michael Ray Charles, and Kara Walker.

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artists and interdisciplinary learning What is really important about our practice is criticality.

We constantly want to question and have our work trigger a possibility of self-questioning and questioning about the world: ‘What is the nature of this thing that’s affecting me or that’s around me? What is the nature of my actions upon others or the place where I am at this moment?’ A lot of our projects are an opportunity to learn something about an area or an interest that we didn’t know much about, whether it’s abstract or philosophical or pragmatic. It’s always a chance to learn more about something in the world, and to formulate some kind of a response.

Classroom lessons that purposefully leverage the work and working methods of contemporary artists may take various forms: •

A unit on Citizenship and the Constitution may be deepened by debating Jenny Holzer’s Truisms or Redaction Paintings featured in the Season 4 Art in the Twenty-First Century “Protest” episode.

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Doris Salcedo’s ideas and work can add an important dimension to a discussion on war and violence as portrayed in history books and literature texts.

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In the art or science classroom, Mark Dion’s work Neukom Vivarium, featured in the “Ecology” episode from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 4, could inspire a debate about the similarities and differences between a work of art and a scientifc experiment.

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Invite comparisons between literary and visual “texts” by sharing the work of artists Ai Weiwei and Laylah Ali and the writings of authors such as Kazuo Ishiguro, J. M. Coetzee, and George Orwell in a unit on authority and power.

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An investigation into political and social notions of exile may involve close study of Do Ho Suh’s work.

— Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla The work that artists make refects the ideas, issues, questions, and concerns of the particular time and place in which they live. These concerns invite important perspectives on enduring themes (stories, identity, power), connect to and comment on historical precedent, or explore multifaceted questions and topics (ecology, consumption, change). The interdisciplinary nature of these concerns often requires the artists to venture into new areas of knowledge, or use visual strategies to grapple with ideas and questions in different disciplinary felds.

The work and working methods of contemporary artists can enhance teaching and learning in the arts and across subject areas. When drawing from the art, ideas, and methods of contemporary artists to support interdisciplinary inquiry, consider the following goals for achieving meaningful student learning: 1. Engage in purposeful inquiry that is signifcantly enhanced by the work or working methods of visual artists. Artists and their work should be essential to an investigation rather than just supporting the presentation, visualization, or illustration of ideas.

2. Synthesize ideas or collaborate with experts from different felds to build more nuanced understandings, to develop broader perspectives, and to foster complex ideas that are derived from the signifcant contributions of artists or their work.

3. Bring together diverse disciplinary sources, perspectives, media, and materials to demonstrate or help students identify new ways of thinking with and in the arts, as well as with and in other disciplines.

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facilitating conversations Before focusing on a specifc artist, flm, or theme, a generative discussion about the role of art and artists in society and the evolution of art over time can help contextualize ideas about contemporary art and the work of artists today.

keywords

What is art, and why is it important? What role does art play in our society? What value is placed upon artists and their art, and why?

Collaboration: A cooperative working arrangement between an artist and another person, group, or institution. Artists often work in collaboration with a variety of specialists, assistants, colleagues, and audiences. Some artists even form long-term working partnerships with other artists— these are seen as distinct from collaborations, which are often temporary. See artists Allora & Calzadilla, assume vivid astro focus, Thomas Hirschhorn, William Kentridge.

What makes something a work of art? Is art defned by particular boundaries? If so, what are they, and how have they changed over the course of history?

What is the role of the artist? How has this role changed over time?

What distinguishes visual art from other forms of visual communication, such as advertising, design, or photojournalism?

Who decides what a work of art means—the artist, the critic, the viewer? How do history and the passage of time affect the meaning of an artwork?

What are the most important skills an artist can have?

What materials and tools do artists use to create art today?

Have the tools for making art changed over time?

Where do artists fnd inspiration?

What is the difference between working alone and collaborating on an artwork with fabricators, audiences, or others?

In addition to museums and galleries, where else can art be shown? How does the location or context of a work of art affect its meaning?

What are the subjects, issues, and themes important to artists working today?

What role does beauty play in contemporary art?

Does a work of art need to be beautiful? Why, or why not?

Who decides what is beautiful?

Appropriation: The act of borrowing imagery or forms to create something new. See artists Ellen Gallagher, Arturo Herrera, Jenny Holzer, Pierre Huyghe, Paul Pfeiffer, Fred Wilson.

Concept/Conceptual Art: A thought or idea; a frame of mind that can include imagination, opinion, logic, etc. Conceptbased art emphasizes that the idea is equal to, if not more important than, the fnished product. Conceptual art can take many forms, from photographs to texts to videos, while sometimes there is no object at all. Emphasizing the ways things are made more than how they look, conceptual art often raises questions about what a work of art can be.

