Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts Copyright 2014 The Open University
Contents Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts 3 1. Using brainstorming to think about oca art 3 2. Studying and making masks 4 3. Creating an informative exhibition 6 Resource 1: A homework ist of oca artefacts 7 Resource 2: Categories for organising types of artworks and artefacts 8 Resource 3: An African mask 9 Resource 4: Lesson pan on East African masks 10 Acknowedgements 12 2 of 12 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts Key Focus Question: How do you expore the visua arts with your pupis? Keywords: art; masks; exhibitions; artefacts; thinking skis; crafts Learning Outcomes By the end of this section, you wi have: deveoped your skis in carrying out cassroom activities and reated discussions in the area of visua arts; deveoped pupis knowedge of the visua arts that are produced and used in the community; undertaken practica artwork with your pupis. Introduction Some of the most exciting parts of a society s heritage are its arts and crafts traditions. The way that objects, both ornamenta and everyday, are made and decorated, and the music and dancing that is produced, provide insight into the core vaues and needs of that society. This section wi show you how to introduce your pupis to visua arts that are around them and ways to use the visua arts to stimuate creative work in your cassroom. Your task is to hep pupis understand that artwork makes the environment attractive. In addition, you wi want to deveop the understanding that art is a means of communication and a way to transmit cuture. 1. Using brainstorming to think about oca art The study of art and artefacts and how they are produced can provide pupis with a window onto their own cuture and community history. It aso gives you, the teacher, opportunities to design good activity-based essons, because there are so many exciting objects and artworks that can be brought into the cassroom to stimuate interest and provide ideas for pupis own art activities. The symbos contained in art are most often reated to the mora and reigious vaues of a particuar society. Therefore, it is important to encourage your pupis to take an interest in the arts to preserve their own cutura heritage and hep them make more meaning of their own contexts. This is why we teach pupis about art. Case Study 1: Deepening thinking about oca artefacts A day before the first esson on oca traditiona art, Mrs Kabaimu, from the Tanga Region in Tanzania, asked her pupis to make a ist of artefacts produced in their community, either in the past or in the present. They were to speak to their parents and neighbours in gathering this information. Just to get their thoughts moving, she showed them some 3 of 12 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts exampes of artefacts, such as a beautifuy woven Makonde basket and a Maasai bead neckace. The next day, pupis brought back some extensive ists Mrs Kabaimu woud mark each one and return it (see Resource 1: A homework ist of oca artefacts). She started the esson by asking pupis to mention names of artefacts they had earned of, which she wrote on the chakboard. These incuded the names of carvings, paintings and different drawings, weapons, househod objects and accessories. Mrs Kabaimu divided the cass into sma groups (see Key Resource: Using group work in your cassroom) and gave each group the names of two art objects and the foowing questions: Describe the uses of the objects. What skis are required to produce the objects? Are these skis known to many peope? How might the objects be stored and preserved for future generations? After 15 minutes, each group presented its findings to the whoe cass. Mrs Kabaimu made notes on big sheets of paper and, as she did so, she summarised the pupis ideas into different categories. She knew that it was important to group the ideas and to draw attention to the way they were cassified. These sheets were pinned on the cassroom noticeboard and eft for a week for pupis to study. Not ony were the pupis earning about artefacts in their own community, but they were aso being given an opportunity to deveop their thinking skis. Activity 1: Brainstorming and creating oca traditiona art and artefacts You may want to ook at the diagram in Resource 2: Categories for organising types of artworks and artefacts to assist you with panning this esson. In a cassroom discussion, ask pupis to brainstorm traditiona art objects and artefacts they know. Start by giving some exampes. As pupis come up with ideas, write them on the board in various categories (see Resource 2). Examine each object cassified as a scupture or carving and ask the cass to discuss the skis required to produce these objects, how and where they are produced and how they are ceaned and preserved. Do the same for other categories of objects, covering as many as time aows. Finish the esson by asking pupis to pan for their next art period, in which they are going to draw pictures of or make some of the objects. Find a space where these can be dispayed according to categories. They coud ater become part of a schoo exhibition. 