Project: Compare and Contrast

Hefty 2-Ply

Veiled Lady

Take a moment to look at these two images.

Seem pretty different at first glance, don't they? What if I told you these two pieces actually have a lot in common? Don't believe me do you? You're probably thinking, "Elisabeth, what on earth does a trash bag have to do with one of the most beloved sculptures at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts? The one is a beautiful marble carving, and the other is literally full of garbage." 

Appearances can be deceiving: that trash bag is actually carved out of marble too, and is currently on display at the Walker as part of the Lifelike exhibit. They may have been created almost 100 years apart, but both of these sculptures have similar techniques and ideas behind them. I didn't even realize this until a friend of mine pointed it out to me. In both works, the artists are showing off their skill by fooling your eye. They're both pushing the limits of the medium, making your brain think it's another material. The Veiled Lady looks like her head covering might flutter in the slightest breeze; Hefty 2-Ply seems as if it's about to fall over or burst at the seams. They're both very much products of their day, created out of the trends and fads of their respective time periods.

And yet these two pieces are also quite different as well. The Veiled Lady was created around 1860 by an Italian sculptor, Raffaelo Monti, known for his delicately carved work. The Veiled Lady seems like she might float away on a strong breeze. Monti's sculpture is romantic and alluring, showcasing the beauty of a woman with a veil over her face and flowers in her hair. His work is part of the Romanticism movement. 

In 1979, the Walker commissioned the American artist Jud Nelson to create a piece for their permanent collection. He decided to recreate a garbage bag filled with trash and spent the next two years carving it out of marble. Nelson is known for making hyper realistic sculptures of mundane things. He makes people see every day objects in a new light. I think his work relates to the ideas in the Pop Art movement.

At first, these two sculptures might not seem like they have anything in common, being created almost a century apart and as part of different art movements. And yet there are many ways in which they relate to each other, not just because they're made from the same material, but also by playing with viewers' perception of what's real.

Okay, so what I just did is known as Compare and Contrast. It's one of the most basic and commonly assigned essays any art student has to write. I did a very pared down version for you, but it's basically the same format whether someone is writing one page or ten pages:

Introduce the two pieces. 

Say what's different about them. 

Now how are they similar? (or vice versa) 

Conclusion. 

Each of those sentences could be a paragraph or a page, it's really based on how much detail you want/need to go into. And you don't have to get fancy or do a lot of research either. I looked up both of these sculptures starting with Google, then moved on to their respective museum websites. I could have gotten pretty much the same information by partaking in tours at the Walker and Minneapolis Art Institute as well. 

The reason I classified this post under the Project heading is because it's easy to replicate and is just as important to art education as creating work. Doing this exercise helps refine thinking and observation skills. It's also helpful for students to reflect on what they know by not just repeating facts. I always found in school that something stuck better when I wrote or talked about it rather than simply studying for a test. 

And this assignment can be adjusted for any grade level and doesn't have to be about ART per say. A kindergartner can say what the similarities and differences are between oranges and apples. Elementary students can paste images on a poster and write a list. Junior and senior high students can do research and write essays of varying depth. From personal experience, college students write 12 page term papers utilizing this same basic idea. 

Your kids could pick two comic book or video game characters, images from an art history textbook, clothing by two different fashion designers, pieces on display in a museum, etc. I think you get the idea. In a nutshell, it's what two things have in common and what they don't and providing some proof to back it up. 

Lesson Plan: Making Peace

One of the featured works,
The Fighter of the Spirit

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) has a plethora of resources for teachers. I've written about the museum before, but not their online presence. The MIA loves teachers and creates so much content for educators to use for free. Each month, they post a short lesson plan about a particular subject or work of art. The current feature is Making Peace; it highlights five pieces from the MIA's collection, and has a activities to go along with the lesson. It's like getting a one-on-one tour and discussion.

Perfect for your self-motivated, tech savy students. You could go through the whole lesson at once, or look at one piece each day for a themed week. The cool part about this, if you're local to Minnesota, is that your kids can read about the art and then actually go see it in person! You can stand in front of this statue, realizing how huge it is, noticing the little details that you can't see in a small image on a computer screen. You could make a scavenger hunt out of finding all five works in the museum, or call ahead for a tour related to the subject.

If you want to get the MIA's Teaching the Arts e-mail newsletter, you can sign up here. (scroll down a bit and you'll see the different newsletters you can subscribe to)

Video: Highpoint Editions - Decade One

The Highpoint Center for Printmaking currently has an exhibit on display at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Here's a sweet little video about Highpoint and the exhibition:

Article: Homecoming for 300 year old Native American shirt

Some cool local art news: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts just acquired a 300 year old Native American shirt that's originally from Minnesota. You can read the full article here.