Conceptual art is also often diffcult to collect or preserve, as it can be the artist’s own experience that is the work of art. See artists Marina Abramovic’, Janine Antoni, Roni Horn, Alfredo Jaar, Wolfgang Laib, Maya Lin, Gabriel Orozco, Richard Tuttle.

Experimentation: Working with new or unfamiliar materials or media and experimenting or reconceiving their form and/ or function to create a work of art. See artists Matthew Barney, Cai Guo-Qiang, Oliver Herring, Iñigo ManglanoOvalle, Judy Pfaff, Sarah Sze, James Turrell, Andrea Zittel.

Juxtaposition: The state or position of being placed close together or side-by-side, so as to permit comparison or contrast. Visual artists often use juxtaposition to reference existing images or ideas while suggesting new meanings.

See artists John Baldessari, Mark Bradford, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Michael Ray Charles, Walton Ford, Barbara Kruger, Ann Hamilton, Raymond Pettibon, Shahzia Sikander.

Process: An artist’s investigation, or the steps the artist takes to make a work of art. Processes differ widely from artist to artist. For many artists the process of making a work of art has become just as important, if not more important, than the fnal work of art itself. See artists Janine Antoni, Oliver Herring, Pierre Huyghe, Joan Jonas, Gabriel Orozco, Pepón Osorio, Ursula von Rydingsvard.

Additional vocabulary can be found on art21.org.

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active viewing strategies for screening

strategies for introducing and refecting

Preview all content In order to decide which artists or sections of the flm are most appropriate and relevant, view all flms before sharing with students to determine how you will actively engage them in the ideas presented.

Use flms to illustrate new words or ideas Initiate lively discussions about terms such as “scale,” “installation,” or “utopia” by introducing short videos from ART21 Exclusive, New York Close Up, or segments of ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century of artists discussing or enacting these ideas.

Introduce multiple artists at once Generate playlists of ART21 Exclusive or New York Close Up flms (three to nine minutes each), or compile excerpts from longer ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century flms (twelve to twenty minutes each) that refect diverse voices, perspectives, approaches, or media.

Present diverse art-making forms or methods Consider how ART21 flms can introduce artistic genres or contexts that are often diffcult to represent or discuss in two-dimensional reproductions, such as large-scale installation, performance art, digital media, and the spaces of exhibitions (museums or public spaces).

Watch part of a longer flm Focus in on a particular idea, artwork, quote, or question.

Ask students to take the lead Ask a student to preview the flm beforehand. He/she will introduce the flm to the class and pause at different points to pose questions to the group.

Look at a flm multiple times In order to revisit specifc questions throughout a unit of study, check in for new understandings after each viewing.

Or view a flm multiple times to hone in on a new idea or aspect of the artist and the artist’s work.

Look at the flm after completing a unit of study Students sometimes fnd it easier to comment on what they are watching after they have had their own experiences.

Use flms to identify techniques, materials, and ideas students have experienced, as well as to comment on differences in their own work or learning processes.

Tie in a question Use a question from the Educators’ Guide or develop a broader question for students to consider before, during, and after viewing a flm that ties into an idea or theme related to your curriculum. In addition, ask students to develop related questions of their own.

Read about the artist Before viewing a flm segment, familiarize students with the artist’s background and work. Share the “About the Artist” summary available at art21.org. Discuss key terms and adapt language as needed for younger students.

Visualize the work beforehand After reading “About the Artist” or giving some background information, ask students to visualize, discuss, or write about what this artist’s work might look like, or how they might make it and with what materials.

Share works of art before viewing Prior to viewing a flm segment, look at a few of the works of art featured in that flm. What can students learn before hearing the words of the artist? What questions do they have?

Share related artists and sources of inspiration Look at related artists’ work or artists in history that inspired the ART21–featured artist. What do the artworks and artists have in common? How are they different?

Initiate a discussion or writing exercise using “Before Viewing” questions.

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in the museum ART21 materials can support inquiry-driven, object-based teaching in museums and other collecting institutions.

ART21 flms on contemporary art and artists can generate entry points for the narratives and histories contained in an institution’s collection and exhibitions. From an art museum to a historic house, ART21 materials connect museum educators with interpretive content that promotes innovative and creative strategies for engaging museum audiences.

Investigate ART21 themes in connection with exhibition themes: View a thematic episode from Art in the Twenty-First Century such as “Ecology,” “History,” or “Protest” and connect the work or ideas of specifc artists to works on view or the key themes driving an exhibition.

• Explore the bimonthly thematic issues of ART21 Magazine, such as “Becoming an Artist,” “Publics,” or “Revolution.”

