<p>This topical collection contains information about the Smithsonian's Caribbean Indigenous Legacies Project: Celebrating Taíno Culture, with links to the Heye Center exhibition, "Taíno : Native Heritage and Identity in the Caribbean," and to a related public program/webcast, "Taíno: A Symposium in Conversation with the Movement," from the National Museum of the American Indian. </p> <p><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_facebook at300b" title="Facebook"></a><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_twitter at300b" title="Twitter"><span class="at-icon-wrapper"></span></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_reddit at300b" target="_blank" title="Reddit"><span class="at-icon-wrapper"></span></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_google_plusone_share at300b" target="_blank" title="Google+"><span class="at-icon-wrapper"></span></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_google_classroom at300b" target="_blank" title="Google Classroom"><span class="at-icon-wrapper"></span></a></p> <p><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_pinterest at300b"></a><a href="https://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_tumblr at300b" target="_blank" title="Tumblr"><span class="at-icon-wrapper"></span></a></p> <p> <a href="http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=300" class="addthis_button_email at300b" target="_blank" title="Email"><span class="at-icon-wrapper"></span></a></p>

<p>This teaching collection uses Project Zero thinking and other portrait reading strategies to look critically at and compare  three portraits of <strong>Francis Russell</strong> "<strong>Frank</strong>" <strong>O'Hara</strong> (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966), an American writer, poet, art critic, and curator at the Museum of Modern Art. O'Hara, who was considered to be one of the most important poets of mid-twentieth-century America, died an untimely death at age 40, and is memorialized in these three portraits in the Smithsonian collections - by Grace Hartigan, Alice Neel, and Don Bachardy.</p> <p>This collection is set up to first look carefully at Grace Hartigan's portrait, using one or all of three suggested looking strategies. Then viewers can look at the other two portraits, considering additional information about sitter Frank O'Hara and the artists, in order to have a better sense of the three portraits, the sitter, the artists, and the times in which they created.</p> <p>Keywords: Portraiture, Abstract Expressionism, Expressionist, Avant-Garde, Irish</p>

<p>This teaching collection asks students to consider a Jewish ritual object, the shofar, as an entry point to discuss the transmission of traditions and beliefs across the globe. Using Project Zero looking and global thinking  routines, students can examine images of shofars, listen to shofar music,  explore photos from African American Jewish communities,  and consider how traditions and religious beliefs are carried around the globe with their practitioners. The activity concludes with a discussion to foster in students a broader understanding and appreciation of today’s complex world.</p>

<p>Photographs are the entry point to help students think critically about the nature of community in America's urban environments of the 1960s and 1970s.  The exhibition introduced here, after which this collection is titled, features Latino artists who "turn a critical eye toward neighborhoods that exist on the margins of major cities like New York and Los Angeles." Smithsonian American Art Museum Curator E. Carmen Ramos has said that the exhibition was meant to explore the artists' complex vision of life in the urban environment, juxtaposing both a sense of unwelcoming urban neglect with a strong sense of community.  </p> <p>Included here are photographs from the exhibition, a bilingual video with the curator, the "Step In - Step Out - Step Back" Thinking Routine from Harvard's Project Zero Global Thinking Strategies, some links to Smithsonian American Art Museum supporting exhibition materials, including the exhibition webpage, a blog post, a link to Piri Thomas's book after which the exhibition was titled, and footage from a poetry reading at the museum. </p> <p>Teachers and students can use these photographs in a variety of ways - to explore the work of individual artists, to compare the works of different artists, and to look as a whole at the exhibition and extract deeper meaning about "the urban crisis" of America's urban environments in the 1960s and 1970s.</p> <p>Keywords: El Barrio, New York City, Urban Crisis</p><p>#LatinoHAC<br /></p>

<p>This teaching collection helps students to think critically and globally by using two Thinking Routines to explore the painting, "Shifting States: Iraq," by Cuban American artist Luis Cruz Azaceta. The work is a metaphorical representation of the unrest taking place in Iraq, and more broadly, an exploration of the human condition during times of crisis.</p> <p>Included here are the work itself from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a video with curator E. Carmen Ramos, another video from Articulateshow.org, three suggested Thinking Routines - ""See, Think Wonder," Colors, Shapes, Lines" and "The 3 Y's" - from Harvard's Project Zero Artful Thinking and Global Thinking materials, and three other works by Azaceta in the Smithsonian collections.</p> <p>For use in Social Studies, Spanish, English, American History, Art History classes</p> <p>#LatinoHAC</p>

