MOPA museum of pinney art
Inspiration Project leadership
State Standards
Perceiving/Knowing
The fifth grade students are spending this year exploring what it means to
• 1PE Understand that the
be a leader. As fifth grade students, they are the natural leaders of the school. We
context of an art object has
began this year by looking at artists as leaders and change agents. We focused on
an effect on how that object is
a few of Banksy’s artworks. He is a contemporary artist who creates artwork with
perceived.
social commentary. We talked about how artists stand for something. As a leader,
you have to find what it is you stand for. What is it you feel is important for being a
leader? We talked about different ways people lead and what inspires others to
follow someone. The first challenge was to find an inspirational quote that had
personal significance. The students needed to find a quote that they understood
Producing/Performing
• 3PR Experiment with various
ideas and visual art media to
solve a problem that addresses
a contemporary social issue.
and could explain in their own words. They were also asked to think about the big
picture of the quote… what is the essence of the quote. Before this challenge, the
Responding/Reflecting
students learned about and practiced juxtaposition of images to create new
• 1RE Apply reasoning skills to
meaning. The goal of the quote challenge was for the students to juxtapose a
analyze and interpret the
piece of art with an inspirational quote to inspire others and represent something
meaning in artworks.
they, as the artist, stand for. The students really had to dig deep to think of a way
to symbolically create a piece of art that represented their chosen quote. In the
middle of the project, the students stopped creating and pressed the pause button
on the creative process. I asked them to take a small sheet of paper and write
down a burning question they had about their own artwork that they wanted advice
on. This could have been a question about a tool, technique, next step or how to
COMPANY Name
symbolize something. It represented a creative roadblock they had hit. Then, silently, the rest of the class went around the
room and wrote down advice they had for their classmate’s burning questions. Once we were finished, the students went
back to their seats and had 4-5 fresh ideas to think about. This quick activity was a great way for the students to practice
asking meaningful questions. They were able to use flexible thinking to see their problem in a new way based on others
feedback. It also was a form of collaboration, as many students commented on how helpful other students ideas were. Too
often, students think of what they could have done to their artwork once the project was over. This activity represented a way
for the student to get valuable feedback in the middle of the creative process and make adjustments as needed. Once the
students read through the comments, they were back at it, creating away. The final results show a great deal of depth and
creative thinking.
COMPANY NAME OFFICES LOCATED AT: 1234 Main Street, Anytown, State 54321
www.apple.com/iwork