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Connect the artistic process to objects on view or in the collection: Compare different artistic methods, processes, and media to related objects on view.

• Use the ART21 Exclusive flm series that focuses on singular aspects of an artist’s process.

• Facilitate discussion about a specifc artist using the ART21 Educators’ Guides available for each season of ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century.

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Utilize the artist’s voice to add additional interpretive lenses to engage audiences: After asking viewers to form their own ideas and interpretations of a work on view, share an ART21 video to deepen or confrm viewers’ ideas.

• Juxtapose multiple interpretive lenses for considering and interpreting a work on view: personal ideas, the formal elements (aesthetic and technical aspects), the institutional or contextual interpretation of the work (wall text, exhibition titles, etc.), current social or political events or ideas, as well as the artist’s or author’s voice using quotes or ART21 video.

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young students ART21 flms are produced for general audiences. For elementary and special education students, educators can adapt and support inquiry and refection on the work of artists today by focusing on shorter sections of ART21 flms, particular studio materials and media, as well as themes and key questions that will connect younger students to artist narratives and aspects of the creative process. Educators should preview all content to determine whether it is appropriate for students’ ages, maturity levels, and learning environments.

Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla (Grades 3–8) “Paradox” episode from Season 4 of Art in the

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What happens in an artist’s studio? See ART21 flms featuring Mary Heilmann, David Altmejd, Tim Hawkinson, Catherine Opie, Susan Rothenberg, Leonardo Drew, and El Anatsui.

Keywords: collaboration, composition, arrangement/ confguration, pattern, installation Related media: collage, sculpture

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What do artists do? See ART21 flms featuring Fred Wilson, Vija Celmins, Lucas Blalock, Graciela Iturbide, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla.

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What are different materials and media that artists use?

See ART21 flms featuring Janine Antoni, Shahzia Sikander, Cai Guo-Qiang, Do Ho Suh, Arlene Shechet, and Arturo Herrera.

What are different themes and questions artists explore?

See ART21 flms featuring Susan Rothenberg, Mark Dion, Pepón Osorio, Kiki Smith, Cindy Sherman, and LaToya Ruby Frazier.

Twenty-First Century Keywords: Humor, political expression, social/political commentary, the ephemeral Related media: Public art, social commentary, flm, sculpture El Anatsui (Grades 2–8) “Change” episode from Season 6 of Art in the Twenty-First Century, and the ART21 Exclusive flm

El Anatsui: Studio Process

Lucas Blalock (Grade 2–6) ART21 New York Close Up flm Lucas Blalock’s 99¢ Store

Still Lifes Keywords: everyday objects, transformation, process, problem solving Related media: photography Arturo Herrera (Grades 2–6) “Play” episode from Season 3 of ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century and the ART21 Exclusive flm

Arturo Herrera: Failure Keywords: play, juxtaposition, comics, abstraction, process, experimentation Related media: collage Tim Hawkinson (Grades 1–6) “Time” episode from Season 2 of ART21 Art in the

Twenty-First Century Keywords: tinkering, inventing, play, transformation, kinetic art, sound Related media: sculpture, installation, sound art Susan Rothenberg (Grades 3–6) ART21 Exclusive flm Susan Rothenberg: Emotions Keywords: color, abstraction, shapes, imperfection, process Related media: painting

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standards The landscape of educational standards is rapidly changing.

In an effort to serve teachers across the United States in a variety of subject areas, ART21 provides resources that address the range of standards in visual art and other subject areas.

Common Core Standards ART21 flms support many of the English Language Arts Common Core Standards. ART21 flms and the artworks they highlight are complex texts about which students can make arguments by fnding and evaluating evidence.

Contemporary artworks are particularly suited for openended inquiry and ART21’s educational materials offer many suggestions for encouraging discussion and for developing domain-specifc academic vocabulary.

National Core Arts Standards for Visual Arts Creating: ART21 flms show artists using a wide range of traditional and nontraditional materials and tools as featured artists discuss their unique working methods and create work both independently and through collaborating with specialists and assistants.

Performing/Presenting/Producing: Artists included in ART21 flms describe their sources of inspiration, their working processes, the work they create, and the contexts in which their work is presented. Students can critically compare these narratives and explore different approaches and contexts for presenting and sharing their work.

Responding: As the artists in the series discuss their sources of inspiration and interests, students are able to trace a work of art as it develops, seeing the range of decisions that are made along the way.

Connecting: The artists featured in ART21 flms are involved in interdisciplinary inquiry and studio methods. Depending on their work, some engage the expertise of researchers, writers, historians, philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists, and offer models of how artistic inquiry connects to other subjects and methods.

