Embodying

Cultural
Pluralism
Through

ART

CONTENTS

Exemplar Artists

pg. 18

How can art help

us embody cultural
pluralist thinking?

pg. 5

Visual Thinking
Strategies

pg. 16

What is cultural
pluralism?

pg. 2

References

pg. 24
How to impliment
cultural pluralism in
the art classroom

pg. 8

Lesson Ideas

pg. 12

...diversity is a given, but

pluralism is not; it is an
achievement.

Cultural
Pluralism
Not just tolerance with
in a society but

ACTIVE
SEEKING of
UNDERSTANDING

Not just diversity

throughout a society
but

ACTIVELY
ENGAGING

with that diversity

across lines of
difference.

Requires Dialogue...
both
SPEAKING and

LISTENING

Tammam Azzam

Using our

DIFFERENCES in
RELATIONSHIP
to one another

to reveal common understanding and real

differences.
2

NEED for

Cultural Pluralism

The world in which we live now has faster, easier, and better communication connections than ever before. The United States can contact China with the touch of a finger.
Someone from Brazil can video chat with a person in Austrailia with the click of a button.
People from all over the globe are migrating to new countries not just to visit but to live.
With these new communication tools and transportation efforts, we have a need, now
more than ever, to ethically understand and engage with one another: cultural pluralism. Cultural pluralism will allow for countries around the globe to work together for the
greater good of humanity; technologically, economically, politically, and environmentally. In what ways can we begin to achieve this seemless global communication structure?

ART

agent for change

as...
visual dialogue
a segway

Through the use of creating, interpreting, and understanding visual art, one can start
to understand a culture that is difference from their own. When artists create work they
tell a story of who they are and what they stand for, even if it is unintentional. By creating visual art, we are communicating information about ourselves with the viewer. When
looking at an artwork, one can distinguish the message that the piece communicates.
Through interpreting art, we visually read ones story. This line of communication between
creator and interpretor allows for an effort of understanding one another. The creator
becomes self-aware of their own personal opinions and biases. The interpretor uses visual
literacy to understand the creators point of view. When we engage in this practice we
become more aware of the people who are similar and different from ourselves and can
begin to possess a culturally plurastic character by celebrating those differences.

Art
Teachers

Guide

to Teaching

Cultural
Pluralism
8

What cultural
groups do you belong to?
Cultural
Social
Personal
-Family
-Extended Family

-Religion
-Recreation

-Ethnicity
-Family Background

Compare
Across
Doors

10

Dolls

Cultures
Fashion

Lesson
Ideas:

Culminate and
build upon
to gain self-awereness
and awareness of
others

Carving Away Our Fear

Students will investigate and reflect upon a personal fear
through the use of research and art making. Students will be
creating lino block prints representing their fera and will literally
be carving away at their fear. They will create print after print
to face their fear over and over again to where it becomes lethargic and meditative in hopes of numbing the fear.

What is your biggest fear?

When did you develop this fear?
Why do you possess this fear?
Why is it important to get over your fear?
How is your fear holding you back?
Fear Research: Compiling statistics, facts, and professional opinions related to fear. Investigating artists
who creae work similar or different to your concept or
aesthetic
Peer Compare/Contrast: Ask your partner 5 WHY
questions about their fear. Why shouldnt your partner
be agraid of this? Why is it important to get over?
Culminating Activity: Argumentative Fear Presentations. Students will generate an argument against
their fear and present it to the class. This can be in
written form, a slideshow, or a video.

For the complete lesson plan use the QR code or

visit abigailcreech.weebly.com

12

Artists of the Day

-Fran Krause
-Tetsuya Ishida
-Joshua Hoffine

Whats NOT Trending?

Genealogists Story

Students will interpret their personal values and beliefs about

the modern world in order to discover what they believe not
only their peers should know but what issues the whole world
should be well informed about by using photography and Photoshop to create a powerful advertisement.

Students will be searching deep into their family history to inspire

a book that represents their interpretations of the information
they have aquired through research. Their understanding of
where they come from will be presented through imagery, text,
heirlooms, and more.

How can art communicate and illuminate personal

and global conflict?
How do artists demonstrate freedom of speech?
What mediums are beneficial for reaching a mass
of people?

What is the benefit of utilizing research to gain

knowledge about your subject when creating an
art piece?
How does information from your past influence
your artwork today?
What impact does media have on message?

Key Concepts:
Moral Values
Freedom of Speech
Personal and Global Conflict
Advertisement
Message through Photo
VTS:
Kathe Kollwitz, The Outbreak, 1903
Culminating Activity:
Social media posts as awareness.
Printing and displaying around the school and community.
For the complete lesson plan use the QR code or
visit abigailcreech.weebly.com

Artists of the Day

-JR (TED Talk)
-RA/FSA Photographers
-Shirin Neshat

Prompts:
Create a family tree
Draw a memory using object bag items
Interviews: Students will interview an older family
member to investigate their familiy history
Object Bag: Compile an array of objects that represent you and your families past.
Time Capsule: Collaborative class time capsule for
next years art students.

