ADVOCACY

Wreyni, advocacy poster, grade four. 

Leah Krueger

Think about a time you had to stick up for a friend. Maybe there was a miscommunication, and your friend didn’t know what to say or what to do. You had to step in and be your friend’s voice. That’s what being an advocate is! This was how I started the class conversation about art advocacy. I asked my third- to fifth-grade students if they had ever heard the word “advocate” before and if they knew what it meant. It was an unfamiliar word for them, and we spent some time breaking down the meaning together.

To begin the research for this project, I challenged students to answer the question, “Why is art important?” To answer this question, they had to come up with three different answers. First, they had to answer the question with a personal opinion. Second, they had to find a fact (such as a research study or statistic) that answered the question. Finally, they had to find a quote by a famous artist that made sense as an answer to the importance of art.

I knew how I wanted the lesson to end: with students creating artworks that would teach others about why art is important.

Students had to doodle ideas for symbols that could represent their answer next to each of the answers. For example, a student who wrote “art is important to me because it makes me feel happy when I make art” drew an open treasure box with a palette inside.

Students had to take their research notes and brainstorming doodles and transform them into thumbnail sketches that tied everything together. Students looked at creative fonts and we discussed how to approach “drawing” text instead of using our normal handwriting. Students loved seeing all the different options for creatively creating text.

Harper, advocacy poster, grade four.

At this point, students could decide to work with a partner or work independently. If they were working with a partner, they had to share their brainstorming page and figure out how to combine their ideas into an expressive and cohesive design. I loved how one student passionately expressed how art is important because everything is related to art and design: “Think about your favorite shirt. The people who made your shirt made it with art!”

I required that students experiment with mixing various types of 2D media. They chose from watercolor, marker, graphite pencil, colored pencil, and pastel. By layering different media, students were able to create emphasis in certain areas to draw the viewer’s attention. We looked at examples of graphic design, ads, and illustrations to determine how artists use composition techniques to catch the viewer’s attention.

One student told me this was her favorite project. She said she felt like she was doing something “important” by teaching others. Another student wrote in his artist statement, “Art is important not only to artists, but to educators, schools, and students. Students who go through art classes show 17.55% improvement in their grades.”

Another student’s reflection was especially inspiring: “I want my art to communicate that art isn’t a waste of time. It is important! Did you know that art helps a child’s mind develop? The quote ‘We don’t make mistakes, just happy little accidents’ by Bob Ross inspires me because it helps me understand that I can fix my mistakes and make them into something good. I hope my viewer (after looking at my piece) becomes an art advocate!”

I had never taught a lesson centered on the topic of art advocacy because I didn’t know where to begin. But I knew how I wanted the lesson to end: with students creating artworks that would teach others about why art is important. Breaking down the research into the three components of “opinion, fact, quote” revolving around the question of “Why is art important?” turned out to be the structure needed for students to get enough information together for the formation of a powerful work of art. These guidelines had room for personal connections that allowed students to develop innovative and unique works of art. Most importantly, students were proud of their products and felt that they had the power to teach others why art is important.

Leah Krueger is an art teacher at Old Donation School in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
leahkrueger@gmail.com