<p dir="ltr">Meet Sam Gilliam (1933—2022), an American artist, teacher, and innovator, known for breaking paintings out of their frames. He continually experimented with paint and materials and challenged ideas about what paintings could be.</p> <p dir="ltr">Meet Sam GIlliamis part of a series of lessons highlighting the biographies and artwork of artist educators featured in Anacostia Community Museum’s exhibition <a href="https://anacostia.si.edu/beautifulvision">A Bold and Beautiful Vision: A Century of Black Arts Education in Washington, DC, 1900-2000</a>. These lessons are designed for educators and students of grades 4-12. </p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>Art Lessons</strong></p> <ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Process Paintings</p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Sculptural Paintings</p></li></ul> <p><br></p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>Thinking Routines</strong></p> <ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Colors, Shapes, Lines</p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">See, Think, Feel, Wonder</p></li></ul> <p><br></p> <p dir="ltr"><strong>Clas</strong><strong>sroom Connections</strong></p> <ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Visual Arts: Painting, Process Art, Contemporary Art</p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Social Studies: Late Twentieth Century African American History </p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Language Arts: Reading, Writing</p></li></ul>

<p>Follow the clues to uncover the mysteries of the Lansdowne portrait at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery. Each correct answer will help you learn something about George Washington and the portrait!</p> <p>#NPGteach</p>

<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>

<p>This portrait timeline spotlights individuals who shaped the history, development, and culture of the United States of America between the years 1954 and 1980.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p> <p>Keywords: Civil Rights Movement, Segregation, Brown vs. Board of Education, McCarthyism, Space Race, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, </p>

<p>In this lesson pack, students will learn how to research and document their communities through photographs and oral histories. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the social, cultural, political, and historical contexts of their own communities and develop important research, communication, and critical thinking skills. The goals of the project include: <br></p> <ul> <li>Students will build visual literacy, critical thinking, analyzation, interview, and discussion skills by working with primary sources. </li> <li>Students will use new skills to make connections with other students and their community, by creating portraits of their community through oral history, photography, and video. </li> <li>Students will be able to define what community is to them and have a greater awareness of their local community. </li> </ul> <p>Creating Portraits of Community, A Together We Thrive Initiative, was created by educators from the National Portrait Gallery (NPG), National Museum of American History (NMAH), Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), and SI Affiliates. Project authors include: Elizabeth Dale-Deines, Orlando Serrano, Eden Cho, Briana Zavadil White, Jocelyn Kho, and Abbie Hitzemann. </p> <p>View student work at the Creating Portraits of Community webpages: <a href="https://americanart.si.edu/education/k-12/resources/creating-portraits-community">https://americanart.si.edu/edu...</a></p> <p></p>

<p>This Learning Lab collection complements the National Portrait Gallery's student program, <em>Portraiture and Social Emotional Learning (SEL).</em></p> <p>The <em>Portraiture and Social Emotional Learning (SEL)</em> student program approaches portraiture with a social-emotional lens. Students will consider how reading portraiture can lend itself to exploring social-emotional qualities such as self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.  This collection strives to provide opportunities to explore emotions and values in the context of portraiture.<br></p> <p><strong>Curriculum Connections: </strong>This lesson plan is suitable for students in grades 4-12 in multidisciplinary classes.<br></p> <p><strong>Objectives:</strong> After completing this lesson, students will be better able to: </p> <ul><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Identify key components of a portrait and discuss what we can learn about the sitter through these components.</p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Investigate how these components reveal the viewpoints (of artist, sitter, and viewer) represented through the depiction of the sitters.</p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Identify social emotional qualities and analyze the connections that can be made to portraiture.</p></li><li dir="ltr"><p dir="ltr">Utilize the museum’s collection and portraiture as a springboard to explore the range of social emotional qualities that include self-awareness, self- management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.</p></li></ul> <p></p> <p>#NPGteach<br></p> <p></p>

<p>Heighten your civic awareness in your classroom through conversations about art, history and material culture. Check back for new objects each month as educators from the National Portrait Gallery partner with colleagues from across the Smithsonian to discuss how historical objects from their respective collections speak to today’s social justice issues.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p> <p>Keywords: social justice, portraits, object based learning, material culture, US history, identity, representation, leadership, visible thinking strategies, video tour, Smithsonian </p>

<p>This Learning Lab collection complements the National Portrait Gallery student Program, Explore!</p> <p></p> <p>The Explore! program introduces young students to portraiture. They will be exposed to what makes up a portrait and search portraits for clues to learn more about themselves and significant Americans.  Through interactive discussions and hands-on activities, students will read, compare, and contrast portraits across the collection.</p> <p></p> <p>After completing this lesson, students will be better able to:<br></p> <ul><li>Identify key components of a portrait and discuss what we can learn about the sitter through these components.</li></ul> <p>#NPGteach</p>

