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What's to you? What's it to me? Exploring Contemporary Art Through Dialogue

The Big Ideas

  • Looking at art means to observe closely, find meaning in ambiguity, respond on a personal level, and make inferences about the artist and the culture in which the art was made.
  • Artists make choices of subject, and form to communicate ideas.
  • Since the 1940’s, modern and contemporary art has increasingly relied on the experiences of the viewer to “complete” the work of art, to create new ideas within the individual viewer. Therefore, where you come from influences what you see.

Objectives

The learner will:

  • Observe and describe the subject, composition and details of selected works of art from the 1940’s to the present.
  • Express personal interpretation of and response to selected works of art through audio and video recordings, discussions, blogging and collaborative writing based on careful observation.
  • Collaborate with students from another classroom to create a model for looking at and connecting with modern and contemporary art.

The Project

Two high school classrooms, one from metropolitan Kansas City, Missouri, and one from an outlying community will come together via video conferencing and visits to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to document the process of looking at and finding meaning in modern and contemporary art. The participating outlying class will take part in 7 – 10 hours of video conference discussions and presentations, and make two visits to the museum, paid for by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. At their schools students will conduct research and contribute to wiki documents and on-line discussions, the participating metropolitan class will make approximately ten, one-hour visits to the Museum, and work in their school buildings to complete the same tasks. This project is free of charge.

The final product will be a website of collaborative essays, audio and video content and online discussions that will be archived on the Museum website.

Participating schools and the Museum will work together on issues of scheduling, curriculum alignment, and technology compatibility. We plan to present one project in the fall, 2008 and four more in the spring, 2009. This being the first year for this project, the Museum appreciates input from the participating schools as we grow the program.

GLEs:

Social Studies

SS6: Relationships of Individuals and Groups to Institutions and Traditions
Compare and contrast major ideas and beliefs of different cultures
Analyze how the roles of... groups have changed in society, including cause and effect

SS7: Tools of Social Science Inquiry
Distinguish between fact and opinion
Interpret... art and artifacts

Communication Arts

Writing · 1: Apply a writing process
Apply a writing process to various forms and types of writing
2: Compose well-developed text
A: Audience and Purpose
Awareness of audience
Point of View
B: Ideas and Content
Controlling ideas
Specific details
Complex ideas
Freshness of thought
D: Word Choice
Precise, vivid language
Imagery, humor, voice, etc.

CLE:
A: Descriptive, expository text
D: Literary (Art) analysis
E: Reflective writing

Listening and Speaking
2: Effective Speaking Skills and Strategies
A: Discussion and Presentation
Concise presentations
Appropriate media or technology

Information Literacy
Analyze and Evaluate Oral and visual data
A: Media Messages
Analyze, describe and evaluate the elements of messages sent in various media

Visual Art

Strand I: Product/Performance
1C: Digital/Computer
Select and apply digital media that demonstrate:
Sensitivity and subtlety
Engagement and experimentation
Informed decision-making

Strand III: Artistic Perceptions
1A: Aesthetics
Art as reflection of community or culture
2A: Art Criticism
Describe artwork
Analyze the use of elements and principles
Interpret meaning

Strand IV: Interdisciplinary Connections
2A:Connecting Art and Non-Art Objects
Explain how historical events and social ideas are reflected in artworks from selected cultures.



About New Dimensions
Since 2006 New Dimensions has worked with middle school and high school students from public, parochial and charter schools from all areas of Kansas City. Our goal is to bring teens into the museum for multiple visits that go beyond the usual one-hour tour experience of most school children, allowing for a richer, deeper connection between the students, their school curriculum, and the museum’s collection.

We believe that authentic projects involving thoughtful response to works of art calls for a wide range of thinking skills and that multimedia projects exercise a variety of learning styles.


dadelman
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