Deborah Burke

The following assignment seems to resonate with students. It's an assignment that's due at the end of the semester. Gentler way of getting at students' experiences, learning.

SYNTHESIS AND INTEGRATION ART PROJECT
*100 points*

Due: Tuesday, May 18

The Assignment:

Using the life and work of Romare Bearden as inspiration and the learning outcomes for this course as a guiding framework, create a 15 x 20 inch mosaic collage that describes your journey through this course. The intent of the mosaic/collage is to support you in making sense of your journey in this course and should integrate self knowledge, course content, and community knowledge. What was your understanding of educational equity prior to taking this course? What have you learned about yourself, others, and educational equity through participation in this course? How do you and will you act upon your new understandings and awareness? Also, using the course learning outcomes as a guide, please write an artist’s statement (500 words) that supports your audience in understanding your art work.

In class on Tuesday, May 18 we will have an end of the semester art reception and celebration where you will display and speak about your work.

Resources:

• National Gallery of Art: Romare Bearden Exhibition—http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/beardeninfo.shtm

Romare Bearden is among the preeminent artists of his generation. His powerful works represent the places where he lived and worked: the rural South; northern cities, principally Pittsburgh and New York's Harlem; and the Caribbean island of St. Martin. Religious subjects and ritual practices, jazz clubs and brothels, and history and literature are overlapping themes in his work. Throughout his career Bearden also made forays into abstraction, usually with musical associations. This exhibition, the most comprehensive retrospective of his work ever, explores the complexity and scope of Bearden's art. It includes not only the collages and Projections (photostats) for which he is best known but also a selection of watercolors, gouaches, and oils, many of which have rarely been exhibited.

• Learning Outcome Prompts

o What assumptions/stereotypes about others did you carry when you entered this course? How did your thoughts/perceptions about others and yourself change through your experiences in this course (e.g., in- and out-of-class dialogues, course content including readings and films, and participating in service)? What concrete experiences catalyzed your shifts in thoughts/perceptions about others?
o How have you come to understand your own and other’s social and cultural group identities in terms of systemic privilege and oppression?
o What was your experience of intercultural dialogue (e.g., at your community partner site or in-class? What did you learn about yourself? Others?
o What are the strengths/assets of the people and organizations in the community in which you are serving? Your community partner site? The people you are in relationship with at your community partner site?
o What systemic inequities does the community you are serving in confront? Your community partner site? The people you are in relationship with at your community partner site?
o What did service mean to you upon entering this course? What does service mean to you now? How have you acted from your awareness to build more just communities?

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