Unit Plan: Make Your Mark: Community Arts & Printmaking
Big Idea: Developing relationships with your community.
Essential Questions: What is community art? How do we become community artists? How well do we know our own community?
Exploring community arts is a great way for students to learn about what’s happening in the world around them. They are able to gain insight into important social movements such as POC and LGBTQIA+ rights, ecological news involving the planet’s welfare and climate crisis, and the unique cultures that makeup surrounding communities. Learning the different ways to apply this practice allows students to participate in conversations about their own community, promote the changes they want to see happen, and develop stronger connections with their peers.
Lesson One: Relief Printing
Students were introduced to social justice and community artists Carlos Barberenas and Killjoy. We explored how these artists use relief printmaking to convey community messages and voices as well as make a change in the world around them.
Students were partnered with someone in their group and conducted interviews with their partners in order to get to know them on a deeper level. From these interviews, students created a label for their partner that represents an aspect of who they are. Using easy-cut linoleum blocks the students carved portraits of their partners from images that they took, printed them, and added the label as a title for their final product.
Lesson Two: Paper Making
Students were introduced to social justice and community artist Drew Mattot. We explored how he uses papermaking and printmaking as a form of art therapy as well as a way to convey community messages and voices. Students learned how to make their own paper from recycled materials. Students had the opportunity to print their portraits from lesson one on their sheets of handmade paper.
Lesson Three: Screen Printing
Students were introduced to social justice and community artist William Estrada. We explored how this artist uses printmaking to help inform, engage, and teach communities. Screen printing is an easy way to make multiple copies of an image or design which makes it a great way to spread information.
Students started this lesson with a mind-map brainstorming session where they listed the different aspects that they love about their school. From these categories, we came up with adjectives/descriptors that we thought best represented I.D.E.A.L. Students picked their favorite descriptor and participated in a DIY screen printing session where they got to each print their words individually to be strung up into a banner. To complete this lesson the teachers use Adobe software to combine each of the letters they printed into a -shirt design. Using professional screen printing methods the students printed t-shirts for themselves. They also had the opportunity to guide their peers in a screen printing session during Art Night.
Exhibition: Family/Art Night
To complete this course students participated in a final exhibition of their work as well as the work made by the other UWM art groups. To prepare for the exhibition students helped pick out which portraits they would display and mounted them. They also created name plaques to be displayed with their work.
There was a screen printing station set up for art night and students were encouraged to stop by and teach their peers what they learned and help them screen print a patch to take home.