2. Studying and making masks Traditiona African masks were considered to be crucia objects because they payed the essentia roe of the spirits in the African beief system. The origina intent in creating an 4 of 12 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts African mask was to create it for a particuar ceremony or societa ritua. Unike the West European concept in which a mask is considered to be the means of representing a spirit, traditiona masks in Africa were understood to be where a spirit is created. In other words, when a person wears the mask, aong with a costume that conceas them from head to foot, the masked person actuay becomes the figure the disguise is intended to represent, bringing it to ife through their gestures, sounds, activities, and often their possessed state. In Case Study 2, a teacher uses group work to promote her pupis thinking skis and aow them to share their ideas about the purposes of different masks. In Activity 2, your pupis wi make their own masks, having thought about questions such as those raised in the case study. Case Study 2: Exporing symbos and meaning in traditiona African masks Mrs Sungi is an art teacher at IhanjaSchoo, Singida. She has decided to expore traditiona African masks with three broad outcomes in mind: 1 To refect on shared uses and experiences of artwork across Africa. 2 To expore how symbos in a piece of artwork convey particuar meanings in a cutura context. 3 To hep her pupis make their own masks. She pans to use about two doube-period art essons to achieve these outcomes. Mrs Sungi starts by presenting her cass with picture books and magazines that contain images of traditiona masks from a over Sub-Saharan Africa. (See Resource 3: An African maskfor an exampe.) She asks the cass, in groups, to expore some of the books together and to draw out common uses of masks in socia ife across different cutura contexts. Each group prepares a ist of ritua and cutura functions of African masks. Using Resource 4: Lesson pan on East African masks, Mrs Sungi wi go on to introduce specific masks from East Africa, which have many highy styised features associated with rituas and the symboism of power. She wi draw attention to important symbos in the mask. She wi then give her pupis time to design and make their own symboic masks. Activity 2: Creating masks to represent emotions and socia messages Before the esson, gather together a range of picture books and magazines that contain images of traditiona African masks from various paces and, if possibe, some exampes of rea oca masks. Te pupis to ook through the resources you have gathered for ideas for their own masks. As they pan their masks, pupis need to think what they wish their masks to convey. Remind them that they need to think about: facia expressions; 5 of 12 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts images or symbos they might use; how to capture feeings; coour. Ask them to design their own masks on a sma piece of recyced paper/card first, before making either a arger picture of their mask or making a mode out of card. You wi have to aow severa art periods for this work. Dispay the finished masks for a to see and invite other casses to see the masks. 3. Creating an informative exhibition Producing their own artefacts is important for your pupis and they wi want to share their achievements with others. In this part, we suggest creating a schoo exhibition of community artefacts and objects pupis have created as a means of fostering and preserving your pupis pride in their cutura heritage. Artefacts from the oca community that cannot be moved or are otherwise unavaiabe coud be represented by cuttings of pictures from newspapers and other sources. Case Study 3 shows how one cass, by working in groups, was invoved in a aspects of the exhibition, from panning the ayout to taking with visitors. In the Key Activity, your pupis wi prepare an exhibition where visitors wak around unaccompanied, so their task of writing informative and interesting abes is crucia. Case Study 3: Dispaying artefacts at a schoo Open Day Iemea Community Primary Schoo s Open Day normay takes pace towards the end of the schoo year. Mr Koku, who is teaching art to Standard 4 pupis, asks the Open Day panning committee to aocate a space in the exhibition room so that his cass can dispay artefacts they have made during cass or coected from different sources in the community. The request is granted. During the preparation period, Mr Koku ed his cass to pan for the dispay. He divided the pupis into four groups. The first group was required to coect and abe a drawings, pictures and objects cassified as househod objects. The second group was assigned the category of musica instruments, the third group was assigned the category of jeweery and the fourth group the category of carvings. The work of coecting and abeing took up two essons. In the third esson, each group nominated one pupi to present its coections to the cass the way one woud present to visitors. During the Open Day, the cass dispayed the objects arranged into four categories and four pupis described the coection to parents and other members of the community who visited the cass dispay tabe. At the end of the day, the artefacts tabe was awarded a trophy for the best tabe in the exhibition room. 6 of 12 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts Key Activity: Preparing for an exhibition of artefacts Ask pupis to bring into cass drawings, artefacts, masks, toos, carvings, pottery and baskets either from home or that were made during their art essons. Prepare five cards. On each card, write one of the foowing words: Picture makers; Weavers; Scuptors; Potters; Carpenters. Divide your cass into five groups and assign each group one of the cards. Ask each group to categorise the objects that they have brought in and dispay in a separate