Riley, grade five.

Leigh Drake

One of my goals each year is to incorporate as many artists, art movements, and famous artworks into the curriculum as possible to expose my students to the world of art through both historical and contemporary lenses. If I show a historical artist or artwork, I often pair it with a contemporary artist or artwork so that students can reflect on the time period difference.

To help students gain a deeper insight into art history, I came up with an idea to create famous artwork mash-ups.

Recognizing World-Famous Artists
I began with an activity in which I showed several pieces of work and asked if students knew who the artists were. I started with recognizable pieces such as Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night and Monet’s Water Lilies series, then I moved on to less well-known pieces and asked if students had seen them before or did they want to take a guess as to who created them. I included both historical and contemporary pieces. We are fortunate to have the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art in our backyard, so students recognized many of the contemporary pieces from a previous field expedition to the museum.

The classroom was filled with laughter and excitement as students viewed each otherʼs humorous mash-up masterpieces.

Choosing and Researching
After the activity, I explained to students that they would each choose two works of art: one historical and one contemporary. I prepared two hats for students to draw from, one with slips of paper featuring historical art and the other with contemporary art, for those who struggled to find pieces to work with.

I asked students to conduct some research on their chosen pieces and use their sketchbooks to record interesting facts about them. I also asked them to reflect on why they chose these works.

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