Exploration #6 Part III: Implementation

As this is the end of my semester, introducing a new project like this would be impossible in the online forum. Therefore, I decided to look elsewhere for an opportunity to discuss and articulate thoughts on gender, equality, women in the arts, and women in history: my friends.

Educated women. Stay at home or work from home moms. Moms who are daily thinking of the mark their children will leave on the community and the marks the world will leave upon them. Moms of girls. (Well, and one boy:) I did not intentionally exclude my mom friends with boys...at this moment, we are just predominantly female.

Myself and three of my girlfriends met twice: once at the local Starbucks to discuss "Why there are no Great women artists?" and then again at the local library to "add to the cannon."Prior to meeting up, we agreed to read Linda Nochlin's article and start thinking about the major points of the article in terms of gender, what our current understanding of gender is, how that influences ourselves and our children (both male and female).

Exploration #6 Part II: Planning Individual Lessons within the Unit

Making Room for Women

ENDURING IDEA:

Gender is a culturally constructed idea that has been used to suppress the female artists in the cannon of western art and shapes the way we view, interpret, and create art. 

 LESSON ONE: Why have there been no Great women artists? 

 GRADE OR CLASS: High School/College Art History Survey Course

 TIME ALLOTMENT: 3 Class Discussions

 LESSON SUMMARY: This lesson introduces the gender inequalities that are present in the under representation of women in the history of art. Identifies women throughout history who have been excluded from the cannon and begins the questioning of this practice and challenges students to consider how a feminist lens can change the way we look at art made throughout history. 

 ARTWORKS, ARTISTS and/or ARTIFACTS:

•                Linda Nochlin’s “Why have there been no great women artists?”

•                Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, Encounter V: Gender Matters in Art History 

•                Examples of recognizable and familiar female artists:

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – c. 1652)

Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)

Georgia O’Keefe (1887-1986)

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)

Judy Chicago (1939)

 KEY CONCEPTS addressed in this lesson:

•       Current and past culture constructs and shapes the way in which we view, interpret, and interact with art.

•       Femininity v Masculinity: Gender is a socially constructed idea that serves to empower the privileged and oppress the marginalized.

 ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS addressed in this lesson:

• How has and does culture define the artist and his/her role? Within this definition, who is excluded? What do these exclusions reveal about the culture?
• What is gender? Where do we see evidence of gender in art? Where do we not?
•  What does it mean to be a female artist? How does this impact the way in which art is viewed, how we are taught and expected to view and the expectations we have of artists and art in general?

  
  

  INTERDISCIPLINARY CONNECTIONS

  History, Writing/Research/English

  
  

  
  

  LESSON OBJECTIVES: 

  Students will:

  ·      Identify and understand gender inequalities in the arts.

  ·      Identify the most familiar/popular female artists and discuss the possible reasons for their recognition and acceptance into the cannon.

  ·      Gain greater insight into women’s history by studying the women included in the Dinner Party.

  ·      Identify the social and political structures that create and impose these inequalities.

  ·      Compare and contrast works and lives of female artists with their male contemporaries.

  ·      Consider how gender influences artistic choices.

  ·      Discuss the contributions of women to the arts and history.

  ·      Identify, research, and create an ongoing list of women in the arts.

  
  

  ASSESSMENT 

  Students will be assessed on participation in discussions and contributions to the ongoing list of women in the arts created by the group. Students will be expected to present their ideas informally to the group in discussion and formally in an "extending the invitation" exercise (similar to that found in Judy Chicago's DPCP). 

  
  

  PREPARATION

  Teacher Research and Preparation:

  Read and become familiar with Linda Nochlin’s “Why have there been no great women artists?” and Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, Article on Feminism &  Encounter V: Gender Matters in Art History.

  Find examples of artists and their work listed in ARTWORKS, ARTISTS and/or ARTIFACTS.

  
  

  
  

  Resources: 

   Linda Nochlin’s “Why have there been no great women artists?”

  Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party, Encounter V: Gender Matters in Art History 

Exploration #6 Part I: Contemporary Art as Public Pedagogy Curricula

Making Room for Women

Enduring Idea: Gender is a culturally constructed idea that has been used to suppress the female artist in the cannon of western art.

Overview: Making Room for Women addresses the underrepresentation of women in the arts across the western history of art. Diverging from the traditional path of the art history survey course, this unit will call attention to this disparity in representation, reveal gender inequality, highlight women in the arts, and discuss their place and influence in the movements of which they are situated.

Lesson 1: Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists (Linda Nochlin)

Key Concepts:

• ·      Culture
• ·      Identity
• ·      Gender

Essential Questions Addressed in Lesson One:

• ·      How has and does culture define the artist and his/her role?
• ·      Within this definition, who is excluded?
• ·      What do these exclusions reveal about the culture?
• ·      What is gender?
• ·      What does it mean to be a female artist? 

Rationale: Introduces the gender inequalities that are present in the under representation of women in the history of art. Identifies women throughout history who have been excluded from the cannon and begins the questioning of this practice.

Lesson 2: The Forgotten Female (Kara Lysandra Ross)

Key Concepts:

• ·      Position
• ·      Power
• ·      Artistic Lineage

Essential Questions addressed in Lesson Two:

• ·      Who are these women?
• ·      What is Western art history’s viewpoint?
• ·      How do this viewpoint and the idea of the museum institution as the authority on art address the role of the female artist?
• ·      What does it mean to be marginalized?