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Other Subject Area Standards In addition to the Standards in Visual Arts, ART21 flms and interpretive resources also support many of the national standards in Social Studies, English, and Science. To see how the work of contemporary artists featured in ART21 flms connects to other subject areas, see page 5 on “artists and interdisciplinary learning.”

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go further Workshops & Events ART21 presents workshops for teachers in partnership with schools, school districts, and museums. Workshops introduce multimedia resources and related strategies for bringing contemporary art, artists, and themes into classroom and community learning.

Image credits: Page 1 from top to bottom: Kerry James Marshall. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 1, “Identity,” 2001; Roni Horn. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 3, “Structures,” 2005; Maya Lin. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 1, “Identity,” 2001; Tim Hawkinson.

Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 2, “Time,” 2003; Arturo Herrera. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 3, “Play,” 2005; Laylah Ali. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 3, “Power,” 2005.

Screenings ART21 provides screening toolkits for every thematic episode presented in the ART21 Art in the Twenty-First Century broadcast season.

Toolkits support individual and institutional screening and discussion forums.

Pages 2–3 from left to right: Vija Celmins. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 2, “Time,” 2003; Kerry James Marshall. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 1, “Identity,” 2001; Mike Kelley. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 3, “Memory,” 2005; Richard Serra. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 1, “Place,” 2001; Margaret Kilgallen.

Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 1, “Place,” 2001; Jessica Stockholder. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 3,

For more information about ART21 educational programs, contact education@art21.org.

To host a screening, contact access@art21.org.

Pages 4–5 from left to right: Raymond Pettibon. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 2, “Humor,” 2003; Laurie Simmons. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 4, “Romance,” 2007; Mark Dion. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 4, “Ecology,” 2007; Ellen Gallagher.

Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 3, “Play,” 2005; Pierre Huyghe. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 4, “Romance,” 2007; Pepón Osorio. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century,

“Play,” 2005.

Season 1, “Place,” 2001.

Page 7 from left to right: Roni Horn. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 3, “Structures,” 2005; Jessica Stockholder. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 3, “Play,” 2005; Bruce Nauman. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 1, “Identity,” 2001.

Pages 8–9 from left to right: Ida Applebroog. Production still from Art in the TwentyFirst Century, Season 3, “Power,” 2005; Krzysztof Wodiczko. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 3, “Power,” 2005; Fred Wilson. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 3, “Structures,” 2005; Jenny Holzer.

Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 4, “Protest,” 2007; Kara Walker. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 2, “Stories,” 2003; Katharina Grosse. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 7, “Fiction,” 2014.

Pages 10–11 from left to right: Nancy Spero. Production still from Art in the TwentyFirst Century, Season 4, “Protest,” 2007; Oliver Herring. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 3, “Play,” 2005; Thomas Hirschhorn. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 7, “Investigation,” 2014; Tania Bruguera.

Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 7, “Legacy,” 2014; Julie Mehretu. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 5, “Systems,” 2009; Do Ho Suh. Production still from Art in the Twenty-First Century, Season 2, “Stories,” 2003.

Back cover: El Anatsui. Fresh and Fading Memories, 2007. Aluminum, copper wire, 29 ft. 10 in. x 19 ft. 8 in. Installation view, Artempo: Where Time Becomes Art, Palazzo Fortuny, 52nd Venice Biennale, June 10–November 21, 2007. Private collection.

Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. © El Anatsui

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Contact For more information please contact Denison Museum museum@denison.edu 740 587 6255

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Lesson Plans Date

Unit

Artist Name

Lesson Title

Artwork Name

Content Standard * Lesson Objectives * * Required Materials/Resources * * Introduction [estimated time ________________] * Lesson Activities [estimated time ________________] * * * * Wrap Up [estimated time ________________] *

Differentiation (planning for diverse student needs) * * * Assessment *

Other Notes

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Lesson Plans Date

Unit

Artist Name

Lesson Title

Artwork Name

Content Standard * Lesson Objectives * * Required Materials/Resources * * Introduction [estimated time ________________] * Lesson Activities [estimated time ________________] * * * * Wrap Up [estimated time ________________] *

Differentiation (planning for diverse student needs) * * * Assessment *

Other Notes

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Lesson Plans Date

Unit

Artist Name

Lesson Title

Artwork Name

Content Standard * Lesson Objectives * * Required Materials/Resources * * Introduction [estimated time ________________] * Lesson Activities [estimated time ________________] * * * * Wrap Up [estimated time ________________] *

Differentiation (planning for diverse student needs) * * * Assessment *

Other Notes

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S ay i t Lo ud E d u c at o r G u id e