Julie Sawyer
K-12 District Department Leader, Fine and Applied Arts
Farmington Public Schools
High School (16 to 18 years old), Adults, Post-Secondary
Visual Arts, Arts, Other
: Applied Arts
Julie is an adjunct professor at UMass-Lowell, Tunxis Community College and Southern CT State University where she also serves as a University Supervisor for student art teachers. She holds an Ed.D. in Inclusive Practices, an M.Ed. in Integrated Curriculum, an M.A. in Modern Art History and Contemporary Art, and a B.A. in drawing and painting. She recently retired from the position of K-12 District Department Leader of an award- winning Fine and Applied Arts program in Farmington, CT where she was named Teacher of the Year in 2018.
Julie Sawyer's collections
Asian American Modernism
<p>This collection is meant to build on two earlier collections, "<a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/asian-american-art-emerging-from-the-shadows/gBfzCgh7FdF3mXNa#" target="_blank">Asian American Art: Emerging from the Shadows</a>" and "<a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/asian-american-artists-and-world-war-ii/7hijKmJNXiFnjaKN#r" target="_blank">Asian American Artists and World War II</a>" and to introduce the viewer to artists of Asian ancestry in America using Chang, Johnson & Karlstrom's text, <em>Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970</em> (2008), the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco's exhibition catalog "Asian/American/Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900-1970" (2008),the vast resources of the Smithsonian Learning Lab, Project Zero's Global Thinking Routines and other resources. This collection is part two of four that I have organized, chronologically, on Asian American Art. The other three collections are "<a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/asian-american-art-emerging-from-the-shadows/gBfzCgh7FdF3mXNa#" target="_blank">Asian American Art: Emerging from the Shadows</a>", "<a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/asian-american-artists-and-world-war-ii/7hijKmJNXiFnjaKN#r" target="_blank">Asian American Artists and World War II</a>" and "Asian American Contemporary Art". It is my hope that these collections will serve as entry points to understanding the many contributions of Asian American artists in the U.S. from 1850 until the present time.</p>
<p>Visual art is a language that is socially and culturally constructed. Socially constructed learning values diverse perspectives, engages with local and global experts, and employs inquiry, discovery and exploration to move students toward global citizenship. Because the visual arts leverage the power of dialogue and debate to sharpen critical thinking, starting with the arts is a logical place to help students develop cultural intelligence.</p>
<p>Other purposes of these collections are to explore tangible and intangible cultural heritage; as well as jumpstart brave conversations about race, identity and immigration in the U.S. with teachers, tutors of English Language Learners and others who are interested in becoming cultural leaders in our public schools.</p>
<p>As Gordon H. Chang and Mark Dean Johnson state in the introduction of the exhibition catalog, "Asian/American/Modern Art: Shifting Currents, 1900-1970" (2008):</p>
<p>"Forty years ago there were no Asian Americans. There were Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos, and others of Asian ancestry in the United States, but no 'Asian Americans,' as that term was coined only in 1968. This population was commonly seen as foreign, alien, not of America. Their lives and experiences were not generally accepted as part of the fabric of the country, even though Asians had begun settling here steadily in the mid-nineteenth century.</p>
<p>Then, in the late 1960s, as part of the upsurge in the self-assertion of marginalized communities, 'Asian America' emerged to challenge the stigma of perpetual foreignness. 'Asian American' was a claim of belonging, of rootedness, of pride and identity, and of history and community; it was also a recognition of distinctive cultural achievement" (Chang, Johnson, 2008).</p>
<p>#APA2018<br /></p>
Julie Sawyer
18
Asian American Artists and World War II
<p>This collection is meant to build on "<a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/asian-american-art-emerging-from-the-shadows/gBfzCgh7FdF3mXNa#" target="_blank">Asian American Art: Emerging from the Shadows</a>" and to introduce the viewer to artists of Asian ancestry in America using Chang, Johnson & Karlstrom's text, <em>Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970</em> (2008), the vast resources of the Smithsonian Learning Lab, Project Zero's Global Thinking Routines and other resources. This collection is part two of four that I have organized, chronologically, on Asian American Art. The other three collections are "<a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/asian-american-art-emerging-from-the-shadows/gBfzCgh7FdF3mXNa#" target="_blank">Asian American Art: Emerging from the Shadows</a>", "<a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/asian-american-modernism/HXj4McXtcnkYRUeK#r" target="_blank">Asian American Modernism</a>" and "Asian American Contemporary Art". It is my hope that these collections will serve as entry points to understanding the many contributions of Asian American artists in the U.S. from 1850 until the present time.</p>
<p>Visual art is a language that is socially and culturally constructed. Socially constructed learning values diverse perspectives, engages with local and global experts, and employs inquiry, discovery and exploration to move students toward global citizenship. Because the visual arts leverage the power of dialogue and debate to sharpen critical thinking, starting with the arts is a logical place to help students develop cultural intelligence.</p>
<p>Other purposes of these collections are to explore tangible and intangible cultural heritage; as well as jumpstart brave conversations about race, identity and immigration in the U.S. with teachers, tutors of English Language Learners and others who are interested in becoming cultural leaders in our public schools.</p>
