Leadership Quality Kits Project Overview After studying rulers from different times and places, such as Peter the Great and Mao Tse-tung, students reflected on what they had learned and brainstormed what they thought were the most important qualities of a good leader. Students then created mixed-media assemblage boxes which symbolically represent character traits of leaders in their own lives and throughout history. Essential Question: What are the traits of a good leader? Artistic Goals: 1. Students will understand the difference between collage, assemblage, and decoupage, and will experiment with these techniques. 2. Students will understand what a symbol is, and the variety of ways in which artists use symbols. 3. Students will be able to combine materials, colors, objects, and images to represent an idea symbolically. Curricular Goals: 1. Students will know about the lives of at least two leaders throughout history from different communities around the world. 2. Students will form personal opinions about historical leaders. 3. Students will be able to identify traits they believe good leaders should possess. National Content Standards Addressed: Visual Arts K-4.1: Understanding and Applying Media, Techniques, and Processes Students describe how different materials, techniques, and processes cause different responses. Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories. Visual Arts K-4.3: Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols and ideas. Students explore and understand prospective content for works of art. Students select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning. Visual Arts K-4.4: Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures. Students demonstrate how history, culture, and the visual arts can influence each other in making and studying works of art. Social Studies: Civics: NSS-C.K-4.5: Roles of the Citizen Students will consider: What is the importance of political leadership and public service? How should we select leaders?
Part 1: Exploring Collage How can a work of art express a character trait? Activity 1: Exploring Collage Students learned about collage and thought about how artists can express character traits in collage. They looked at and discussed many of the collages on view in the exhibition Foto: Modernity in Central Europe 1918-1945. They focused on one collage in particular, The Raging Reporter by Umbo, and wrote a series of I am statements, imagining themselves as the character in this artwork. Recommended Time: One 45-minute session Inquiry Artwork: Umbo, The Raging Reporter, 1926 Materials: Paper, pencils Activity 2: Materials Exploration: Collage Students learned steps to create a collage by collecting found, colored, and photographic papers and experimenting with collage techniques, including cutting, tearing, and overlapping materials. They learned that composition is how objects are arranged on a page and created a portrait collage on the cover of their sketchbooks based on their ideas about their own character traits. After creating their portrait collage, students wrote reflection statements based on their work and shared these thoughts with the class. Recommended Time: two 45-minute sessions Materials: papers of varying colors and textures, magazine or newspaper pages, glue, scissors, sketchbooks Part 2: Symbols How do artists express ideas symbolically? Activity 3: Symbol Exploration Students learned that a symbol is an object or image that communicates an idea and completed worksheet exercises (see resources section) to become familiar with symbols. Next, they explored how they could use line and color to express ideas in collage. They brainstormed character traits and thought about how to express them symbolically through objects and images, drawing their ideas in their sketchbooks. Recommended Time: 1 2 45-minute sessions Materials: paper, pencils, colored pencils, craypas, images Activity 4: Leadership Traits After defining what a leader is, students discussed the leaders in their own lives and leaders throughout history such as Peter the Great and Mao Zedong (Tse-tung?). Together they created lists of traits that defined these leaders. Recommended Time: two 45-minute sessions Materials: paper, pencils, colored pencils, images
Activity 5: Representing Leadership Traits Symbolically Students looked at works of art by Joseph Cornell and learned that an assemblage is a work of art created by arranging found objects together. Drawing on their exploration of symbols, students created boxes to express a trait they believe the leaders they learned about possess. The teaching artist provided them with pre-made clear plastic boxes, as well as a variety of collage materials and found objects, and students were invited to supply their own found materials as well. Students chose one character trait and gathered collage materials and found objects related to this particular quality. After arranging these materials in boxes, they shared and talked about their choices and how the materials they chose express the character trait. Recommended Time: one two 45-minute sessions Inquiry Artworks: Joseph Cornell, Fortune Telling Parrot Materials: found materials, prefabricated boxes, scissors, glue, collage materials Part 3: Leadership Quality Kits What makes someone a good leader? Activity 6: Brainstorming After finishing their boxes about traits of leaders they studied, students prepared to create an artwork about a character trait that they believe a good leader should possess. As a brainstorming activity, they created a character trait flip-chart to list the qualities that best define good leadership. After choosing one character trait from this list, students began to brainstorm how they could represent this trait symbolically. Recommended Time: one 45-minute session Materials: flip chart paper, markers, sketchbooks, pencils Activity 7: Construction glue, scissors Students began to design their mixed-media assemblage boxes that symbolically represent their trait for a good leader. They learned that decoupage is the process of adhering a collage onto a non-paper surface, and that assemblage involves attaching 3-D materials to a surface. In creating their projects, students applied the concepts they had learned thus far such as composition, object selection, expressive color, and planning. Students experimented with composition before permanently attaching the elements. When the project was complete, everyone used a worksheet (see resources section) to help them reflect on the process of creating their leadership kit. Recommended Time: three four 45-minute sessions Inquiry Artwork: Joseph Cornell, Space Object Box: "Little Bear, etc." Materials: wooden boxes, recycled and found objects, collage materials, paint, brushes,
