Vol. 5 Welcome to the Smithsonian American Art Museum Winter 2008

Classroom Connections

Smithsonian American Art Museum www.americanart.si.edu/education

In This Issue... 

Our Space Art Laboratory Project 

 Back-to-School Night 

 Writing about Folk Art 

 Register for Teacher Programs 

Your Space Teacher Feature: 

 Patsy Richey 

 Featured Artwork 

 Picturing America in Posters 

 Graphic Organizer Update 

 National History Day Update 

Cyberspace A Lesson in Three Languages: 

English, Math, and Art 

 Docent Feature: 

 Erin Lyons Mathias 

Back-to-School Night 

Thanks to all of you who attended the Smithsonian 

Art Museums’ Back-to-School Night on August 

30th! The program included a storyteller, 

workshops on integrating art with social studies and 

language arts, gallery tours, and free resources to 

take home. More than two hundred teachers 

participated, and it was wonderful to see everyone 

and have a chance to share ideas. The event was a 

first for SAAM and the National Portrait Gallery, 

and we plan to put everything we learned into 

making the event next year even better. 

Storyteller Diane Macklin 

Art has always played an integral part in 

my life and education. Art is often able 

to express those thoughts or emotions 

we are unable able to pin down with 

exact words. 

 Over the past summer I participated in 

the Teaching American History Grant 

with Fairfax County Public Schools. The 

grant provides educators with the 

opportunity to stretch intellectually and 

increase their content knowledge in 

order to link all lessons to a continuum 

of American history. It promotes active 

learning and critical thinking within the 

classroom through the application of 

knowledge gained from primary sources 

and artifacts to specific historical events 

and people. As part of the Summer 

Institute, we had the opportunity to visit 

the Smithsonian American Art Museum 

(SAAM) and experience the Civil War 

through photography and other artworks 

around the museum. 

 By seeing the different pieces around 

the museum, the brutality and reality of 

the war came to life. If the art in the 

museum could have this effect on me, I 

wondered what impact it would have on 

my students as we are exploring the 

foundations of American history 

throughout sixth grade. I drafted a 

proposal for SAAM as well as my 

administration at Kent Gardens 

Elementary to establish an Art 

Laboratory in which the students would 

participate in on-site visits as well as 

classroom videoconference and Web 

exploration to develop connections 

between the artwork and social studies 

content. Many of the educational 

programs established by SAAM were 

perfectly aligned with the Virginia 

Standards of Learning, which provided a 

great link for implementation. 

 At this point in the year, we have had 

the first Art Laboratory experience with 

Suzannah Niepold, a SAAM staffer. 

Ms. Niepold provided the sixth grade at 

Kent Gardens with an introduction on 

how to read art. Students received 

instruction on the different components 

and elements of art, so that in future 

analysis and discussion they will have 

the right vocabulary readily available. 

The students were completely engrossed 

throughout the lesson and have 

continued to make connections between 

what they learned that day—and not 

only to social studies but to other parts 

of our curriculum as well. Future 

programs include Young America, Lure 

of the West, A House Divided, and 

America’s Signs and Symbols. 

Art Laboratory Project

 Through the Art Laboratory, students 

have been able to access the curriculum 

through an alternative medium. Often 

times we are bogged down with the text, 

while art provides students with the 

opportunity not only to learn the same 

material but have it come to life in front 

of their eyes. Through different 

interactions with the art, multiple 

intelligences are tapped, providing the 

opportunity for history to come to life! 

Ann Thorne 

Kent Gardens Elementary 

Fairfax County, Virginia 
OUR SPACE

Our art, your classroom Winter 2008 

My first-year writing students at George 

Washington University visited the 

Smithsonian American Art Museum to 

compose a paper about “trash art.” Their 

mission was to use two scholarly articles 

to make an argument about an artwork 

that uses discarded materials to create 

something new. I had assumed that the 

Smithsonian was too high-brow to 

devote gallery space to the kinds of 

works found in Baltimore’s Visionary 

Art Museum, which seemed a better fit 

for our course’s offbeat “trash” theme, 

but fortunately I was wrong. I was also 

gratified that the education coordinators 

were so willing to provide resources and 

to help us navigate the collection. 

 Before our meeting, educator Sally 

Otis combed through the museum and 

put together an illustrated list of artworks. She gave me a tailored tour of 

the galleries and showed me how to use 

the computers at the Luce Center, 

SAAM’s open storage facility, which 

allows you to create and send scrapbooks of images to your email account. 

