<p>How do we connect students with global issues, such as refugee crises? How do we move from listening and learning to taking action?<br></p> <p>The resources in this collection were created for a collaborative session organized by the National Postal Museum & Smithsonian American Art Museum during the 2021 Smithsonian Summer Sessions for Teachers: Interrogating the Stories We Tell. </p> <p>#SummerSessions</p>

<p>Resources supporting a January 7, 2021 teacher workshop led by the National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum. </p><p>Posters and prints are an immediately accessible and iconic art form; they are in our bedrooms, our classrooms, and in the protests in our streets. What can we learn from the way posters communicate visually? </p>

<p>This collection was created for the Smithsonian Summer Sessions for Teachers in July 2020, and contains resources related to the Smithsonian American Art Museum's breakout session as well as additional education resources for teachers and students.<br></p> <p>#SummerSessions</p>

<p>This collection is designed to support teachers and students exploring the 2020 National History Day theme: Breaking Barriers in History. Included in this collection are five prospective topics aligned with the NHD theme, for each of which we have supplied American artworks that could be used as primary source texts and/or inspiration for further research.</p> <p>How did the invention of photography break down the barrier between ordinary Americans and the battlefield during the Civil War? </p> <p>What barriers, both geographic and social, did the invention and expansion of the subway break for New Yorkers? </p> <p>How did James Van Der Zee's Harlem photography studio help a rising middle class African American community break barriers?</p> <p>How have American Indians overcome barriers to tribal sovereignty, and what barriers still exist?</p> <p>How did abstract painter Alma Thomas break gender and racial barriers in the art world?</p> <p>#NHD2020 #NHD #BecauseOfHerStory</p>

<p>Resources compiled for the Smithsonian American Art Museum's <strong>Summer Institutes: Teaching the Humanities through Art </strong>for a session developed by Peg Koetsch.</p>

<p>This collection explores Alexandre Hogue's 1933 painting <em>Dust Bowl</em> through a global thinking routine called "Beauty and Truth." Supporting materials help build historical and scientific context. </p> <p><em>“Some may feel that in these paintings . . . I may have chosen an unpleasant subject, but after all the [drought] is most unpleasant. To record its beautiful moments without its tragedy would be false indeed. At one and the same time the [drought] is beautiful in its effects and terrifying in its results. The former shows peace on the surface but the latter reveals tragedy underneath. Tragedy as I have used it is simply visual psychology, which is beautiful in a terrifying way.” -Alexandre Hogue</em></p> <p><br /></p>

<p>This collection is designed to support teachers and students exploring the 2019 National History Day theme: Triumph and Tragedy in History. Included in this collection are four prospective topics aligned with the NHD theme, for each of which we have supplied American artworks that could be used as primary source texts and/or inspiration for further research.</p> <p>Was George Catlin's Indian Gallery an artistic triumph or exploitation of tragedy? How did the expansion of the railroad in the U.S. lead to both triumph and tragedy? How did the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) -- the first New Deal program supporting American artists -- create triumph out of the tragedy of the Great Depression? And finally, how was the fight for African American civil rights shaped by triumph and tragedy?</p> <p>#NHD2019 #NHD</p>

<p>A good visual can often be the key to understanding (and remembering) a seemingly abstract concept. This collection demonstrates how artworks in the Smithsonian American Art Museum may be used to teach common literary devices in the English/language arts classroom such as metaphor, irony, symbolism, and more.</p> <p>Key words: allegory, allusion, anthropomorphism, foreshadowing, irony, juxtaposition, metaphor, mood, motif, satire, suspense, symbol</p>

<p>Do Ho Suh’s immersive architectural installations—unexpectedly crafted with ethereal fabric—are spaces that are at once deeply familiar and profoundly alien. Suh is internationally renowned for his “fabric architecture” sculptures that explore the global nature of contemporary identity as well as memory, migration, and our ideas of home.</p> <p>Suh was born in Korea and moved to the United States at the age of 29 in 1991, and he currently lives between New York, London, and Seoul. He crafts his works using traditional Korean sewing techniques combined with 3-D modeling and mapping technologies. Suh sees these works as “suitcase homes,” so lightweight and portable they can be installed almost anywhere.<br /></p> <p>Essential Questions:</p> <ul><li>What is home? </li><li>How does perspective-taking help us better understand people, events, or issues?</li><li>How can artwork be used as a provocation for the exercise of higher order thinking and transdisciplinary application of content?</li></ul><p>Created for a program with the National Teachers of the Year on April 30, 2018.</p> <p>#NTOY18</p><p><em>#visiblethinking</em><br /></p>

<p>April 4, 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. These six artworks from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection were created between 1968 and 1996, and respond to Dr. King's legacy in different ways. What does the date of each artwork tell us about the context during which it was made? What can we learn from looking at them as a collection?</p> <p>Created for a March 1, 2018 webinar for alumni of SAAM's Summer Institutes: Teaching the Humanities through Art.  </p> <p><a href="https://americanart.si.edu/education/k-12/professional-development/summer-institutes" style="background-color:rgb(63,63,63);">https://americanart.si.edu/edu...</a> </p> <p>#saamteach #martinlutherkingjr #mlk</p>

<p>George Washington is one of the most mythologized icons of American history, and one of the most frequently represented figures in American art. What can comparing and contrasting these varying representations tell us about our national understanding of this founding father and first American President? How does the historical context during which an artwork was made affect its subject matter? How does American art influence the way we think of Washington today? </p><p>Created for the National Council for History Education (NCHE) 2018 annual conference.</p>

<p>How can American art be read as a historical text? How can it be used to explore the 2018 National History Day theme of "Conflict and Compromise in History"? This collection examines two works of American art closely, modeling the process of historical inquiry and analysis. It also shares several online resources on reading artwork in a historical context, and suggests additional artworks from SAAM's collection that might support the theme of Conflict and Compromise.</p> <p>#NHD2018 #NHD</p> <p>Keywords: Reconstruction, Civil War, John Rogers, Winslow Homer<br></p> <p><em>#historicalthinking</em></p> <p><br></p>