PUT! ART! IN! YOUR! HOUSE! Part I

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I think this is the year that many parents may be focused on the "three Rs," because it feels like any more than that is exhausting. And that, my friends, is fair.

But!

I don't use exclamation points without cause. 

In this year, 2020, the misery, the shame of America, the horror of remote learning, maybe it's exactly the time to re-up your arts education. God knows, with winter approaching of 2020, it feels like there's precious little beauty to be had otherwise.

And because this is me, I'm not suggesting attending an art or music class (though that might be a good idea if your kid is into it).

I started my campaign of art and music quite late. When we started our history lessons, it felt like enough to just get through a little extra history a week. I was not trying to make more work. And then a few years ago, we spent our "January term" (winter break, when we choose a topic to dig into a little more deeply) on music history. It was sort of a catch-up, because I felt bad that we'd sort of let it go. 

But I was not thrilled with the results. It seemed like cramming a bunch of information into a few weeks was not the best way to achieve familiarity. (Duh!) I don't think my kids retained any of it. Education fail.

But, sometime after that, we started going to the art museum to give a little extra to our history lessons, and that was much more successful. I thought, maybe we just go to the art museum every weekend. But with scheduling being what it is, that was also trickier to achieve than I'd like.

At the same time, my kid's music teacher was teaching The Magic Flute, by Mozart, in music class. For the entire term. And he'd be humming melodies from it, incidentally, on the regular. 

And that's when I had my a-ha moment. What kids learn is what's part of his or her life. 

I had read Suzuki's Nurtured by Love years before, and while it was inspiring, I don't know that I really let the lesson seep into as many areas as I could. His thesis: Kids who live in Japanese-speaking homes learn Japanese. Kids who live in music-playing homes play music.

With that in mind, I started thinking about music and art appreciation. 

I picked up a couple of coffee-table art books from my library bookstore, along with a photo display frame. I destroyed the books. And then I created a display of art work tied to the current history lesson, which now hangs in my dining room. 

Now I re-up the display every few weeks. I introduce 3-4 ideas to remember (famous artists, aesthetic principals, etc.), which I present over dinner the day the display goes up. After it's been up a while, I ask my kids their opinion of the work. (Before the pandemic, we'd visit the art museum.) And before I take it down, I ask my kids a few questions about the ideas I'd wanted them to remember.

You'll note the picture above highlights some of the difficulties I've run into. I created this display for our study of African colonization in the 19th century. Finding art books in English on Western art, organized by region and time, is not difficult at all. Finding the same for, e.g., Africa and South America, is quite tricky. Here, I chose one region to highlight and to discuss the artistic impact of colonization. I might have instead chosen to include art from all over the continent.

This is even a problem when creating a display for, e.g., the Songhai empire. Even with the subject limited by region, finding dated art work is nearly impossible. In the end, I included art from the region, but did not worry about finding work made during the era. 

In the end, I decided to avoid the perfect being the enemy of the good. And frankly, this is a problem beyond arts education. Finding histories of Africa and South America that talk about those places in time with specificity instead of treating them in a more anthropological way, especially in a teaching context? Worth trying, but often difficult. Instead I rely on periodic trips to the museum for more accurate exploration.

But don't be deterred! As with the entire process of afterschooling, the best thing to do is to simply start. If "African art during the colonial period" is daunting, just choose what you think you might want your children to be familiar with. I went into it with the idea of tying the art to the history, so that's what guided me. But one could as easily choose a continent each year. Or one might choose to focus on non-Western art if Western art is being covered in school. Or if you find a really kick-ass coffee table book, you could literally just cut is up and use it to guide your displays. 

A few picture guidelines I have for myself:

• They must be large enough to see easily from where the kids sit. Most pictures will be 8X10, and none smaller than 5X7.
• They must be placed in an area of the house where I know the kids will see them every day; the dining room ended up being the choice for us because we sit to eat every day and there are no distractions.
• They must be printed well; this is why I lean on art books rather than print-outs from the internet (though I use the internet print-outs occasionally).
• I try to include an information card, which highlights 4 or so facts.
• I choose art work that is representative of the period and place, or extreme examples that highlight the art "facts."
• I choose art I like or art I think my kids will like.

Recently I've added a step to their art history education. With so little formal teaching, I wanted to ensure they were carefully looking at these works. They might not remember what "chiaroscuro" is, but I want them to remember the dramatic contrasts of Caravaggio. 

When will a kid look closely at an unmoving picture?

Getting an actual puzzle of artwork is great. We have the sistine chapel at our house. But that can get expensive and stretch your storage limits, so I've started creating online jigsaw puzzles using jigsawexplorer. The site has some famous art and architecture, but by and large, I've used their "custom" feature, which allows you to make puzzles of any URL, and to determine how many pieces (how difficult) to make the puzzle. 

I don't make it complicated. My goal is to have them closely examining art for 5-10 minutes. They might do one every 1-2 weeks. The idea is to augment their passing visual of the art on the wall with a little focused attention. 

Finally, art museums are marvelous. If you have one nearby, it really is worth frequent visits. We're very lucky to live in a college town with a rich art museum. It means we can (usually) drop by for a 20-30 minute visit, which is about as much as most kids are going to have in them, and the collections rotate enough to touch on nearly every subject we might want. 

TLDR? Here's what I did:

1. I chose an organizational principal for hanging art in my house. (We are studying history anyway, so I tied it to our history study. But I could have just worked my way through the continents. Or focused on non-Western art. Or whatever!)
2. I bought an art display and large, well-printed art coffee table books. (One set of five for Western art, an "art of Islam" book that includes N. Africa, India, and the Middle East, a two-book set of Asian art, a book on African art, a book on South American art, a book on modern art (as well as a "book of -isms" to help me wade through modern art movements) and a book of major architectural works.
3. I de-spined the books.
4. I hung the art display in my dining room, where I know my kids spend at least 20-30 minutes a day without distractions.
5. To make a display, I 
1. hang 5-10 large, well-printed pictures that illustrate facts about art from each region/period;
2. make an info card with 3-5 facts that I want my kids to remember;
6. To use the display, I
1. give a short lecture (10 minutes max) on the day I hang the display;
2. wait a week or so and then ask my kids their opinion of the art;
3. create a puzzle from one or more of the pictures on jigsawexplorer and have them do the puzzle (in no more than 10 minutes); and
4. ask them questions about the art facts prior to changing the display to a new region or period.
7. The displays remain for 1-3 weeks before switching to a new subject.
8. We try to visit the art museum about once a month.

This is a project with some upfront cost; most of my books were cheap, but it could creep toward $50-100 if you're doing a thorough art history survey. One way to limit this outlay is to focus on one continent at a time so that costs could be spread over time. 

This project also has some upfront time costs. I spend a fair amount of time due to my interest in accuracy and specificity. But one could just pick a book to despine, organize it, and spend an hour or two organizing the pictures into sets. After that, the time cost is minimal. 

I'm pretty excited about my art history project. I've learned a lot, and I love how much my kids are learning without all that much work. I love that they feel a sense of ease with art. 

Tomorrow, MUSIC!