<p>This teaching collections aims to help students to think critically about Puerto Rico's past and present, as portrayed in the media and through close looking at a portrait. The collection explores Francisco Rodón's monumental portrait of Luis Muñoz Marín, the first democratically elected governor of Puerto Rico, known as “the Father of Modern Puerto Rico.” Although the portrait and supporting video with National Portrait Gallery curator Taína Caragol were created before Hurricane Maria devastated the island in September 2017, a close examination of the portrait itself lends a deeper understanding not only of Francisco Rodón, but of the history of Puerto Rico itself, both pre- and post-Hurricane Maria.</p> <p>Included here are the portrait from the National Portrait Gallery, a video with the curator, two suggested Global Thinking Routines - "See, Think, Wonder" and "The 3 Y's" - from Harvard's Project Zero materials, a lesson plan from PBS Media on Puerto Rican Perspectives, and three news articles (from Vox and the New York Times) about Hurricane Maria, at the time in 2017 and almost one year later.</p> <p>For use in Social Studies, Spanish, English, American History, Art History classes</p> <p>#LatinoHAC, #EthnicStudies </p> <p>This collection supports Unit 3: Critical Geography and Current Issues, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part A course ("In this unit, students will identify historical patterns to understand how past events influence current policies, ideas and practices.") and Unit 1: Intersectionality of Economics, Politics, and Policy, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course ("How do government policies and the judicial system in a democratic society impact diverse groups and communities?").</p> <p><em>This Smithsonian Learning Lab collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. </em></p>

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the third seminar session of the 2018 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “We the People: America’s Grand and Radical Experiment with Democracy.”<br /></p> <p>National Museum of American History curator Harry Rubenstein will take Fellows on a tour of the National Museum of American History’s new exhibition <i>American Democracy: A Great Leap of Faith</i>. He'll conclude with a special presentation of objects from the Political History collections.<br /></p> <p>#MCteach<br /></p>

<p>This collection serves as a preview for the first seminar session of the 2018 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “We the People: America’s Grand and Radical Experiment with Democracy.” </p> <p>National Portrait Gallery curator Asma Naeem and educator Briana Zavadil White will present an engaging and interactive examination of the democratization of portraiture in the United States, and model close looking techniques that Fellows can use with their students. Included within are a presentation description, participant bios, a "reading portraiture" guide, and images and articles for participants to consider in advance of the session.</p> <p>#MCteach</p> <p>Christopher Columbus, Yarrow Mamout, Charles Mingus, Lena Horne, Leonard Roy Harmon, Bill Viola</p> <p><br /></p>

<p>This collection serves as an introduction to the opening panel of the 2018 Smithsonian-Montgomery College Faculty Fellowship Program. This year's theme is “We the People: America’s Grand and Radical Experiment with Democracy.” The title for the opening panel is "The Smithsonian Institution: “A Community of Learning and the Opener of Doors.” <br /><br />Four Smithsonian staff members will present, including Richard Kurin (SI Distinguished Scholar and Ambassador-at-Large, Office of the Secretary), Jessica Johnson (Digital Engagement Producer, National Museum of African American History and Culture), Lisa Sasaki (Director, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center), and Chris Wilson (Director, Program in African American Culture, National Museum of American History). Their bios, presentation descriptions, and other resources are included here.<br /><br /><br />#MCteach </p>

<p>This collection details an art and community engagement project that the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology did with educators from the National Portrait Gallery and the Fairfax County Family Literacy Program. It includes assets and resources designed to help teachers, museum educators, and community-based informal learning educators recreate the program as is, or design their own, based on the specific needs of their classroom or learning community. </p> <p>"Illuminating the Self / Illuminándonos" was a five-day bilingual program in which pairs of immigrant mothers and their middle school-aged children worked together to learn about portraiture from the 2016 exhibition of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition winning portraits. First we talked about portraiture in general, and then focused the discussion on light and shadow. Next, students took photographic portraits of each other and chose one to recreate. We projected the photographs in black and white onto a wall, and had the students trace the outlines of their photographs on their blank drawing paper. They they worked with charcoals to fill in their portraits and refine their drawings. Participants also visited the Outwin exhibition. Finally, their portraits were displayed at the National Portrait Gallery's Hispanic Heritage Month Family Day.</p> <p>Program surveys indicated improved literacy, technology, and communication skills to share heritage, traditions, and talents; increased sense of empowerment and self-esteem, strengthened parent-child relationships and community bonds, and creation of a core of mentors. One mother reported that before the program she would never have entered an art museum because she wouldn't have known what to do, but that now she would not be able to pass by without stopping in. As well, several family participants have returned to the Smithsonian asking to volunteer at future Smithsonian events.</p> <p>This program received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center.</p> <p>#LatinoHAC</p>