Rationale: Identify where women are traditionally placed within the art “community” and explore how the institution of the museum influences and propagates the suppression of women in the arts.

Lesson 3: Vision, Voice and Power (Griselda Pollock)

Key Concepts:

• ·      Power
• ·      Voice
• ·      Adding to the cannon.
• ·      Recognition, inclusion and dispelling the myth.

Essential Questions addressed in Lesson Three:

• ·      Who should be added to the discussion of art?
• ·      Is the art world biased today?
• ·      What challenges do women artists face today?
• ·      How have ideas of gender changed?
• ·      Where do we go from here?

Rationale: Through questioning and research, students will challenge and seek change in both past and present representations of the female artist. 

Exploration #5: Making Visible

“draw together”

A contribution to the project we found along one of our inspections

In a comment on Tara’s Public Pedagogy Blog Post, I mentioned one of our local parks: Betty Virginia Park. This particular park illuminates the diversity found within and without this community. Betty Virginia Park is a picture of the stereotypes, struggles, and differences with which the members of this community still wrestle. Discussing this park with varying members of the community has revealed several different views of the space. One mother with children said, “it is a space for communities to come together” in an area where division can still be found. Another resident mentioned the desire to “clean up the park, make it safe.” The undertones of this response read to discourage certain groups of people from using the park, a sort of “take back the park” mentality. Others are just thrilled for the nice weather and enjoy using the park on a daily basis for picnics, runs, bike rides, and playground play.

Glancing across the park on a sunny day reveals how the park attracts a wide range of people, young and old from a variety of backgrounds. Walkers, runners, students in hammocks, picnickers, loads of children, artists, sunbathers, baseball and soccer players all populate the park.  The park not only represents an area of intersecting lives but also cultures. Weekend barbeques and birthday parties offer insight into family and community structure and celebration. Each of these events offers a glimpse into the lives of those around us.  Closer inspection reveals that while all are welcome in the park, a divide remains. Individuals and/or groups are often playing along side one another without engaging with one another. Repeated afternoons at the park expose this division. Parents congregating around the picnic tables chatting or using their smart phones while their children play. Other parents hovering close, phone in hand, one eye on their child, chatting with other parent who is multitasking the same. Then there is the engaged parent consumed with his child's amusement. However, the scene offers little interaction between parents of opposite races.  

From these observations, the idea of a "draw together" movement was envisioned. By asking people that are already sharing space to participate in creating within that space challenges the current paradigm. The phrase “draw together” was used specifically to call attention to the potential unification of this participatory act. Working together. Creating together. Building upon the work of others -  together. Looking together. Engaging together. In fact, the subject of what we draw together isn’t important at this point (I believe that will come later), but rather the close proximity and coherence that develops from acting together.

In Making Visible, I enlisted the help of my four-year old to help me intersect and interrupt the park users pathways with a campaign to “draw together.” We placed buckets of sidewalk chalk along the pathways (see the blue boxes on the map of BVP) where we noticed the most intersecting. At each stop, we used the space to begin the drawings and left the bucket with a note “Take one: Chalk for Everyone” – “make your mark.” As we moved throughout the park to plant the other buckets, I noticed people walking around the chalk drawings, stopping to read the words and investigate. A few people stopped to contribute their handiwork.

Some of our original invitations to "draw together"

Aerial View of Betty Virginia Park in Shreveport, LA
Red arrows indicate the walking/running paths
Green oval identifies the playground area (most heavily populated area)
Blue boxes are chalk buckets and invitations to participate

Over the course of a (mostly sunny) week, we visited the spots, replenished the buckets and admired the handiwork. A few of the buckets disappeared (we replaced those – by the end of the week one of ten buckets remained). Each visit, we added new thoughts. A quote from Picasso, “Every child is an artist,” beside the bucket left near the play area. Lists of famous artists, Da Vinci, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Matisse, Dali, Basquiat, Warhol, O’Keefe, Judy Chicago, and Monet with the question: “Where’s your name?” We would create our own drawings until my little one was ready to move to the play area and then I would just observe how people interacted with the space we left behind. 

Some of the responses to "Where's Your Name?" 

Almost every time someone encountered the “abandoned” materials, the person looked around to see, perhaps, if the owner was near or if someone was watching. Sometimes a runner, walker, dog walker, kid on a skateboard would pause and participate. In the less populated areas, most people worked independently around the space – someone would pass, notice an “artist” at work, make another loop and then take a moment to engage, becoming both spectator and participant.  Children approached the abandoned buckets with much more ease. Many, too small to even read the “chalk for everyone” sign, gladly grabbed a piece of chalk and used it until it was almost gone. If we were close by or still drawing, adults would simply look, smile (who wouldn’t at a four-year old drawing a Pteranodon;) and keep moving. On the contrary, children were eager to participate, often looking to me for “permission” and then to my daughter to play.

 

People contributed to "draw together" in a variety of ways. Some opted to work alone in a more remote area of the park. Some created their "art" beside other's taking care not to cover someone else's work. Some of the most interesting works are those layered and layered on top of their own or someone else's work. (On a side note: the area in which this was most frequently observed was under a pavilion with concrete that incredibly smooth and wonderful to draw on.) The two images below are slices from examples of this layering process. 

Asking people to step out of their routine to engage with us, one another, and the space around them was exciting and enlightening for me (and hopefully for my daughter) as I too was challenged to confront any social anxieties I might have. We had a wonderful time meeting new people, making art, and playing.

One person even offered "thanks" for the materials.