<p><em>What can you do to make a difference?</em> Introducing <a href="https://npg.si.edu/visit-home/digital-engagement">Our Struggle for Justice</a>, a digital collaboration between the <a href="https://npg.si.edu/">National Portrait Gallery</a> and <a href="https://www.capitalone.com/">Capital One</a> that explores activism and social justice through biography.<br><br></p> <p>How can you use your skills to spark conversation, create agency and inspire change? In this collection, meet individuals, past and present, from the museum’s collection whose thoughts and actions have made our nation better. Each featured individual is accompanied by thought-provoking questions, educational resources, and additional portraits to reframe the way we view activism and the causes closest to us.<br></p> <p>Join us on <a href="https://www.instagram.com/smithsoniannpg/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/smithsoniannpg">Twitter</a>, follow #OurStruggleForJustice for the latest updates, and look out for new posts each Tuesday. </p> <hr> <p>Through our Twitter and Instagram, we will delve into the museum’s collection to contextualize the pursuit of freedom and activism in the United States, sparking conversation and inspiring action. </p> <p>Our country was established on two basic principles: freedom and the pursuit of happiness. However, over the course of our history, these ideals have been broken, tested and reconstructed. Many times, the onus for upholding the nation’s moral foundation has fallen to the individual rather than the majority. </p> <p>American activism guides our nation toward its true vision, one that acts upon the ideals of its founding and celebrates the entirety of its population. And while many before us defined what it means to strive for a better America, there is no question that this work is ongoing. </p> <p>Through Our Struggle for Justice, we will meet individuals, past and present, whose thoughts and actions have made our nation better. Though their experiences and causes vary, these people have one thing in common: they fought tirelessly against injustice, using their time, strengths and sheer will to create meaningful change. </p> <p>In telling these stories, we aim to spark conversations around agency. Look for thought-provoking questions to reframe the way we think about activism and the causes that are closest to us. <br></p> <p>The campaign draws inspiration from the Portrait Gallery’s collection, including the permanent exhibition The Struggle for Justice, which celebrates pioneers and change-makers in the fight for social equity. </p> <p>One person can make a difference. In learning about these figures, we hope that you can, too.    <br></p>

<p>Explore portraits from "Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands" at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in this Learning Lab collection.<br></p> <p>Hung Liu (1948–2021) was a contemporary Chinese-born American artist, whose multilayered paintings established new frameworks for understanding portraiture in relation to time, memory, and history. Often sourcing her subjects from photographs, Liu elevated overlooked individuals by amplifying the stories of those who have historically been invisible or unheard. Having lived through war, political revolution, exile, and displacement, she offered a complex picture of an Asian Pacific American experience. Her portraits speak powerfully to those seeking a better life, in the United States and elsewhere. <em>Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands</em> will be first major exhibition of the artist's work on the East Coast. This is also the first time that a museum will focus on Liu’s portraiture.</p> <p><em>The story of America as a destination for the homeless and hungry of the world is not only a myth. It is a story of desperation, of sadness, of uncertainty, of leaving your home. It is also a story of determination, and—more than anything—of hope.</em></p> <p>— Hung Liu, 2017</p> <p><em></em>"Hung Liu: Portraits of Promised Lands" will be on view at the National Portrait Gallery August 27, 2021, through May 30, 2022</p> <p>Keywords: Hung Liu, Chinese-American, AAPI, Cultural Revolution, China, Portraits, Portraiture, Family, Mother, Father, Daughter, Son, Gender, Refugees, Immigration, Identification, Identity, Displacement, War, Asian Pacific American, Painting, Photography, Memory, Migration, Dorothea Lange, Carrie Mae Weems</p>

<p>This Learning Lab complements,  "Expanding Roles of Women," an interdisciplinary curriculum guide, featuring portraits from the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery exhibition,<em> Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900. </em>The portraits are used as entry points to teach about the history of women in America during this time period. This collection serves as a home base, organizing the following components: (1) Background Essay and Timeline; (2) Reading Portraiture 101; (3) Lesson Plans; (4) Assessments; (5) Teaching Posters; (6) Additional Resources; (7) Curriculum Guide; and (8) Videos for Educators.</p> <p>Throughout these Learning Lab collections, students will examine not only the portraits’ subjects and artists but will also gain insight into the larger historical time period in which the subjects lived. By studying the exhibition’s portraits, students will be able to understand how the women in these portraits lived and located agency. Furthermore, students reflect on the present by considering how women today continue to make changes in society. <br></p> <p>Educators will come to this Learning Lab collection from a wide range of disciplines and grade levels and can use the activities and resources as they see fit. The materials have been developed toward middle school social studies classes to allow teachers to scaffold lessons and add extension activities as needed. This Learning Lab collection was designed to be integrated with flexibility. It can be used in order, as single-time activities, or in various combinations to support existing topics in the curriculum.</p> <p>#NPGteach<br></p>

<p>How can the past inform our future?  Imagine you are living in the U.S. in 1899. In this era of rapid expansion and increasing tensions many Americans are asking "what kind of nation do we want to be?" Across the United States, people are talking about what that means for themselves and for their country. For this lesson, students will imagine they are gathered in an issue forum. This guide  is meant to provide a framework for student deliberation by offering three approaches to the complex question: "what kind of nation do we want to be?" Each option is accompanied by possible actions to be taken and notes possible drawbacks.</p> <p>#NPGteach</p>