<p>"In the years before the American entry into World War II, many Chinese American artists, moved by the death and destruction caused by the Japanese invasion of China in the 1930s, depicted Japanese military atrocities in their artwork. Yun Gee, Kem Lee, Nanying Stella Wong, and David P. Chun, among others, created anguishing images of Chinese suffering and Japanese military brutality. These powerful images, though, had limited impact on the greater American public, whose attention was elsewhere. Japanese American artists such as Hideo Date, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, and Isamu Noguchi also used their talents to condemn European and Japanese fascism and encourage American support for the Chinese victims of Japanese aggression. But it was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 that established the indelible connection between art, race, and war for these and other Asian American artists." (Chang, Johnson, Karlstrom, 2008). </p>
<p> #APA2018</p>
Julie Sawyer
30
Socially Constructed Learning Through Art
<p>Visual art is a language that is socially and culturally constructed. Socially constructed learning values diverse perspectives, engages with local and global experts, and employs inquiry, discovery and exploration to move students toward global citizenship. Because the visual arts leverage the power of dialogue and debate to sharpen critical thinking, starting with the arts is a logical place to help students develop empathy for others while increasing their cultural intelligence.</p>
<p>This collection was created to support teachers and administrators who wish to better understand the various cultures in their schools. Using both Project Zero's Global Thinking Routines and strategies from Amy E. Herman's <em>Visual Intelligence</em> book, participants will practice articulating cultural perspectives and communicating across differences using artwork and primary sources from the vast collections of the Smithsonian Learning Lab. Participants will learn how to read a work of art, understand compositional hierarchy, and question what is missing. The frameworks provided by Project Zero and Amy E. Herman will allow everyone, even those not accustomed to discussing art, a place from which to begin using art as a foundation for building culturally-responsive curriculum.</p>
<p>Participants will see museums as the cultural ambassadors that they are and ask whose culture is being represented and whose is missing and why. Extending from this inquiry, participants will recognize the role schools play in nurturing and shaping the lives and identities of our students.</p>
Julie Sawyer
24
Asian American Art: "Emerging from the Shadows"
<p>This collection is meant to build on "<a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/socially-constructed-learning-through-art/FjJJbjAzJHBpVanJ#r" target="_blank">Socially Constructed Learning through Art</a>" and to introduce the viewer to artists of Asian ancestry in America using Chang, Johnson & Karlstrom's text, <em>Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970</em> (2008), the vast resources of the Smithsonian Learning Lab, Project Zero's Global Thinking Routines and other resources. This collection is part one of four that I have organized, chronologically, on Asian American Art. The other three collections are "<a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/asian-american-artists-and-world-war-ii/7hijKmJNXiFnjaKN#" target="_blank">Asian American Artists and World War II</a>", "<a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/asian-american-modernism/HXj4McXtcnkYRUeK#r" target="_blank">Asian American Modernism</a>" and "Asian American Contemporary Art". It is my hope that these collections will serve as entry points to understanding the many contributions of Asian American artists in the U.S. from 1850 until the present time.</p>
<p>Visual art is a language that is socially and culturally constructed. Socially constructed learning values diverse perspectives, engages with local and global experts, and employs inquiry, discovery and exploration to move students toward global citizenship. Because the visual arts leverage the power of dialogue and debate to sharpen critical thinking, starting with the arts is a logical place to help students develop cultural intelligence.</p>
<p>Other purposes of these collections are to explore tangible and intangible cultural heritage; as well as jumpstart brave conversations about race, identity and immigration in the U.S. with teachers, tutors of English Language Learners and others who are interested in becoming cultural leaders in our public schools.</p>
<p>In <em>Asian American Art: A History, 1850-1970</em> (Chang, Johnson, Karlstrom, 2008), Gordon H. Chang writes about Asian American art "emerging from the shadows". He asks, "Why has this treasure been outside our vision?" Historically, those of Asian heritage faced discrimination in the United States. For instance, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 prevented Asian immigrants from entering the country. In 1945, the U.S. government forced Japanese Americans to move to remote internment camps. Most of these people of Japanese ancestry were U.S. citizens or legal residents and they were forced to abandon their homes and businesses until the war ended. In 1965, the U.S. finally lifted the last of the immigration laws that overtly discriminated against Asians. <br /></p>
<p>Asian Americans are now the fastest-growing racial group in the U.S., outpacing both Latinos and African Americans. In 2013, there were more than 17.3 million Asian Americans living in the U.S. -- 6% of the population. </p>
<p>So although Asian Americans have been making and exhibiting art in the U.S. since 1850, why is it still so difficult to define the style or content of Asian American art? We will come back to this question in each of the four collections.</p>
<p>For early Asian American art, as Chang states in his forward, "The fascination with modern abstraction and nonrepresentational art, especially after World War II, turned public eyes away from art that appeared to have social messages or overt ethnic connections. Art produced by Asian Americans, other racial minorities, and women in America that displayed such markers now appeared nonmodern and was eclipsed by the interest in abstraction. Art that reflected the quandary of exile (such as that suffered by Chinese diasporic artists -- Wang Ya-chen, Chang Shu-chi, and Chang Dai-chien, for example -- in the mid twentieth century), displacement (such as that experienced by artists who worked in the United States during the height of racial antagonism, such as Yun Gee or Chiura Obata), and persecution (the Japanese artists who suffered internment, Eitaro Ishigaki and others, hounded because of their political beliefs) fell out of fashion." </p>
<p>#APA2018</p>
Julie Sawyer
24
