African American Hero Portrait Project | #Blacklivesmatter Social Justice Poster Campaign Project | Juneteenth Coin Design Challenge | White Privilege Conference | 2012-Current | Art Methods
The African American Hero Portrait Project began as a Black History Month collaboration with School District of La Crosse African American liaison, Dempsey Miller in 2012. It continues to be explored by Middle School as well as University SOE Art Methods students. The project invites engagement with historic African American role models through the art of portraiture.
The #Blacklivesmatter Poster Campaign began out of a need to address questions from students in a mostly white school during the Black Lives Matter movement in 2017. Eighth Grade art students were given the challenge of researching the movement, along with imagery from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, to create a representational poster to hang in school. This project received a mini-grant from the WAEA for materials and supplies.
Middle School students given the challenge to research Juneteenth and work in pairs to create a large-scale coin design to commemorate the African American Holiday. The coin designs were displayed in the school gallery.
Hmong Symbols Project | Multicultural Curriculum | 2012-Current | Logan Middle School & UW-L Art Methods
This integrated art project began with research at the middle school level with both Hmong and non-Hmong students as a way to connect all students to Hmong New Year. It evolved into an art methods curricular project for university SOE students to engage with cross-cultural art and literacy connections while participating in critical aspects of Hmong history and important representational Eastern cultural symbols (2012-current).
Self & Society | Personal Representation Project | Digital Art for High School Curriculum | 2008 - Current
The Self and Society project poses the question to students, "How do you fit into society?" It also models real-world questions artists often confront when making work and understanding one's identity and position in the world. By articulating the answer to this questions students illustrate personal voice and authorship.
Multicultural Curriculum Honoring Hmong New Year, Culture, and History | 2012-2015 | Logan Middle School
Collaboration with School District of La Crosse Hmong Cultural Liaison, Naohoua (Tony) Yang (who also provided funding for this project). Hmong students were invited to take part in making art while studying their two cultures (Hmong and American). In addition to making art, the program involved taking students to the Hmong History Exhibit at the Historical Society in St. Paul, the Hmong Village in East St. Paul, and the local State Fair in West Salem.
Mississippi Steam Roll | Printmaking | Community Project | Adaptive Art Ed
Through a School District and Artspire grant, teachers could apply to participate with students on making a large collaborative woodcut to have printed using a steamroller in the parking lot of the Pump House Regional Arts Center. I selected my adaptive High School art students for this empowering experience. They used drills, chisels, and more to carve out their representative designs.
Coulee Montessori (E1) Self as Universe Project | Installation Art | Elementary Art Ed
This large-scale installation project came about through the sharing of E1 Montessori curriculum (specifically, the unit on the cycle of life and the universe). Students were asked to work in pairs to trace their own bodies, cut them out, and design the inside to create themselves as mini-universes.