space those that beong to the category on their card. Once this is done, ask groups to compares categories in order to arrive at uniform sets. The debate that wi go on here is very important in buiding pupis categorisation and thinking skis and wi hep them identify the key things they want to incude on their dispay abes. Ask each group to write a name and an information abe for each object in their dispay. Ask each group, in turn, to arrange their dispay for pubic viewing, whie other pupis pretend to be visitors. Ask the visitors to feed back to the groups how they coud improve their abes. Prepare the fina draft of the abes and give your cass time to set up the dispays. Devise a rota of pupis to act as custodians of the dispay whie it is open. It may be open ony at break times and unch time. After the exhibition, discuss with your pupis what they gained from the experience both in terms of understanding about the artefacts and of being invoved in such an event. Resource 1: A homework ist of oca artefacts Exampe of pupis' work This was the homework ist that Jabai handed in, as marked by Mrs Kabaimu. 1. Drum 02. 10.2005 Names of Artefacts 2. Guitar Is this the guitar that you made? 3. Wooden spoon 4. Botte Think about this again. Was the botte reay made in your community? 5. Cay pots Very good 6. Tingatinga painting What is this? 7. Car toy Is it one of the toys made in your viage? 8. Handwoven mat 7 of 12 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts We done Jabai. You have coected a good ist of artefacts here. Make sure you understand which of them are made in your community. Resource 2: Categories for organising types of artworks and artefacts Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis 8 of 12 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts Resource 3: An African mask Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis 9 of 12 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts Origina source: Cabe, M. The African Kings. New York: Seect Books Resource 4: Lesson pan on East African masks Teacher resource for panning or adapting to use with pupis 10 of 12 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts http://www.masksoftheword.com/images/african-makonde-mask-a.jpg (Accessed 2008) There are generay three kinds of mask: face masks, hemet masks (which as the name suggests are worn over the head ike a hemet), and body masks, which cover a good part of the dancer's torso and are intended to disguise the dancer's identity from peope in cose proximity. The body mask sometimes ony covers the torso and is worn together with a face or hemet mask. A masks represent spirits or ancestors, and were most powerfuy used in initiation ceremonies as expressions of continuity, fear and moraity. They were aso used in dances for festive occasions, for instance in harvest ceebrations. The hemet masks (mapiko; singuar ipiko) are notabe for their strong, portrait-ike features. Many have rea human hair appied in shaved patterns, raised or incised facia scarification, open mouths with bared teeth, arge ears or ip-pugs. They are used in the mapiko dance and in other dances. Athough both mae and femae heads can be depicted, femae heads are very rare. The dancer breathes and sees though a sma opening in the mouth. Mapiko is not just the name given to a mask (usuay hemet mask), but aso the name of a dance, the name of the terrifying force that performs in it, and aso the name given to one of the stages of mae initiation, when the initiate is introduced into the secrets of the Mapiko. The masks themseves are made in a secret bush ocation known as the Mpoo, which women are forbidden to approach. When not in use, the masks are kept in the Mpoo, and were traditionay burned when broken or repaced with new masks. Adapted from origina source: http://www.buegecko.org/kenya/tribes/makonde/carving-masks.htm (Accessed 1 Juy 2007) Outcome Pupis wi deveop an appreciation of a mask s various purposes and wi create a mask. Materias 11 of 12 Wednesday 18 May 2016
Section 1 : Exporing the visua arts drawing paper card pencis modeing cay paper in various coours markers, crayons or cooured pencis poster coour beads, shes, etc. scissors gue 1 Coect together some images of masks to share with your pupis. 2 Discuss the images of the masks and their symboism. 3 Ask each pupi to create a preiminary drawing of his/her mask. 4 Trace the pattern on card and then draw their design for the mask. Te pupis that they may change the facia features on their masks. The pattern is ony a guide for ocation of eyes and mouth in case they woud ike to wear their masks. 5 Paint the masks and aow them to dry. 6 Cut the masks out and prepare the materias that wi be attached to masks such as hair and a band to secure it on their head. 7 Give pupis time to decorate their masks. Acknowedgements Gratefu acknowedgement is made to the foowing sources: Photographs and images Resource 3: An African mask: Cabe, M. The African Kings. New York: Seect Books Resource 4: An East African mask: http://www.masksoftheword.com/images/african-makonde-mask-a.jpg (Accessed 2008) Text Resource 4: Lesson pan on East African masks: Adapted from origina source: http://www.buegecko.org/kenya/tribes/makonde/carving-masks.htm (Accessed 1 Juy 2007) Every effort has been made to contact copyright hoders. If any have been inadvertenty overooked the pubishers wi be peased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. Return to Socia Studies and the Arts (primary) page 12 of 12 Wednesday 18 May 2016