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Nicole Vance

Museum Educator
Smithsonian Staff

Nicole Vance's collections

 

Portrait Detectives

<p>This Learning Lab complements the National Portrait Gallery's student program, Portrait Detectives.</p> <p>Students will be transformed into Portrait Detectives, searching portraits for and analyzing clues to learn more about significant Americans.  Through interactive discussions and sketching and writing activities, students will read, compare, and contrast portraits across the collection. This module is divided into the following themes to best support your curriculum and student interests: Presidents, Activists, Icons, and Scientists.</p> <p><strong>Objectives:</strong></p> <p><strong></strong>After completing this lesson, students will be better able to: </p> <ul> <li>Identify important Americans and analyze their contributions to U.S. History <br> </li> <li>Identify key components of a portrait and discuss what we can learn about the sitter through these components.</li></ul> <p><a href="https://npg.si.edu/teachers/school-groups">Schedule</a> a virtual Portrait Detectives program with National Portrait Gallery educators.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p> <p><br></p>
Nicole Vance
90
 

PORTRAITS Podcast: Pondering Pocahontas

<p>In this collection, students will be better able to identify key elements of a portrait and discuss what we can learn about the sitter through these elements. They will also investigate how these elements may reveal the viewpoints of artist, sitter, and viewer while practicing media literacy skills. </p> <p>This lesson was written by Erin Koester Tusell, Gallery Educator at the National Portrait Gallery.</p>
Nicole Vance
27
 

The Portraits

<p>The National Portrait Gallery tells the story of the United States of America by portraying the people who shape the nation’s history, development and culture.</p> <p>This collection is a virtual gallery of all the portraits found within student programs at the National Portrait Gallery. Learn more about our <a href="https://npg.si.edu/teachers/school-groups">virtual student programs</a> and explore more of the <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/org/npg">National Portrait Gallery's Learning Lab collections</a>.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p> <p><br></p>
Nicole Vance
291
 

Portraiture and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math)

<p>This Learning Lab Collection complements the National Portrait Gallery student program, Portraiture and STEAM.</p> <p></p> <p>Students will explore the ways portraiture can be a springboard to discuss STEAM concepts (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math).  By analyzing portraits, students will consider the sitters’ stories and recognize their contributions to the various STEAM fields.  During the program, there will be opportunities to examine a broad range of STEAM topics to allow for classroom connections and emphasis on relevance. </p> <p></p> <p>After completing the program, students will be better able to:</p> <ul><li>Identify key components of a portrait and discuss what one can learn about the sitter through these components.</li><li>Identify and analyze the contributions that sitters made in their STEAM fields of expertise.</li><li>Use the museum’s collection and portraiture as a springboard to exploring a variety of STEAM concepts.</li></ul> <p>#NPGteach</p>
Nicole Vance
75
 

Visualizing Democracy

<p>This Learning Lab complements the National Portrait Gallery's student program, Visualizing Democracy. </p> <p>Students will visualize democracy from the colonial era to the 21st century by analyzing portraits of major figures who played a critical role—as government officials, engaged citizens, or both—in creating a democratic society for the United States. Students will investigate how portraiture can convey democratic ideals and how, as a cultural institution housed in a historic building, the National Portrait Gallery has been and continues to be relevant to American democracy.</p> <p><strong>Objectives</strong></p> <p>After completing this lesson, students will be better able to: </p> <ul><li>Identify key components of a portrait and discuss what one can learn about the sitter through these components. </li><li>Analyze the history of portraiture and understand how it has evolved from a means to document wealthy individuals to an accessible art form used to represent people from all walks of life. </li><li>Understand the nuance of the word democracy, to comprehend how portraiture’s evolution (the democratization of portraiture) has helped democratize society by giving voice to individuals who have historically been underrepresented. </li><li>Discuss the three branches of federal government and the value of citizen involvement in a democracy. Analyze the legacy of individuals who have been instrumental in creating, improving, and maintaining American democracy. </li><li>Recognize and analyze how cultural institutions, like the National Portrait Gallery, are important components of a robust democracy. </li></ul> <p><a href="https://npg.si.edu/teachers/school-groups">Schedule</a> a virtual Visualizing Democracy student program with National Portrait Gallery educators.</p> <p>#NPGteach<br></p> <p></p>
Nicole Vance
72
 

Shaping America: Exploring Portraiture from the Colonial Era to the Civil War

<p>This Learning Lab complements the National Portrait Gallery's student program, Shaping America.</p> <p>Meet the politicians, reformers, inventors, authors, soldiers, and others who shaped the course of American history from the Colonial Era through the Civil War. Students will analyze portraits to learn about the diverse and significant contributions to American society made by individuals in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection.</p> <p>#NPGteach<br></p> <p><strong>Objectives:</strong> After completing this lesson, students will be better able to:</p> <ul><li> Identify important Americans and analyze their contributions to U.S. History</li><li>Identify key components of a portrait and discuss what we can learn about the sitter through these components</li></ul> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Colonies, Revolutionary War, Westward Expansion, Civil War, Abolition, Suffrage</p>
Nicole Vance
72
 

