Class to Culture
I often find that many students bring their outside experiences into the art room. These experiences tend to be the building blocks and inspiration for their artwork. Along with their outside experiences, societal norms have also helped shape the way they perceive and react to the world. At my secondary placement in High school, I wondered what they could take from art room and bring into the world with them. What life skills could I embed into their art lessons that can be used both practically and psychologically that could prepare them for a successful future?
I came into the class prepared to teach really amazing lessons before I realized that my students were never exposed to information they needed to create the resulting product. I believe that the process of making is always more important than the product itself so I decided to focus on the “how” and the “why” of the process. I encouraged my students to critically assess the importance of representation in art and prompted them with questions about museums and art mediums. As a prep for the introduction to the lesson, we reviewed various mediums of art and discussed what subjects we were accustomed to seeing in portraits, movies, and TV. I tried to keep it current and discussed the importance of movies such a Black Panther and artists such as Kehinde Wiley. In doing this, the objective was to strengthen their critical thinking skills and encourage them to look beyond what they see on the surface. Moreover, I created classroom precepts that they could adjust to spaces outside of my classroom. For example, rather than telling them “don’t do this or that,” we talked about the value of taking accountability and acknowledging moments where they could have used better judgement (“I” over “Why”). Or encouraging them to expand their vocabulary instead of resorting to profanity in the art room. I want to build an art room that is safe, inclusive, and promotes student voices. The goal is to encourage them to think (and learn) about life through art and art-making. 