Students will explore African American and Haitian history through the lens of visual art and literature. They will develop a deeper understanding of how artists like Vincent Smith, Philomé Obin, and Jean Wilner, and writers like James Baldwin and Amiri Baraka, used their work to respond to injustice, express identity, and document resistance. 

Students will connect these historical experiences to present-day issues in Detroit and beyond, and will use their own voices to reflect, write, and create. Through this process, students will come to see art and writing as powerful tools for personal expression, emotional release, and social change.

This lesson is in support of Reimagine African American Art galleries.
 

Through classroom and museum experiences, students will learn how artists use abstraction to explore a variety of topics, such as color, shape, materials, emotions, identity, resilience, and cultural pride. Through guided observation, they will sketch patterns, note meaningful symbols, and respond to reflection prompts in their sketchbooks.

While viewing Reimagine African American Art, they will take photos of textures, color palettes, and details that resonate with them. This experience will help students build a personal visual vocabulary to inform their own symbolic and expressive artwork. 

TAt the conclusion of the three lessons, students will create a mixed-media silhouette filled with layers of material and shapes. This silhouette will express a positive personal story highlighting resilience and courage.

This lesson is in support of Reimagine African American Art galleries.
 

Through classroom and museum experiences, students will gain a better understanding of African American art history and broader history, making connections to Detroit today. 

As students celebrate and appreciate the lives, accomplishments, and resilience of African Americans and African American artists, they will recognize that art and writing are tools for self-expression, change, emotional processing, and release.

This lesson is in support of Reimagine African American Art galleries.

In these three lessons, students will explore the Reimagine African American Art galleries at the Detroit Institute of Arts and create their own zines as a reflective artistic response to their thoughts and findings. 

Through classroom discussion, guided inquiry, and hands-on creation, students will examine how community care functions as cultural preservation, how art and abolition are intertwined, and how artists of color have historically taken risks to share their truths. They will also investigate how storytelling through art can both challenge and preserve history. 

By designing and crafting zines, students will express their reflections, amplify under¬represented narratives, and engage with art as a form of resistance and remembrance. At the conclusion of this lesson series, teachers can choose to incorporate a living zine library in their classrooms where students and teachers work together to build and preserve a collection of reflective zines.

This lesson is in support of the Reimagine African American Art galleries.
 

Through classroom and museum experiences, students learn about the life and times of the famous African American landscape painter, Robert S. Duncanson. 

As part of an emerging group of skilled, free Black artists in the 1800s, Duncanson’s life tells the story of a self-taught painter who, with the support of several abolitionist patrons, gained much-deserved attention and fame for his beautifully skilled and serene works.

This lesson is in support of the Reimagine African American Art galleries.

In this lesson, students are introduced to the story of the Buddha and his teachings. Using objects in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts, students learn about the diverse Buddhist traditions that developed throughout Asia up to 1500 CE, and the roles works of art play in Buddhist history, culture, and practices. 

Through a variety of experiences, students reflect on the role of art in capturing parts of themselves, their communities, and society as a whole. Using an examination of 50 years of photographs by Russ Marshall as inspiration, students create their own Photovoice Project with the intention of capturing a slice of their lives in this moment in time

Through a variety of experiences, students will be able to develop an understanding of Transportation Design and the Design Thinking Process. Students will utilize STEAM concepts to produce a car prototype, work collaboratively, and adapt their thinking based on mathematical data. In creating a marketable product for a target audience, students must consider form and function as well as trends in design and their historical influences.

In this STEAM lesson, students are immersed in a world of Transportation Design as they use the Design Thinking Process to create their own vehicle prototype out of everyday materials. Students will plan, create, analyze data, and adapt their designs to produce a balance of form and function in their vehicle. Through trial and error, students will begin to understand how an Engineer thinks through problem-solving and reflection.

What is the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) and how do conservation professionals use it?  How can these imaging techniques show us more about artful objects? In this lesson, students learn about the EMS and apply their skills using special exhibition Bruegel's “The Wedding Dance” Revealed.