Sally then compiled a revised list of 

artworks and created a museum map 

with artwork locations marked to guide 

students during their independent visits. 

 Although students had images in 

hand, they were often surprised by the 

scale and impact of the art in real life. 

They were unprepared for the 

magnificence of James Hampton’s 

tinfoil-clad The Throne of the Third 

Heaven, and several students were 

riveted by Bottle Cap Figure with 

Mirror (shown above) by George 

Warmack (a.k.a. Mr. Imagination), 

which unexpectedly reflects the viewer 

in the figure’s torso. Each made a 

different argument about Warmack’s 

piece. One student disputed its 

classification as folk art; another saw it 

as a stern condemnation of American 

wastefulness; a third read it as a witty 

commentary on consumer culture. 

 Such trips are more than a welcome 

change of pace or an introduction to the 

cultural abundance just off campus; they 

also make student writing assignments 

seem more vital and public. As one put 

it, “It kind of brought reality to the 

course.... It actually made connections 

to the outside world.” Students were 

asked to conceive of this paper as part of 

an imaginary exhibition catalog, like an 

essay we read in class (Susan Seriff’s 

“Recycled, Re-Seen: Folk Art from the 

Global Scrapheap”). Roaming the 

museum with the eyes of writers and 

curators, they had to think critically 

about how an exhibition can create a 

context for understanding art—and even 

shape how you see it. Their trip to 

SAAM was a reminder that the whole 

world is their classroom. 

Stephanie Hartman 

University Writing Program 

George Washington University 

Writing about Folk Art 

Washington, D.C. 

Register Now for Teacher Programs! 

Registering for teacher programs at SAAM has just become a lot easier. Sign up using our brand new online registration form.

Special Exhibition Tours for Teachers 

Enjoy a fun tour of a special exhibition and 

leave with an activity to use with your 

students. 

Obata’s Yosemite

Discover the prints of Asian-American artist 

Chiura Obata. 

Date: Saturday, March 1, 2008 

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. 

Color as Field: American Painting 1950–75

Explore Washington, D.C.’s own Color 

Field Movement. 

Date: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 

Time: 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. 

Lure of the West 

Date: Saturday, April 19, 2008 

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

Learn how to use artworks as primary 

sources to teach American history and 

critical thinking!

See how the country’s concept of “Manifest 

Destiny” captured the imagination of 

American artists. Focusing on westward 

expansion, this is the third workshop in a 

series featuring different areas of the 

permanent collection. Landscapes, history 

paintings, and portraiture are featured.

• Resources and refreshments provided. 

• Teacher credit available 

Young America 

Date: Saturday, February 23, 2008 

Time: 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. 

Learn how to use artworks as primary 

sources to teach American history and 

critical thinking!

In this workshop, trace the transformation 

of the colonies into an independent nation 

through art. Young America, the second 

workshop in a series featuring different 

areas of the permanent collection, features 

landscapes, history paintings, and 

portraiture. 

• Resources and refreshments provided. 

• Teacher credit available 

Smithsonian American Art Museum www.americanart.si.edu/education 
Our Art, Your Classroom

Our art, your classroom Fall 2007 

TEACHER FEATURE

YOUR SPACE

Smithsonian American Art Museum www.americanart.si.edu/education 

As a fourth-grade educator who teaches

all subjects, what do you do with your

weak area? I acknowledge two options. 

One option involves living with the 

flaw, and the other option requires 

searching for a way to mend it. I had 

already attempted to tolerate my 

weakness. That option was not working, 

so when my district provided an 

opportunity to increase content 

knowledge of and instructional abilities 

in teaching American history, I seized

the chance to address my weakness. 

 Our first meetings involved several 

presenters from the Smithsonian. I 

attended expecting an abundance of

knowledge. As a child, I would capture 

as many fireflies as I could and place 

them in a jar. At my seat, I felt a similar 

feeling as I snatched their words and 

ideas from the air and tried to make 

them my own. I wanted the spark that 

they were sharing to remain with me. 

 Ms. Suzannah Niepold from the 

Smithsonian American Art Museum

encouraged us to use pieces of art in our 

history lessons. She worked with us 

using a T-chart graphic organizer to help

us and our students analyze what we see 

in artwork. Almost immediately, I made 

a connection to a lesson on fact and 

opinion. The following school day, my

students were exposed to a commercial

yarn piece entitled Reservation Scene by

Louise Nez. 

 The class, in small groups, used the 

T-chart to list first observations and then

interpretations about the piece. They 

then made connections between the two

categories. The real world connection to

painting helped my fourth-grade

students grasp this skill while including

a history mini-lesson as well. 

