Special Projects for Teachers and Parents
I'm including these projects here in hopes it will inspire other teachers to incorporate art into the classroom and engage their students with service/community/place-based learning. These were created at either Washington State University or Northern Illinois University where I taught courses in art education, children's literature, and cultural studies. Many of the students had no prior art-making experience. The projects are cross-curricular and based on place-based, visual culture, and/or critical multicultural education theories informed by the work of John Dewey, Doug Blandy, David Greenwood, Kerry Freedman, Suzi Gablik, Lucy Lippard, Gloria Anzaldúa, and many others.
If you were one of my students and see your work here, please contact me so that I can credit you at miraguy@gmail.com |
These sock puppets were created as part of some visual culture puppet shows that we performed in the community (a local café) and at our nearby homeless shelter. We spoofed popular culture and advertising by using glove puppets and marionettes for the main show (send ups of children's fairy tales and television shows) and then interrupted them with sock puppet advertising exposing the real fear messages underlying most advertising. Unfortunately none of the glove puppet or marionette pictures taken at the performances turned out. Sock puppets are very easy to make - socks, yarn, fabric, buttons, googly eyes, fiber-fill, glue gun.
The pictures above are from an organic farm in Northern Illinois where we created a recycled art garden to help feed local people in need. We did a field trip to Bob Blunk's, an octogenerian sculptor, who helped weld some of our creations, showed us his own large sculpture garden, and brainstormed ideas with us. We then went out with friends and family members for a memorable day. The farmer spoke with the students about organic farming practices and some students who had never had their hands in dirt got to experience it. The student on the far right, Julianna Gehant, was one of the students killed during the NIU shootings. She touched many lives profoundly.
Left - tomato trellis from the organic farm above left, center - salmon gone wild In Washington State University College of Education's atrium, right - community garden recycled scarecrow sculpture. The salmon gone wild are really fun and easy to do. Simply fold a large piece of construction paper lengthways draw fish or whatever shape you want, cut both sides out and open like a butterfly, paint and flip, stuff with crumpled newspaper, seal with staples leaving space for fishing line wrapped around newspaper and then staple that closed and hang. Lesson connected with learning about salmon, Washington fish, and eco-systems (science). Also line, pattern, and contrast.
The cartoons connect literacy, especially if used with books like My Diary from Here to There or Where Fireflies Dance, writing, math in creating grids, social studies, and the art tools of line, pattern, contrast, space, and shape.
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Immigrant cartoon histories explore students' own family histories of immigration to engender compassion and empathy for recent immigrants and raise awareness of the incredible diversity within a classroom. It is encouraging to see Anglo-Americans, who sometimes see themselves as "culture-less," explore/uncover the cultural diversity within their own families. It is also fascinating to note how global and local history interconnects, and have the opportunity to help keep family history alive. Because not all students can access family history information, students were given the option of inventing a family history as I did in Honoring Our Ancestors or making a cartoon as if they were an alien coming from another planet with different customs, language, and ways of being to a new friendless place. We exhibited these at the downtown library and included extra blank templates for community members to share their own immigrant stories.
Click here to download a blank cartoon template |
It often amazes me how little we know about the places where we live. This is another reason art is so imporant. Art is very much about paying attention - to what we see, feel, think, experience. This project was inspired by the wonderful children's book What's the Most Beautiful Thing You Know About Horses? We read the book, researched local animals, and then students had to interview someone they knew, asking them what was the most beautiful thing they knew about their animal. The final directive was to create a story connecting the statement with the person giving it, as Richard Van Camp does in the book. We exhibited these in the downtown library as well to educate about the ecological diversity in our area. Materials are oil pastels on 8"x10" black contruction paper mounted on contrasting 9"x12" construction paper. Oil pastels on black are always a winner.
Content areas: science, literacy, art tools - texture, pattern, space.
Content areas: science, literacy, art tools - texture, pattern, space.
Content areas: Math (counting money in groups and comparing which group raised the largest percentage), science - learning about the animals, social studies, literacy, art tools - form, color, pattern.
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These paper maché animal banks were created to raise money for non-profits. They are fun and easy to make (but can be messy). At NIU we raised $1500 for books, art supplies, and toys for the kids at Hope Haven Homeless Shelter by making them and placing them out in banks, coffee shops, health food shops etc. and then collecting them. Use balloons for the body and head, and cut toilet paper rolls for the legs, tape on while still dry. Use wallpaper paste mixed with water (flour and water works but can become mildewed really easily so I avoid it, check the wallpaper paste ingredients to make sure there are no student allergies). Tear newspapers into strips and coat with paste and put 3 layers on. Allow to dry and then do another 3 coats. Dry again and paint with tempera paint. Cut a hole on the top, burst balloon, and make a donation sign explaining what it's for and place in community. This project is great to use with books such as A Shelter in Our Car or Birthday in the Barrio.
