Teacher: Lindsey Elenson, ELA
School: Urban Assembly School for Law & Justice
Project Goal(s): Students will investigate the power, freedom, and limitations of speech and self-expression and how visual art is used to express ideas.
Description of Activities
The project connected to a unit on the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson in which a teenager stops speaking after being sexually assaulted and instead turns to artmaking as a way to express herself. Students were led by a teaching artist through critical dialogues on artworks by Picasso, Frida Kahlo and others to investigate how cubism, symbolism and self portraiture have been employed by artists to freely express themselves. Students created original pieces echoing these styles to visually communicate their own ideas of themselves.
ETA funds were used for art supplies, teaching artist fees and Guggenheim museum admission.
Arts Partner(s)
Monique Schubert - freelance artist