 The labor and resources provided by

the Smithsonian to make this workshop

happen far exceeded my expectations. I 

came away with access to a variety of 

ideas and supplies that are quite 

beneficial to my classroom.

Patsy Richey 

Santa Fe Unit School 

Santa Fe, Tennessee 

Would you like a Smithsonian team to

come to your school district? Apply for

a Teaching American History Grant and 

contact Candra Flanagan at the 

Smithsonian Center for Education and

Museum Studies to discuss partnering

with the Smithsonian! Candra can be

reached by calling (202)633-5286 or 

emailing CFlanagan@si.edu.

Trying Something New

then realizing that their community was 

shaped by the cultural heritage of the 

families that founded it. 

 SAAM has a large collection of 

documentary photographs from cities 

and states across the nation, including 

California, Kansas, Atlanta, and Buffalo. 

These images can serve as a model for 

your students’ projects. 

 Our collection of the East Baltimore 

Documentary Survey Project includes 

this photo of a civic parade (shown at

right). See a larger image at 

http://americanart.si.edu/images/1983/19

83.63.996_1a.jpg and ask your students 

questions about it. Who is participating?

Where is the parade taking place? Why

Featured Artwork might an event like this be held? What 

is familiar and unfamiliar? 

This new section of the newsletter will 

spotlight an area of SAAM’s collection

and suggest ways teachers can use it.

How much do your students understand

about the place they live? If they have

the opportunity to document their 

neighborhood through photographs and 

oral history interviews, they will 

examine their surroundings carefully 

and make connections between 

classroom content and their own lives. 

Imagine them reading a novel about the

immigrant experience, learning about 

the history of U.S. immigration, and

 More information about this photograph and the Baltimore community can

be found in the book Neighborhood: A 

State of Mind by Linda Rich, 1981. 

 Find more images and places by 

searching for ‘documentary survey 

project’ in the title field of our Search

Collections Web site. 
Web LaunchThank you to everyone who participated 

in our Posters to Go surveys! The five 

themes and images to be featured on the 

new posters are as follows: 

Westward Expansion 

Westward the Course of Empire Takes 

Its Way by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 

1861 

The Civil War 

A Visit from the Old Mistress by 

Winslow Homer, 1876 

Harlem Renaissance 

Jitterbugs (II) by William H. Johnson, 

about 1941 

World War II 

Wartime Marketing by Martha Moffett 

Bache, 1942 

The 1960s 

The Library by Jacob Lawrence, 1960 

(See image on our Web site.) 

The posters should be available in time 

for the 2008–2009 school year. We will 

include an update in the next issue of 

Classroom Connections. 

Graphic Organizer Update 

“Discovery, like surprise, favors the 

well-prepared mind.” –Jerome Bruner 

For your students to get the most out of

their museum experience, it is crucial to

prepare them for what they are going to 

learn. 

 To that end, SAAM provides a PreVisit Graphic Organizer on our Web site

that we recommend for use either as a

stand-alone classroom activity or before 

a field trip or videoconference with

SAAM. It was created by Jacqueline

Brzezowski, a seventh- and eighth-grade 

social studies and language arts teacher 

during her SAAM Educator Internship. 

National History Day 

If pictures are worth a thousand words,

why not enrich your National History 

Day project by including SAAM

artworks?

 Our National History Day Web site

has been updated for the 2008 theme 

“Conflict and Compromise.” Visit the 

site on your own or with your students 

to find artworks connected to your

chosen topic and to learn how art can be

used to communicate. 

 Want to learn more about using a work

of art to make a historical argument?

Need assistance in finding SAAM 

artworks online? Contact us at

SaamEdStaff@si.edu. 

This newsletter is designed to inform teachers of our programs and showcase activities that integrate our materials in classrooms around the 

country. Please share this newsletter with teachers in your faculty lounge. To give feedback on this issue, ask questions about any of the programs 

highlighted, or pose questions about the Education Office itself, email us at SAAMEdStaff@si.edu. 

Our art, your classroom Winter 2008 

Picturing America in Posters 

The National Endowment for the 

Humanities (NEH) is collaborating with

the American Library Association 

(ALA) to present Picturing America. As 

part of the project, twenty laminated

posters and a teacher resource book 

introduce young people to some of

America’s art treasures. The materials 

are designed to promote the teaching, 

study, and understanding of American 

history and culture in K–12 schools and 

public libraries. From SAAM’s 

collection, the painting Elizabeth 

Chanler (Mrs. John Jay Chapman) by

John Singer Sargent, 1893, (shown at 

right) is featured. 

