Developed By
Suggested Length
Suggested Grade Level(s)
Subject Areas
Shauna McCabe
Four 50 minute lessons
Eight
Social Studies, Visual Arts, Language arts
Overview
Reflecting on the art works in this section, students will understand that difference is always at play within a “community.” Focusing on the intentions of the artists in this section, they will contemplate and create their own flag to represent the diversity that defines Canada.
Links to Curriculum Outcomes
Students will (be expected to)

understand people are constantly interacting with their physical environment to

meet their needs (social studies)

analyse the distribution of power and authority in lives (social studies)

view art as a lens through which they can examine the cultural experiences of people in communities, regions, Canada and world (visual arts)

articulate intentions with respect to artistic expression, providing a narrative that outlines reasons for their aesthetic choices (language arts)
Links to Telling Stories: Themes / Key Words

identity

symbol

community
Art Works

Flag Mural, Jack Shadbolt, 1964mural.3

Those who share together, stay together, Jane Ash Poitras, CAG 97.1

Fathers of Confederation, Bradford Naugler, CAG 97.7.1-10

Objective Students will explore the idea of the nation as an imagined community, as a sense of identity that is invented or created, and is therefore changeable.
Related Art Work(s)

Flag Mural, Jack Shadbolt, 1964mural.3

Those who share together, stay together, Jane Ash Poitras, CAG 97.1

Fathers of Confederation, Bradford Naugler, CAG 97.7.1-10
Materials

copies of an issue of a daily national newspaper to be distributed to groups of four students.

markers
Activities
1. Introduce students to the following idea put forward by writer
Benedict Anderson, writing it on the board or distributing on paper:
"I propose the following definition of the nation: it is an imagined political community...It is imagined because the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their commu nion.”
2. Discuss with students the significance of this statement. Have students consider how this might be different from how the idea of
“nation” is seen generally, as a concrete way of organizing the world.

Does the fact that identity is imagined mean that it is false?

Is a nation a political space, a culture, or a society? Or elements of them all?
3. Ask students to think of what they know about world history and current events. Are they aware of any situations where a sense of nationhood has changed? Examples might be drawn from Europe or historically in Canada.
4. Review with students the work in this section. Ask students to identify the images and symbols of Canada in the artists’ work. Do the artists all use the same symbols?
5. Focusing on Jack Shadbolt and Jane Ash Poitras, have students examine how the artists use a similar format – the mural – to present two very different reflections on the Canadian experience of

Confederation, and the relationship of the various communities and cultures within the country.

How does each artist ask questions about the roots of our political and cultural situation as a nation and how to represent diversity accurately and fairly?

How do they use symbols in asking these questions?

What impact does the time in which these works were made
(1964 versus 1997) have on the subject matter and approach?
6. Organize groups of four students and distribute a newspaper to each group. Have them search the newspaper, finding articles and using markers to identify elements of news stories that illustrate the ways national identity and symbols change, whether in Canadian or international situations.
7. Have each group present their observations to the rest of the class, comparing and contrasting what each group has picked.
Objective Students will research the development of the Canadian flag and flags internationally, and the events that led up to the development.
In the process, they will observe the power invested in symbols and the debate and conflict that often surround them.
Related Art Work(s)

Flag Mural, Jack Shadbolt, 1964mural.3
Materials

Research materials

Computers with internet
Activities
1. In discussion, have students consider the purpose of national flags.
Reminding them of the cont ext for Shadbolt’s mural – the search for a new flag in 1964, have students reflect on the age of the current
Canadian flag.
2. Have students, in pairs, engage in this research / fact-finding session. Using the library and computers, each pair will investigate the history of a national flag, selecting their own country to research. (One pair should research Canada.)

3. Challenge them to find what the flag design was before that which exists currently. What history of the flag can they discover? What are the elements of the current flag, and what does it represent?
4. Have students gather and present their findings in a group setting.
5. Raise the point that images and symbols can be powerful
– they are sources of questions and criticisms, and can motivate or influence people. When the current flag was being designed, it was the subject of much debate in the country about what emblem should represent Canada. What were the reasons for the controversy? Have students consider who in Canada may not feel well-represented by the maple leaf. Why not?
Objective
Focusing on the artist’s statement created by Jack Shadbolt regarding his investigation of nationhood, students will become familiar with the idea that writing and articulating ideas is as much a part of an artist’s practice as making the work. This activity is intended to encourage the appreciation of the process of artistic creation, through a consideration of the relationship between an artist’s intentions and their reasons, and the actual creation of the work.
Related Art Work(s)

Flag Mural, Jack Shadbolt, 1964mural.3
Materials
 copies of Jack Shadbolt’s artist’s statement created in the production of
The Flag Mural.

11 x 17 paper

writing pencils / coloured pencils
Activities
1. With students, address the historical context of Shadbolt’s mural, mentioning that in 1964, the Confederation Centre of the Arts arranged for the commission of a mural painting by Jack Shadbolt to interpret Confederation.
2. Have students review what Shadbolt was responding to. At the time he created the painting, the political situation in Canada was

changing and Shadbolt was questioning what kind of symbol might suit this change. Canada was selecting a design for its flag, in the midst of much debate. In Flag Mural , Shadbolt extends the flag debate and the search for a flag and a symbol that would represent
Canada as a land of diversity and more than a colony of the British
Empire.
3. In his mural, Shadbolt places many different symbols and flag images together. Present students with copies of the artist’s statement that Shadbolt wrote in 1964 to describe the thought that went into the mural (available on this website).
4. Have students consider how he communicates these ideas in the art work. Create a list on the board, breaking down elements of the art work and what it may represent. For example:

the collage-like pattern with overlapping blocks of colour – diversity beyond English / French

abstract geometric shapes and symbols side by side – many options and identities co-existing

a flat space with no sense of depth
– equality

bright, intense colour areas
– drama and tension

bold lines
– colliding of images and identities
5. Pose the following questions:

What period of time has passed since the flag was designed in the 1960s?

Should it be redesigned to reflect the changing nation?

What symbol would you put on a flag to represent Canada and its different regions, cultures, and communities?

Is it possible to design a flag that would represent everyone, everywhere in Canada?
6. On a piece of paper, have students create their own sketch of a flag they feel represents the Canadian situation today. On the opposite side of their sketch, have them break down the elements of their flag in writing, identifying parts of their work and their technique and why they have chosen it (as above).
7. Have students present their work within the class.

Objective Drawing on the sketches they created in Lesson #3, students will create their own flags that reflect Canada as they see it.
Related Art Work(s)

Flag Mural, Jack Shadbolt, 1964mural.3

Those who share together, stay together, Jane Ash Poitras, CAG 97.1

Fathers of Confederation, Bradford Naugler, CAG 97.7.1-10
Materials

Permanent markers in a range of colours

Overhead transparencies
Activities
Introduce the project to students.
1. Returning to the sketches they have created for a flag of Canada, talk about the use of colour, shape, and the balance that might go into the design. Emphasize that the use of graphics, larger shapes, colour planes, and patterns, will work better than detail in flag design. Students might choose to revise their flag designs.
2. Using their sketch as a model for their design, they will create flags that can be placed in the windows of a classroom.
3. Have each student transfer their refined design to transparency, using permanent markers and black lines to create shapes, forms, and colour planes.
4. Install the completed works in a grid format to show the diversity of perspectives, even within one class.
Suggested Resources

Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism . Revised Edition ed. London and New York:
Verso, 1991.