Activity 8: Taking Action Once finished, students became leaders in their own community. They exhibited some of the qualities they identified as important traits for leaders including compassion, generosity, and the desire to help others, and created a final project which was the creation of an installation designed to encourage members of their school community to donate food. In this process, the students created papier-mâché bowls, which they painted and collaged and displayed in their school. Recommended Time: two 45-minute sessions Materials: newspaper, glue, tape, paint, balloons, collage materials
oéëçìêåéë ÉëçìêÅÉë Social Studies Resources Books: Farquhar, Mary Ann. Children's Literature in China: From Lu Xun to Mao Zedong. Studies on Modern China. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1999. Faulkner, Anne. Mao Zedong: Twentieth-century History Makers. Austin: Raintree Steck-Vaughn Publishers, 2003. Geyer, Flora. Mao Zedong: The Rebel Who Led a Revolution. National Geographic World History Biographies. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2007. Grant, Neil. Oxford Children's History of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Stanley, Diane. Peter the Great. New York: Four Winds Press, 1986. Web sites: Peter the Great. History Leaning Site, http://historylearningsite.co.uk/peter_the_great.htm Assemblage Art Books: Maurer-Mathison, Diane V. Collage, Assemblage, and Altered Art. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2007. Sommers, Joan, Ascha Drake, and Joseph Cornell. The Joseph Cornell Box: Found Objects, Magical Worlds: From the Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Kennebunkport, Me: Cider Mill Press, 2006. Wynn, Jane Ann. Altered Curiosities: Assemblage Techniques and Projects. Cincinnati: North Light Books, 2007. Web sites: The Joseph Cornell Box, josephcornellbox.com Sources for materials: Materials. The Joseph Cornell Box, http://josephcornellbox.com/materials3.htm Oriental Trading, orientaltrading.com ULINE, http://uline.com Community Action Resources: Empty Bowls, http://www.emptybowls.net/ Fundred, http://www.fundred.org/
Name Sometimes artists use colors as symbols for an idea or feeling. Use the spaces s below to write your ideas about what these different colors might symbolize. Red can symbolize Green can symbolize Blue can symbolize Yellow can symbolize White can symbolize Black can symbolize Brown can symbolize
Name Shapes can be symbols. Transform these shapes into symbols you know: A circle can be a symbol for: or: An octagon can be a symbol for: A cross can symbolize: A square can symbolize:
Name Lines can be symbols. Draw a happy line: Draw a silly line: Draw a sad line: Draw a mean line: Draw an adventurous line: Draw a sneaky line: Draw a strong line: Draw a curious line:
Name Leadership Quality Kits Reflection worksheet Answer these questions about your own box, or use them to interview a friend about his/her project! 1. What character trait did you choose to express with your box? 2. Why is that character trait important for a leader to have? 3. What did you do to express the character trait you chose? 4. What do you like best about your project? 5. If you could do this project again, what would you do differently?
Sample Inquiry Plans (Egon Erwin Kisch), Umbo (Otto Umbehr), The Raging Reporter,, 1926 gelatin silver print of photomontage, 28.6 x 20.5, National Gallery of Art,, Washington, Patrons Permanent Fund. Inquiry Script: What do you notice? Imagine you are the character in this artwork. Who are you? (You might want to write your ideas as a series of statements, beginning with the words I am ) The man depicted in this photomontage (photographs collaged together to create an artwork) is Egon Erwin Kisch, a writer of newspaper articles and stories in the 1920s. He was known for his new modern approach to journalism. How does the artist Umbo capture Kisch s character in his artwork?
Joseph Cornell Fortune Telling Parrot (Parrot Music Box), ca. 1937-1938. 1938. Box construction, 16 1/16 x 8 3/4 x 6 11/16 inches. Peggy Guggenheim Collection. 76.2553.126. The Joseph and Robert R Cornell Memorial Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Image also available at www.guggenheimcollection.org Inquiry Script: What do you notice? Choose one object in this artwork and make a list of things that it reminds you of. Share. For the artist, Joseph Cornell, working on his boxes like this one was a substitute for traveling. Fortune Telling Parrot is said to offer many associations with exotic travels. What associations do you see? If you were to create a box to represent exotic travels, what objects would you include? Why?
Joseph Cornell Space Object Box: "Little Bear, etc." motif, mid-1950s 1950s- early 1960s. Box construction, 11 x 17 1/2 x 5 1/4 inches. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. 68.1878. The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial l Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Image also available at www.guggenheimcollection.org Inquiry Script: What do you notice? Ask students to compare this box to Fortune Telling Parrot. What are the similarities? Differences? Like Fortune Telling Parrot, Joseph Cornell includes several different objects in this box. What are the objects he has combined? What do you think the artist might be trying to communicate by combining them in this artwork? Having looked at two works by Cornell now, what new ideas do you have for your own box?