<p>This collection details a photography and community engagement project that the Smithsonian Office of Educational Technology did with educators from the National Portrait Gallery and the Fairfax County Family Literacy Program. It includes assets and resources designed to help teachers (art, English, social studies, and media technology), museum educators, and community-based informal learning educators recreate the program as is, or design their own, based on the specific needs of their classroom or learning community. </p> <p>For our project, pairs of native Spanish speaking immigrant moms and their middle school children did a five-day (15 hours total) training session at their school and at the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery. They learned about Dolores Huerta, portraiture, and photojournalism through the exhibition, "One Life: Dolores Huerta." Participants took portraits of themselves, critiqued each other's work, and created photo exhibitions about their communities and important issues, that were displayed at the Hispanic Heritage Month Family Day at the National Portrait Gallery.</p> <p>Dolores Huerta, the "co-architect" of the American Farm Workers Movement and mother to eleven children, proved to be a huge inspiration to the participants. Before the workshop, 33 percent of the parents and none of the children saw themselves as able to make change in their community; after the workshop, 100 percent of parents and children reported seeing themselves as able to make change in their community. In addition, 100 percent of the mothers and 80 percent of the children reported that they believed they had increased their artistic skills.</p> <p>#LatinoHAC, #EthnicStudies </p> <p>This collection supports Units 2 (What is the History - Civil Rights Movements) and 3 (Critical Geography and Current Issues) of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part A course, and Unit 3 (Local History and Current Issues) of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course. "What would you advocate for to beneficially change your community? How can you advocate to create change within your community?" "How do you understand the concept of community advocacy? What is needed for an individual to cultivate personal change?"</p> <p><em>This Smithsonian Learning Lab collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. </em></p>

<p>This topical collection explores Antonio Martorell's portrait of prolific Latina author Nicholasa Mohr, and is displayed with a range of resources that offer a view, through art, portraiture, and literature, into the lives of Puerto Rican migrants to the continental United States in the early to mid-twentieth century. The images and resources can be used as discussion or writing prompts in a variety of courses, including history, culture, literature, and language.</p> <p>The portrait itself,  one of a series of 45-minute portraits that Martorell made of his artist friends, captures Mohr's spirit, much in the way that Mohr's writing brings to life the people, sounds, and activities of New York's Puerto Rican migrants in the twentieth century. The collection also includes a bilingual video with National Portrait Gallery curator Taína Caragol, as well as the first page and a review of "Nilda," one of Mohr's most well-known novels, about a Puerto Rican girl coming of age in New York during World War II. This book was selected as an "Outstanding Book of the Year" by the New York Times, and a "Best Book of 1973" by the American Library Association.</p> <p>The collection includes images and a bilingual podcast by Martorell speaking about a different work in the Smithsonian American Art Museum collection, "La Playa Negra" ("Tar Beach"), which is the term used by Puerto Rican migrants for the rooftops of tenement buildings. As the label describes, in this painting, "a fashionable woman wears a fur-collared coat and sits in front of a New York City skyline. Her hardworking double on the left sits behind a sewing machine. In his "Playa Negra" ("Tar Beach") series, Martorell juxtaposed migrants' prosperous self-image with a glimpse of their tiring labor."</p> <p>The collection also includes a series of photographs from the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, by Hiram Maristany, a resident and photographer of the El Barrio neighborhood. Maristany grew up with eight siblings on East 111th Street. In addition, the collection includes links from PBS Learning Media on Puerto Rican history and migration.</p> <p>#LatinoHAC #BecauseOfHerStory #EthnicStudies </p> <p>This collection supports Unit 2: Culture and Resistance, Expressions of culture and values, of the Austin ISD Ethnic Studies Part B course. "How do expressions of culture reflect assimilation and resistance to assimilation? How do distinct expressions of culture reflect specific values for various ethnic groups?" </p> <p><em>This Smithsonian Learning Lab collection received Federal support from the Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center. </em></p> <p><br /></p>