For the complete lesson plan use the QR code or

visit abigailcreech.weebly.com

Artists of the Day

-Do Ho Suh
-Robert The
-Yusuke Oono
-Ink Masters

Visual
Thinking
Strategies

I ask that you look

at this image carefully, talk about what
you see, and explain
what it is that makes
you say that. Please
raise your hand and I
will call on you. Listen
very carefully to what
others have to say,
it may inform your
thinking.

What is going on
in this image?
What do you
see that makes
you say that?
What more can
we find?
Kerry James Marshall

Wang Guangyi

17

Artists
to

LOOK AT
18

JR
-Photographer
-Film Maker
Projects

-Inside Out Project (since 2011)

-The Wrinkles of the City (since 2008)
-Women are Heros (2008-2010)
-Face 2 Face (2007)

Collaborations

...exhibits freely in the streets

of the world catching the
attention of people who are
not typically museum
visitors.
...mixes art and acts,
talks about commitment,
freedom, identity, and
limit.

-Jose Parla (The Wrinkles of the City)

-Liu Polin (Through the Eye of Lui Bolin)
-Takashi Murakami (cover of Clark Magazine)
-VHILS (Dona Benedita)

Shirin Neshat
-Photographer
-Videographer
Recent Photo Projects

-Blue Notes (2014-2015)

-Equivelents (2012)
-Slow Fade to Black (2010)

Recent Video Projects

-The Obama Project (2012)

-The Maddening Crowd (2012)
-Afro-Chic (2009)

Installations

Latest Exhibition
Consists of 300
objects from the
timeline of Carrie
Mae Weems work;
three decades of
photogrpahy and
video.

Lincoln, Lonnie, and Me (2012)

Carrie Mae
Weems

-Photographer
Projects

-The Book of Kings (2012)

-Games of Desire (2009)
-Untitled (2008)
-Zarin (2005)

Social and political

activits exploring what it
means to be a woman
in Islamic culture.

Shirin Neshat translates Iranian political unrest

through an artistic lens.
PBS Newshour, June 24, 2015

Kara Walker
Projects

-Sugar Baby (2014)

-Event Horizon (2005)
-Rise Up Ye Mighty Race (2013)
-Insurrection! (Our Tools Were Rudimentary,
Yet We Pressed On) (2000)

visit www.art21.org/
artists/kara-walker to
watch Walkers ART21
episode!

Multimedia artist who creates paintings, drawings, collages, sculptures, films, and animations
that take a critical look at the social issues of
gender race, sexuality, and power.

Projects

-5.12 Citizens Investigation

-With Flowers
-Yangila Case
-Divine Comedy

Collaborations

-Disturbing the Peace

-Hua Hao Yue Yuan
-My 2011
-One Recluse
-Ordos 100
-So Sorry
-The Mala Desert

Chinese artist and

political activist who
questions and
challenges Chinese
government.

Arrested in 2011, held for 81 days for

allegations of economic crimes.

Ai WeiWei

Refernces
(2001). Title of episode [The Gloves Are Off]. In P. Producer (Original Media), NY Ink. New York, New York: Learning Channel (TLC), The.
Carlson, Alisa. (2016). Black American Artists: Envisioning Social Change.
Museum Magazine, 68, 4-5.
Eck, L. Diana. (2006). What is Pluralism?. Retrieved from http://pluralism.
org/what-is-pluralism/.
Gardner, Howard. (2007). Five Minds for the Future. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.
Guangyi, Wang. (2006). Great Criticism Series: Pepsi.
Gude, Olivia. (2009). Art Education for Democratic Life. National Art Education Association. https://naea.digication.com/omg/Art_Education_for_
Democratic_Life.
Hasio, Cindy. (2016). Are You Listening? How Empathy and Caring Can
Lead to Connected Knowing. Art Education, 69 (1), 25-30.

Krause, Fran. (2015). Deep Dark Fears. Ten Speed Press.

Lange, Dorothea. (1936). Migrant Mother. Nipomo.
Marshall, Kerry James. (2014). Untitled. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Method and Curriculum. Retrieved from http://www.vtshome.org/what-is-vts/
method-curriculum--2.
Neshat, Shirin. (1994). Rebellious Silence. New York and Brussels: Gladstone
Gallery.
Oono, Yusuke. (2010). Mount Fuji. Japan: Seigensha.
Suh, Do-Ho. (2011) Staircase-III. London: Tate Modern.
The, Robert. (2010). Braque.
Walker, Kara. (2014). Sugar Baby. Brooklyn: Domino Sugar Factory.

Hoffine, Joshua. (2015). After Dark, My Sweet.

Weems, Carrie Mae. (1990). The Kitchen Table Series.

Ishida, Tetsuya. (2013). Notes, Evidence of Dreams. Hong Kong: Gagosian

Gallery.

Weiwei, Ai. (2010) Sunflower Seeds. London: Tate Modern.

Jolley, Alana. Global Villages What are these?. Retrieved from http://itsallaboutculture.com/global-villages/introduction/.
JR. (2008). Women are Heroes. Rio de Janeiro.

Woywod, Christine & Deal, Raoul. (2016). Art That Makes Communities
Strong: Transformative Partnerships With Community Artists in K-12 Settings. Art Education, 69 (2), 43-51.