CAP Murals Mini-Course
"Mural, Mural, on the Wall:
Reflecting on our world through public art"
In this Creative Arts course, students will engage in the visual art of murals across culture, place and time. While viewing a diversity of murals, students will reflect in discussions and writing about the social history, themes, contexts, meanings, and discourses they observe. Students will take a field trip to see murals in New York City, and will document and discuss what they observe. Using a richer contextual understanding of murals as a visual art and vehicle for communication, students will then be guided to design their own collaborative mural. For their final course project, students will create the mural they designed and will write a collaborative artists' statement about their mural.
Throughout the course, students will engage in writing, reading,
speaking, art media, and technology, across subjects of social studies,
language arts, and visual arts.
General Course Outline:
Session 1 - course introduction
writing exercise
drawing exercise (kids listen to a story and draw images that would represent what they hear)
Maybe first they do a listening exercise, writing down words and phrases that are important or meaningful to them
then translate those words into images.
Backwards mural - kids look at mural pictures and write what story they think is being told through the images
Field trip - PS 180
Looking at murals part 1
What are murals?
Murals as public art?
Where are murals?
Who paints murals?
What is the content?
What stories do murals tell?
Aesthetics of murals?
Murals in the neighborhoodSession 2 - Looking at murals part 2
Recurring themes? What significance do mural images convey?
How are murals a form of communication? How is history expressed in murals?
How much can we learn from murals?
Session 3 - looking at murals part 3
Students will take field trip to see NYC murals
Session 4 - developing murals
Students will design mural
Students will consider design, content, color and composition
Session 5 - developing mural
Students will create mural
Session 6 - making murals
Students will create mural
Session 7
Session 8
1 Intro
2 field trip
3 looking at murals
4 field trip
5 field trip
6 mural development
7 mural making
8 mural making
...
Common themes that appear in murals: war, peace, human relations, human
rights, history, justice, labor, identity, representation, community
(themes could be tied into school-wide themes - identity, diversity,
etc)
...
Questions that will be addressed in this course:
What are murals?
Murals as public art?
Where are murals?
Who paints murals?
What is the content?
Recurring themes?
How are murals a form of communication?
...
Muralists:
Diego Rivera, Jose Orozco, David Alfaro Siquieros (Mexico)
Judy Baca (Chicana, Los Angeles)
John Biggers, Aaron Douglas, (African-American)
Leonardo DaVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael (Italy)
Pablo Picasso (Spain)
Lascaux Caves (France)
...
Mural Movements:Muralistas (Mexico)
Chicano (Southwest US)
African American (Harlem, Chicago)
Northern Ireland Murals
...
International Murals (Mexico, India, Ireland, Italy)
US Murals (Philadelphia, New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, DC)
...
Sources/Resources:
Mural Arts Program, Philadelphia
Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC), Los Angeles
City Arts
www.cityarts.org, New York City
Artmakers
www.artmakers.org, New York City
...
Supplies and Materials
paint brushes
paint
butcher paper
pencils
colored pencils
digital cameras
creative arts journals
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