Images to Artwork: The Use of Photographic Images of the Civil Rights Movement Used In Contemporary Arts

By: Rusty Clevenger

AHTC 2010 Summer Institute

Abstract: In this lesson students will learn about variety powerful photographic images from the Civil Rights Movement that have been reproduced in art works by multiple visual artists. They will critique the visual art pieces using the six principles of visual art (unity, variety, balance contrast, proportion, pattern/rhythm), and they will learn about the time line of the Civil Rights Movement through the class discussion of the photographic images of the Civil Rights Movement. Students will have to create their own piece of artwork by using local history of the Civil Rights Movement.

Essential Questions

• What environment, people, time, and actions are depicted in the photographic images and what do they tell us about the Civil Rights Movement?
• How have visual artist reproduced the photographic images of the Civil Rights Movement using the six principles of visual art?

Assessment:

In this lesson, students will be assed based the group presentation they present highlighting the one particular Civil Rights Movement event and the visual art piece that relates. Students will also be assessed based on their ability to link photographic images to visual art during group sessions and the completion of the Visual Critique Think Sheet.

Activities:

Setting the Purpose: The teacher should begin the lesson by asking students to brainstorm what kind of images they associate with the Civil Rights Movement. Students then will start to critique a photographic image from 1957: Ruby Bridges

Ruby Bridges

http://blog.mawbooks.com/2009/02/05/through-my-eyes-by-ruby-bridges/

The Problem We All Live With Norman Rockwell

http://afrocityblog.wordpress.com/2009/05/

Students should be familiar with the six art principles (unity, variety, balance contrast, proportion, pattern/rhythm) and their use in composition. The teacher should ask questions about environment, people, time, and actions. Where do you think this place is? When was this photo taken? Who are these people? What are these people doing? The teacher will then display the artwork in which students will critique how the art used the six principles of visual art to reproduce the photographic images.

1) The teacher should divided students into six groups and creates six stations around the classroom. Each of the six stations will include a photographic image of a Civil Rights Movement topic, an image of a visual artist reproducing the image in their artwork. The teacher should also hand out the Visual Critique Think Sheet to the students.

The teacher should collect the Visual Critique think sheet, review student’s thoughts and then present students with a brief description of the events in each Civil Rights Movement photographs.

2) The teacher should then give students a copy of The North End 20 in C-UIA Walk Friday For Housing article from the AHTC Civil Rights disc. The teacher should read The North End article to the students while students highlight key phrases or words that they find interesting and brainstorm of visual compositions.

Students should focus on the following questions when listing and viewing the articles

• How are local source photographs of the Civil Rights Movement Similar to National photographs?
• How could all the material connect in a visual composition?

3) The teacher should assign the Visual Recreation assignment to the students. Students must use The North End 20 in C-UIA Walk Friday For Housing article from the AHTC Civil Rights disc in a multi-media collage that displays at least two Principles of Art, (unity, variety, balance contrast, proportion, pattern/rhythm). The students must display their Visual Recreation and write a two- sentence response of their use of the principles of in their Visual Recreation.

Analysis of Local Primary Sources:

In this lesson, students will critque and analyze primary sources relate to Champaign-Urbana during the Civil Rights Movement, such as theThe North End 20 in C-UIA Walk Friday For Housing article from the AHTC Civil Rights disc. Students will also create a multi-media collage that displays at least two Principles of Art, (unity, variety, balance contrast, proportion, pattern/rhythm) and the local sources that were critiqued and analyzed.

Ties to National Primary Sources:

In this lesson, students will link information about National Civil Right Movement events to Champaign-Urbana Civil Right events in the nineteen-sixties. Students will learn about variety powerful photographic images from the Civil Rights Movement that have been reproduced in art works by multiple visual artists.

List of Sources:

Websites linked above

Visual Critique Think Sheet

AHTC Civil Rights Disc