Understanding History and Society through Images, 1776-1914

CONTENTS OF CURRICULUM UNIT 14.01.10

  1. Unit Guide
  1. Introduction
  2. School Details
  3. Strategies
  4. Background Information
  5. Specific sculptures
  6. Contemporary artists
  7. Classroom activities
  8. Bibliography
  9. Notes

Making Art against the Odds: The Triumph of Edmonia Lewis

Kimberly Kellog Towne

Published September 2014

Tools for this Unit:

School Details

I teach in an International Bacchelaurate program, which is basically a school within a school. It is an inner city middle school and I am the only art teacher. We have 90-minute block classes, which alternate each day. Therefore, I teach two 6 th grade classes, two 7 th grade classes and two 8 th grade classes, each for the entire year. Almost all of the students remain in art for all three years, so by the time they get to 8 th grade they have had two full years of a fairly intense art program. Beginning this fall, 2014, the Middle Years Program (MYP) has new curriculum guidelines for art and the other subjects. Creating this unit is enabling me to begin to explore the new objectives and key concepts of these new initiatives. There are Global Contexts, which involve the students in learning concepts in context. While there are six options, I have chosen to focus on two: Identity and Relationships as well as Orientation in Space and Time. There are four key concepts for the Arts in the new curriculum guide: Aesthetics, Identity, Change and Communication. Within my unit, I will focus on just one of these, Identity. My unit will focus on the personal identities of artists and how that influences their work, as well as how the artist's "orientation" in space and time (in other words, when and where an artist is working) influences the work.

Objectives

In this unit I will focus on how art expresses the identity of the artist and the ideals and beliefs of the community to which the artist belongs. Each artist has an individual identity based on his or her unique life experiences. Artists also are members of communities that have beliefs and values, which can influence an artist's work. My hope is that the students will look at art through a new lens of understanding. They will see how art is a reflection of the time and culture in which it was created. As Addiss says in Art History and Education,

"Art comes alive only when we become part of the process. In the same way, art history is alive only when we become part of its process. It is not enough to memorize images or learn the names and dates of famous masters. Art history offers us much more-the chance to participate in the entire world of artistic expression: from prehistoric times to the present day and from Africa, Asia and Europe to our own towns, schools and homes. In the process we will also discover that art history can be one of the most exciting ways to investigate the cultures of the world and their histories. Like every other activity, the more of ourselves we put into it, the more we will gain in return, ultimately leading to sharing the vision of artists of the past- and perhaps finishing the artist in ourselves" 3

Comments:

Marilyn Richardson

November 15, 2016 at 4:27 pm

More Info About Edmonia Lewis

Google: Edmonia Lewis, Marilyn Richardson for more information on Lewis's life, career, and sculpture

Kirsten Pai Buick

October 28, 2022 at 8:42 pm

oversimplification of my argument

I read this with great pleasure and interest. I think that this is a wonderful way to introduce students to Lewis’s work and to inspire other curiosities and a true model for exploration. However, my work on Lewis is vastly oversimplified. Of course her identity played a role in her work. She referenced it all the time—whether it was through Longfellow or her Catholicism or her figures based on enslavement, the Bible, history, etc. But those “identifications” (a more fluid way of understanding the seeming coherence of “identity”) are based on distances—Longfellow in lieu of direct references to her childhood; enslaved people though she was never enslaved. Lewis manipulated those identities that people could only narrowly comprehend. The author states: “This book, which began as a dissertation, argues that her work is more a reflection of the time period than her personal identity. Despite this being the most recent published work, I am not going to focus on the author's point of view. While certainly Edmonia Lewis' art was reflective of the context in which she was working, one cannot discount the impact her personal identity had on her subject choice and her work.” I was not arguing that her context was more important than her personal identity. My point was that her “personal identity” was never revealed by her. She used her deep understanding of context to make her dreams come true despite the limitations that the era set for her.

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