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When i was a student teaching adviser, I would go into schools where there were 92 different languages spoken. Many of these kids were refugee children fleeing war and all sorts of horrors. My friend Elly Simmons roped me into getting involved with the Tents Of Hope Project and making a tent. It was one of those projects that grew with nearly 200 people involved including my co-organizer - master middle school art teacher Karen Popovich, her classes and art club, 3 of my art education classes from NIU, NIU NAEA students, members of the DeKalb Universal Unitarian Church, and adults and children from Hope Haven Homeless Shelter. We raised funds to purchase the tent, floor cloth canvases, and painting supplies, painted the tent and then took it to Washington DC as part of the "Gathering of the Tents" to draw attention to the genocide occuring in Darfur. One side of the tent shows war and the other side hopes and new beginnings. The floorcloth made of individual painted mandalas symbolizing balance, peace, and the natural world, and the tent are now in a Darfuri refugee camp serving as a children's classroom.
We connected this project with art and literacy with a wonderful children's book about refugee immigration – A Movie in My Pillow. One of my classes was also fortunate enough to meet a "Lost Boys of Sudan" young man who described his harrowing story of survival and the precious gift of education in the U.S. when he visited our class with another guest who spoke about making art in Africa with refugee children. It turned out that our area was one of the major areas where Sudanese refugee children were relocated. It always amazes me how much there is to be discovered in the areas we live if we do a little questioning and exploring (researching). I am also consistently moved by the fascinating ways that global and local history interconnect. Content areas: Math (radial symmetry), social studies, literacy, art tools - color, shape, space, balance.
We connected this project with art and literacy with a wonderful children's book about refugee immigration – A Movie in My Pillow. One of my classes was also fortunate enough to meet a "Lost Boys of Sudan" young man who described his harrowing story of survival and the precious gift of education in the U.S. when he visited our class with another guest who spoke about making art in Africa with refugee children. It turned out that our area was one of the major areas where Sudanese refugee children were relocated. It always amazes me how much there is to be discovered in the areas we live if we do a little questioning and exploring (researching). I am also consistently moved by the fascinating ways that global and local history interconnect. Content areas: Math (radial symmetry), social studies, literacy, art tools - color, shape, space, balance.
NIU art professors and their classes were invited to join Gabriel Bizen Akagawa in his exhibition Unpacked/Offset at the Altgelt Museum. I discussed it with my graduate course on Art, Environment, and Culture and we signed up. The goal was to use "recycled, reclaimed, reconfigured, and reconstituted materials" to explore the natural world and our relationship to it. Originally we were going to focus on the corn culture of Northern Illinois and had come up with some powerful work but then the NIU shootings happened and we were all in shock. We felt like we needed to address this issue rather than to just go forward with our original plan and yet the theme was nature and shooting vibrant young people was so un-natural. We ended up exploring this tragedy through quiet meditation in nature, we reflected on the lack of "rights of passage" that many indigenous cultures provide their young men in navigating adulthood, and contrasted the concept of random acts of violence versus random acts of kindness. Click on this link for the exhibition catalog description.
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Zines are fun and easy to make. Students chose a topic that is meaningful to them and then created a zine using 8.5"x11" paper folded lengthways and stapled inside with an extended stapler (available at Dick Blicks). I was lucky enough to have a grant funded to bring Doug Blandy to NIU and my classes. He gave a brilliant presentation on zines (one of his MANY areas of expertise) and worked with students as they made their zines. Doug is one of my educational heroes. We gave a presentation to other art teachers and academics at the Illinois Art Education Association conference, which was very well received. From left to right Pablo Serrano, Katie Odenweiler, Colleen Drehobl. Content areas: Literacy, social studies, art.
One of my most favorite things to do is to empower and teach others how to write, illustrate, and publish children's picture books. I seem to always get fabulous students. At NIU, I got to teach a graduate level course on "The Art of Children's Picture Books" which explored this topic through a range of visual culture “considerations.” These included: race/ethnicity, gender and sexuality, class and homelessness, special needs, and environmental considerations, national versus international approaches to gender and sexuality, cultural aesthetics, and practical considerations - i.e., how a picture book is made and distributed. Students considered course content through readings, discussions, critical explorations of picture books and the creation of their own picture book “dummy.” The course was a total joy to teach. From left: Sarah Leahy and Anna Kenar. There were other fabulous books created that I don't have access to right now but will update when I unpack those boxes. This is a great project to do with children to help them demystify the book making process and learn to become more visually literate in questioning what images "tell" us. To see how I am now able to teach these and other skills to people outside of university settings around the world visit - The Children's Book Academy
I hope this page has been helpful. Feel free to drop me a line at miraguy AT gmail.com, join my Art and Education Facebook network or comment on my blog. I am also a member of Art Education 2.0 which is another terrific educational resource.
I hope this page has been helpful. Feel free to drop me a line at miraguy AT gmail.com, join my Art and Education Facebook network or comment on my blog. I am also a member of Art Education 2.0 which is another terrific educational resource.