Changing Minds and How We See Black History Wall Murals!
Help me give my students tempera paints, markers, Sharpies, watercolor paints, pencils, and paper to create their "How We See" Black History Wall Murals!
My art classroom is the most groovy, happening place to be, made up of students who have always let their imaginations and creativity soar. We're talking the best of the best, challenge seekers and dream makers. My students have learned to embrace their inner artist-self and to keep an open mind to a world outside of their own.
Traditionally, they come from a rather rural-low income farmland county in the heart of our rolling hills and beautiful mountain home, West Virginia.
With such a rich heritage for the arts, there could be no better place to begin their artistic path than here. With that said, it's a shame that their exposure to diversity, to culture, and the world, has been, for the sake of a gentler term, very limited.
And this, folks, is where the art we experience in my classroom gets interesting. They're taken away from their cozy, "comfort zone" and immersed into a time and place all entirely new and they love it! When you begin to take a closer look at what they're doing, you'll see all the subtle transformations that have and are continually taking place, both in their lives and in their art.
My Project
Empathy, growth mindset, social & emotional learning, interactions with others & being comfortable to express ourselves rests at this projects core. Too many times we see students, especially those at the middle school age, unsure of how to effectively govern or manage their emotions & social interactions. Learning to be accepting of others beliefs, to listen, cooperate, communicate, show empathy & care for others & themselves is a tough skill to learn sometimes! Especially at this age, nurturing one’s own discovery of who they are or want to become can give way to unbelievable growth, but can sometimes be hard to be heard. Art can be an avenue for expression, for promoting ones own identity and to be heard - a safe space to be comfortable and free to embrace the diversity of the world around us.
Every year during National Black History Month, my visual arts students learn about the life of famous African American heroes throughout history & in response we seek to tell their story by creating beautifully telling & powerful works of wall mural sized portrait art of these men & women.
All resources and materials provided through the contributions you make will we used to help students paint the picture in its literal sense of these influential, strong and brilliant people - striving to go beyond the history books and connect with their heart, mind and spirit. We'll use the matrix grid technique to create these portrait murals. Simply put, students will learn to use a grid to take a smaller image & make it larger. This specific project will have students creating individual pieces of a larger whole to create wall size portrait murals when put together - never knowing where their piece fits until the final portrait is revealed.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Johnson and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