The MIA has a growing collection of Native American art that's definitely worth checking out. One of my favorite pieces (which is currently not on display) is a beautiful little statue of a woman by the famous sculptor Allan Houser.

Resources: M.I.A. Youtube channel

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has its own Youtube channel with over 100 hundred videos uploaded so far. There's videos of specific pieces of art, previews of exhibitions, interviews with artists and museum staff, and much more. The videos can help you prepare for a field trip to the MIA or expand your knowledge of something you saw on your last visit.

This is a great resource for your audio-visual learners. It has that multimedia element that the Internet savvy child should enjoy. They're not wandering a "boring" art museum or paging through a mammoth art history tome, it engages them on another learning level.

Here's a video (part 1 of 2) about the period rooms in the museum's famous Asian art collection:

Resources: Object in Focus

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts has a great section on their website devoted to teachers and education resources. They also have an educator's newsletter,Teaching the Arts, you can sign up for that contains helpful articles and ideas.

One of their ongoing features is called Object in Focus. It showcases one piece from the MIA's collection that's currently on display in the museum. Each Object in Focus gives you some information about the art work, its history, meaning, and includes ideas for lesson plans and activities based off of it.

This month's featured item is the Bella Coola Frontlet, a headpiece designed for a dancer from the Bella Coola tribe in the Pacific Northwest. There's enough activities given to take up several weeks worth of study, if you're so inclined. A list of books is listed for further study, from a kids' story to a travel guide about the Pacific Northwest. You can teach your children about this specific piece, then take a field trip to see it and other related items in the museum's collection. There's just no replacement for actually seeing the art in person. Or you can incorporate the related Native American history into your current curriculum. Object in Focus is a great springboard into new subjects and projects.

Register to receive the Teaching the Arts e-mail newsletter as well as others from the MIA. It's a truly helpful resource, from giving you new ideas to try to expanding on knowledge you might already have.

Field trip: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) is my favorite art museum to visit. I've grown up going there (it is only 15 minutes away from my house). I enjoy wandering the galleries, taking in the centuries of art history. I love visiting my favorite pieces every time I go--they're like old friends now, offering inspiration whenever I have artist's block.

For many people though, the MIA is not a familiar place, and is in fact a confusing one to visit. It can be overwhelming taking your kids there. What to see? How long should we stay? What's there to do? How do I keep the little ones engaged and not ready to leave within 15 minutes? I have a few suggestions for you, to make your visit to the MIA fun and informative.

The museum is always free, except for a couple galleries that have special exhibits. There's on street parking, and two parking lots that are free for museum visitors. I suggest not going on Fridays, as that is the day that usually has a lot of school groups visiting. It can be very noisy, crowded and distracting with all the kids passing through. Thursdays are a good time to visit--the MIA is open until 9pm, and they usually have some interactive art carts scattered around the museum. The information desk is always a great place to start--they have maps, suggestions of things to see, and free tours to take. The MIA's tours are really fun and interesting. They have different tours aimed at specific ages (they even have a tour for 3-5 year olds now).

I think the best way to experience the museum is to pick a particular floor or style of art to see. Don't try to see everything in one go--it just gets too overwhelming and mind numbing. I don't even try to see it all when I visit. An hour, maybe two, is a long enough time to see what you want to see, wander a little, and not be tired out.

For the young ones, a great way to get them excited to look at all the art is to have a scavenger hunt. My Mom came up with this idea--count all the dogs you can find in the art. You can also pick other animals, like horses (there are quite a few sculptures of those), or flowers, or boats...something that's not too difficult to find and will pop up a lot from gallery to gallery. Your kids will want to check each painting and sculpture to search for their chosen object. If you have multiple children, have each child pick a different thing to look for. The information desk also sometimes offers activity sheets to fill out, which can guide you through your visit.

The museum has a wonderful website: www.artsmia.org and I highly suggest checking it out before you visit. It's easy to browse, and there's just so much useful information. Upcoming events and exhibits, collection highlights, and educational resources. There's a whole section devoted to teachers, with pictures, lesson and field trip ideas. You can browse the MIA's entire collection online; it will tell you what gallery an object is in if it's on display, and you can see pieces that are currently in storage too. The museum only ever has about 10% of their total collection on display at any given time!

If you do just a little bit of research and preparation before you go, your visit to the MIA can be very rewarding and hassle free. Let the museum do the work for you--they want to share their knowledge with and pass a passion for art to the next generation. It doesn't have to be an intimidating place to visit.