American Indian Heritage Month with the National Portrait Gallery

<p>Meet the Native Americans who shaped the history, development, and culture of the United States of America. Use this collection to celebrate American Indian Heritage Month and embrace indigenous voices in the classroom year round. Native peoples have lived throughout what is now the United States since time immemorial and continue to make homes and communities here today. This collection mirrors parts rather than the whole of this continuing story. It also reflects the history of portraiture in the United States- we recognize that who is represented and how one is represented reflects the country's flaws as well as it's strengths<br></p> <p>#NPGteach</p> <p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Portraits, American Indian Heritage Month, American Indian, Native American, Indigenous, Ani-Yunwiya (Cherokee), Diné (Navajo), Chata (Choctaw), Sioux, Wah-Zha-Zhi (Osage), Ojibwe (Chippewa), Apache, Niitsitapi (Blackfeeet), Haudenosaunee (Iroquois), Nuuchu (Ute), Nuwuvi (Paiute), Seminole, Muscogee (Creek), Quapaw, Portraits</p>
Nicole Vance
171
 

LGBTQ+ Pride Month with the National Portrait Gallery

<p>Meet the LGBTQ+ pioneers who shaped the history, development, and culture of the United States of America. Use this collection to celebrate LGBTQ+Pride Month, LGBTQ+ History Month, and embrace LGBTQ+ voices in the classroom year round. This collection reflects the history of portraiture in the United States- we recognize that who is represented and how one is represented reflects the country's flaws as well as it's strengths.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p>
Nicole Vance
133
 

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month with the National Portrait Gallery

<p>Meet the Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans who shaped the history, development, and culture of the United States of America. Use this collection to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and embrace AAPI voices in the classroom year round.<br></p> <p>#NPGteach<br></p>
Nicole Vance
190
 

Teaching American Democracy through Portraiture: We the People

<p>In this Learning Lab collection, portraits are used entry point to teach about citizens and residents of the United States. Throughout this collection, students will examine not only the portrait subjects but will also gain insight into the larger historical time period in which the subjects lived and how they made change in their communities and the United States.</p> <p>This collection contains three lessons that highlight the many people, ideas, and cultures of the United States: "Reading Portraiture:</p> <p>Same, Different, Connect, Engage," "Engaging History: Expanding Democracy," and "Connections to the Present: Reading Election Posters."</p> <p>Review Reading Portraiture 101 before beginning the lessons.</p> <p>#NPGteach #EducatingForDemocracy</p>
Nicole Vance
54
 

Teaching American Democracy through Portraiture: A People with Contemporary Debates & Possibilities

<p>In this Learning Lab collection, portraits of Michelle Obama, Leonard Crow Dog, and Roger Shimomura are used as an entry point to teach about contemporary debates and possibilities. Using <a href="https://www.educatingforamericandemocracy.org/">Educating for American Democracy</a>'s roadmap as a guide, this lesson centers on the theme  <a href="https://www.educatingforamericandemocracy.org/7themes/contemporary-debates-possibilities/">A People with Contemporary Debates & Possibilities</a>. Students will examine not only the portrait subjects but will also gain insight into how their biography fits into American democracy.<br></p> <p>This collection contains three lessons that highlight activists: "Reading Portraiture: See – Feel - Wonder - Connectx2," "Engaging History: Perspectives on the American Indian Movement," and "Connections to the Present: Identity and Patriotism" with the last lesson containing an art \making prompt for Educating for American Democracy's Design Challenge: <a href="https://www.educatingforamericandemocracy.org/k-12-student-design-challenge-awards/#civic-honesty">Civic Honesty, Reflective Patriotism</a></p> <p>Review <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/reading-portraiture-101/6VeUfzDnKE87HIOP">Reading Portraiture 101 </a>before beginning the lessons.</p> <p>#NPGteach #EducatingForDemocracy<br></p>
Nicole Vance
51
 

Teaching American Democracy through Portraiture: Civic Participation

<p>In this Learning Lab collection, portrait photography of twentieth-century activists<em> </em>is used as an entry point to teach about the civic participation. Using <a href="https://www.educatingforamericandemocracy.org/">Educating for American Democracy</a>'s roadmap as a guide, this lesson centers on the theme <a href="https://www.educatingforamericandemocracy.org/the-roadmap/7themes/">Civic Participation</a>. . Students will examine not only the portrait subjects--including Ona Kingbird, John Lewis, and Sal Castro--but will also gain insight into the larger historical time period in which the subjects lived and how they located agency, made change, and sustained ideals of American democracy.</p> <p>This collection contains three lessons that highlight activists: "Reading Portraiture: See – Think – Me - We," "Engaging History: Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee," and "Connections to the Present: Students in Action" with the last lesson containing an artmaking prompt for Educating for American Democracy's Design Challenge: <a href="https://www.educatingforamericandemocracy.org/the-roadmap/5designchallenges/">Motivating Agency, Sustaining the Republic</a></p> <p>Review <a href="https://learninglab.si.edu/collections/reading-portraiture-101/6VeUfzDnKE87HIOP">Reading Portraiture 101 </a>before beginning the lessons.</p> <p>#NPGteach #EducatingForDemocracy</p> <p></p>
Nicole Vance
53