New Art Classes Connect to Community and Current Events
Upper schoolers involved in two new art classes offered this semester are exploring the connections between art and everyday life—community, culture, technology, politics—as a means of spurring learning, engagement, interaction, and even action among audiences.
Typically, art classes on public art (or community or place-based art, as it is also known) are found in college or graduate programs, explains teacher Kristin Pratt Serafini (US’94, C’98), who is serving as a visiting faculty member this semester. As a result, she has slightly adjusted content and concepts, but her aim in both Socially Conscious Art and Mural Painting is consistent with that of college-level classes. “Each activity is intended to really keep students thinking,” she says, “to keep them making intentional choices and reflecting critically about their place in community and their responsibility to effect change.”
Both classes include a fair amount of writing, art history, research and analysis, and presentation skills—with an unexpected detour into the history of space exploration for Mural Painting. The reason? Early in the semester, as the class was discussing a subject for the mural, the news and social media were full of articles, posts, tweets, and photos of astronaut Scott Kelly’s “year in space” aboard the International Space Station. Students proposed a space station theme and conducted a SWOT analysis of five possible locations for the mural before presenting a proposal to administrators. Everyone agreed that the mural would be a perfect way to transform a hitherto nondescript side entrance into the mathematics wing in the lower level of the academic building.
Capitalizing on her students’ interest—and recognizing that most of them were barely teenagers when the space shuttle program ended in 2011—Serafini took the opportunity to introduce her students to the history of U.S. and global space exploration. The students were so enthusiastic about what they learned that they worked on several Saturdays to draft out the design, paint it, and construct 3D elements, such as a control panel. In a wonderful coincidence, Serafini’s brother, Kevin Pratt (US’ 00, C’04), is an avionics engineer with Blue Origin—the Seattle-based company that is working to develop a commercial, reusable space rocket. His visit to class was definitely a highlight!
For the students in Socially Engaged Art, there was a brief introduction to contemporary art history—including the work of French graffiti artist-turned-photographer JR, whose massive portraits have prompted discussions about connectivity and our common humanity in cities across the world, from New York and Paris to Shanghai and even Ramallah in the West Bank. The first project in this class centered around identity and connection—beginning with a writing prompt: “Imagine a new student is visiting campus. What would you want them to know about you?”
Geographic origins (Philippines, California, Virginia), personal likes or traits (“sporty guy,” “laid back”), aspirations (“I want you to understand me”)—all the responses were combined in random order into a printed collage that formed the backdrop to large black-and-white portraits of members of the class. “Our goal is to create an atmosphere of trust by using our words and portraits to communicate our ideas about friendship and acceptance,” the class wrote in an explanatory note. And indeed, the location of this work in the Upper School hallway—as well as its striking simplicity and size—compelled passersby to stop and “get to know” the individuals portrayed. In the process, many viewers no doubt realized just how much the students portrayed have in common not only with each other but also with the viewers.
In a subsequent unit, students have been considering the communities they belong to (family, home, dorm, team, cultural or ethnic group, etc.); what they bring to that community and what they get from it; and how being part of each community affects others’ views of them and their own views of themselves. The resulting works—ranging from crafted gifts one student made for her dorm community to detailed word pictures of the stereotypes and pressures of being viewed through the lens of gender or race—are stirring in their depth and vision.
Along with producing moving works of art, the instructional approach of Pratt’s classes melds perfectly with Principia’s focus on interdisciplinary learning that cultivates students’ critical thinking skills, deeper understanding, and abilities to apply that understanding in differing contexts through discussion, research, and cooperative, project-based learning.