 All schools and public libraries in the 

United States and its territories are 

invited to apply for a set of program

materials. Applications will be accepted 

from all K–12 schools (including public, 

private, parochial, and charter schools 

and home school consortia) and from

public libraries. Multiple schools within

a system or district may apply, but an

application must be submitted for each 

individual school. One application is

permitted from each home school 

consortium. 

 In addition to the posters and the 

teacher resource book, more educational 

resources will be available on the NEH 

Web site. 

 For more program details, check out 

the NEH online at 

http://www.neh.gov/PicturingAmerica/i

ndex.html

Smithsonian American Art Museum www.americanart.si.edu/education 
Docent Feature

Our art, your classroom Winter 2008 

Smithsonian American Art Museum www.americanart.si.edu/education 

The Smithsonian American Art Museum’s videoconference program entitled ‘Artful Connections’ is completely free of charge to any teacher or 

curriculum coordinator. For more information about the program visit us online at

http://americanart.si.edu/education/programs/artful_connections.cfm , or email us at SAAMEdStaff@si.edu. 

CYBERSPACE

In looking for a topic for my third,

fourth, and fifth graders, I began

researching American artist Frank Stella. 

Stella is known for his work with

polygons, French curves, and

protractors. 

 In addition to the artistic study of 

Stella, we also studied geometry and 

language arts. The fourth and fifth 

graders explored using math tools:

French curves, rulers, compasses, and 

protractors. My third graders began their 

art experience with a guided tour across 

a ruler. Learning how to read a ruler 

took us down several learning paths 

involving standard measurements, 

fractions, and coins. They were amazed 

at how much they already knew about 

math.

 Language Arts entered into the 

discussion. We related the words we had 

learned in the math lesson—cent,

centimeter, millimeter, etc.—to related 

words with the same root. The words 

centimeter, millimeter, mile, millennium, and millipede entered our third

grade vocabulary. 

 I had made a Power Point presentation 

on Frank Stella and shared it with the 

Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

SAAM and the Department of Defense

Education Activity (DoDEA) have had a

wonderful partnership for several years.

Docents are essential to every museum. 

They give tours of the galleries, and at

SAAM they also lead videoconferences. 

From time to time, we will profile a

docent who might give your next tour!

Lesson in Three Languages: 

English, Math, and Art 

significant impact on children. After the 

videoconference, a Child Life Specialist 

at the hospital told one of the 

participants, “Wow, you look like new.” 

The boy responded, “Yeah, I learned a 

lot down there.” 

SAAM created and held a videoconference presentation for several of

my classes. The students were amazed 

that the SAAM folks could see them, 

talk to them, and so could they in return. 

I was not able to have all my classes 

participate, but I was able to show them

the same presentation and script as the

teleconference. The students loved the 

interactive portions of the presentation,

which included the elements of art, the 

underlying geometry of Stella’s work, 

and what he used as inspiration. After 

the students completed their 

assignments, we held a follow-up

videoconference. With that, students 

reviewed Stella’s work and shared their 

projects and comments with folks from

the Smithsonian. They enjoyed showing 

off what they had learned. 

Kathleen Glielmi 

Bitz Intermediate School

Camp Lejeune, N.C. 

lized youths through the Giggles 

Children’s Theater. Her contact there 

asked her to be funny and put on a show 

like “Blue’s Clues.” Never having seen

it, she turned on the television to do her 

research. The result was a hilarious and 

interactive conference that involved a 

number of props and invited kids to look

carefully at art to find hidden images. 

When showing George Catlin’s painting

Buffalo Hunt under the Wolf-skin Mask 

she modeled her own version (see 

images at right). The kids also had a 

wonderful time when she introduced

them to a tin armadillo named Sam and

asked them to find him in Alfredo

Arreguin’s painting Sueno (detail 

below). 

 Programs like this one can have a 

Erin Lyons Mathias, a SAAM docent for 

seventeen years, uses her background in

improv and children’s productions to

bring humor and energy to her tours. 

 Drawn to museums through a love of

art, Erin describes her childhood visits to 

the Zanesville Art Institute in Ohio as a 

spiritual experience, almost like going to 

church. To that, she has added classes in 

theater and American studies as well as 

teaching after-school programs. Her 

varied background provides students 

with a rich and engaging look at art and 

its connection to the time and place in 

which it was made. 

 Erin recently completed a series of 

SAAM videoconferences for hospital-