Developing Lessons from Exhibits

Wendy Johnson

Introduction

• How to create studio art lessons based on gallery exhibits.

• Determining all the factors to help develop the lesson– Age Appropriateness– Materials– Important concepts of the exhibit– Allotted Time

Factors: Age Levels

• Determining what the students are capable of is very important– if they are younger and not very coordinated

with scissors, then a project that involves a lot of intricate cutting doesn’t make sense.

• Materials are also going to be decided with age levels

Factors: Materials

• Materials are not just based on age levels

• Always test out materials before the lesson– then you have pre-made examples and most of

the kinks are worked out of the lesson beforehand

• Sometimes the materials you have in mind end up failing and last minute changes are needed

Factors: Concept

• Figure out what the most important concept is:– What idea/knowledge to you want your students

to remember the most?

– There should be several small ideas and one large concept that is emphasized

– What state goals are you going to meet with this concept?

– How will you teach this concept?

Factors: Allotted Time

• Determining how the allotted time will be used is very important

• How long will the review be?

• How long will the demonstration be?

• How much time is needed for clean-up?

• Is it absolutely necessary to be finished in the allotted time?

The Exhibit

• Visuals are key– Students are seeing artwork that is new to them

and concepts are more easily understood with the use of visuals

– Return to one concept continually to reinforce the ideas

– Visuals should be used during the tour and the lesson

The Exhibit

• Reviewing concepts after the tour– Reinforces that concept again– The tour should be more of a lecture with a few

responses– The review should be all question and answer

• Materials should be introduced immediately after with a quick discussion of how they relate to the tour

Docent Tours and Studio Lessons

Moche Portrait Vessels

• Exhibit: Pre-Columbian Central American Artworks

• Materials: air-dry clay, juice containers, newspaper, clay tools

• Process: Review cultures, specifically Moche and their portrait vessels– Introduce facial proportions (interactive visuals)

– Discuss self-portraits

– Introduce materials

– Step-by-step project of creating the vessels

Moche Portrait Vessels

Armin Mersmann

• Exhibit: Armin Mersmann

• Materials: 4 Drawing pencils, erasers, scissors, glue, drawing paper, texture plates, found objects, images of eyes

• Process: Review Armin Mersmann– Discuss his use of the number 3

– Discuss the themes of humans and nature

– Discuss drawing pencils

– Discuss texture/frottage

– 3 part project: draw a human eye, a personal object and an object in nature; create a frottage texture on separate paper; cut out and glue 3 drawings onto textured paper

Armin Mersmann

Fér Decoupé

• Exhibit: Fer Decoupe: Haitian Steel Drum Sculptures

• Materials: 12 x 18” tag board, orange/brown tempera paint, sponges, scissors

• Procedure: Review Haitian steelworks and process– Discuss symmetry and asymmetry

– Discuss design

– Demonstrate how to cut out the design

– Discuss and demonstrate how to sponge paint to make it look like the steelworks

Fér Decoupé

Sample Exhibit and Studio Lesson

• Georgia O’Keeffe

• Artworks presented:– The Red Hills, Grey Sky– Red Poppy– Red Canna– Narcissa’s Last Orchid – Grey Line with Black, Blue and Yellow

The Red Canna The Red Poppy Grey Line with Black, Blue and Yellow

Narcissa’s Last Orchid The Red Hills, Grey Sky

Sample Exhibit and Studio Lesson

• Pablo Picasso

• Artworks presented:– The Old Guitarist– The Three Musicians– The Red Armchair– The Kiss– Self-Portrait

Self-Portrait The Red Armchair The Old Guitarist

The Three Musicians The Kiss

Conclusion

• There are many important factors that NEED to be considered when developing a lesson; time, age, materials, concepts, etc.

• Preparation is always key to a successful lesson.