We know we are living through exceptionally challenging times. Children and teens are carrying the enormous stress of this moment—which in many cases also includes loss and trauma. The arts can play an important role in sustaining students and creating community in a remote learning environment.

Each artist has created a series of eight, resilience-building workshop videos for teachers, counselors, and parents to share with students of all ages:

While these workshops were created for youth, we think they have something to offer all of us. Explore the entire video playlist and unlock your creative power!

Educators, join us for a live workshop Social-Emotional Learning and the Arts for Meaningful Student Engagement on October 8 at 5 p.m.

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We know that, during these difficult times, teachers and school districts have made social-emotional learning a priority. We believe the arts can play an important role in helping all of us, students and educators alike, to develop internal resilience and to create community even in a remote learning environment. We’ll explore this subject on October 1 in our first Educator Workshop of the year, and in the coming weeks, in partnership with Create More, Fear Less, the Museum will launch a series of artist videos exploring creative practices for building emotional resilience and perseverance. 

Finally, while we are not currently able to schedule class visits due to COVID-19 restrictions, we do encourage older students and educators to visit the Museum independently and younger students to visit with their families. (You may want to print and bring along our Gallery Bingo Cards for use in the Native American and Impressionist galleries.) Reserve your tickets and learn about the Museum’s safety protocols.

Thank you, teachers and families, for continuing to integrate the Museum into your students’ learning! We are grateful to be part of your community.

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Using this piece from Brian Calvin as inspiration, here are two prompts to help you get the pen going. You can choose one, both or follow your own adventure.

Set a timer for 7 minutes and just keep your pen moving.

In the mirror…/Everything seemed different after…

Writing in community is powerful. We are grateful to our longtime partner Write Around Portland for the writing prompts and inspiration. Look for a new post every Sunday in May and please share your work with us on Instagram! @writearoundpdx @portlandartmuseum #breakforjoy #WriteAroundPAM

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Set a timer for 5 minutes and just keep the pen moving.

Yellow tastes like… / In the springtime sun…

Writing in community is powerful. We are grateful to our longtime partner Write Around Portland for the writing prompts and inspiration. Look for a new post every Sunday in May and share your work by tagging us on Instagram: @writearoundpdx @portlandartmuseum #breakforjoy #WriteAroundPAM #CreateFromHome

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At the start of the closure, Portland Public Schools Visual Arts district leader Carolyn Hazel Drake acted quickly to bring together a team of teachers and create a sequence of themes and lessons for Kindergarten through 12th-grade distance learning. (These lessons are publicly available and provide a rich resource for teachers and families everywhere.) This past week, the teachers reached out to PAM Learning and Community Partnerships staff to collaborate on an assignment inspired by the Getty Museum Challenge. Students would recreate a work of art from PAM’s collections using materials, people, and even pets at home.

The assignment will help students build visual thinking skills because, Rybak explains, “It takes you on a journey. You have to really observe in order to recreate.” Students—and adults—notice new details of a work as they plan how to reconstruct it and the project encourages students to stretch their imaginations as they look for alternatives that mimic the shapes, colors, and textures of the original artwork. “This project is such a good companion for looking around home for art materials—which we’re encouraging,” Drake says, “and it’s such a good project for discovery and imagining.” Jay Longfellow, art teacher at James John Elementary, adds, “It draws you in because it’s fun. Kids love getting to act out on camera. And they have to be creative—Oh, it’s just a bunch of oranges. Oh wait, we don’t have oranges. I need something else round and orange.” 

The teachers wanted the assignment to connect specifically with the Portland Art Museum as the students’ local museum and they asked PAM staff to offer suggestions and feedback on a slideshow of recommended works. They knew they wanted to represent a wide range of cultures. “It is powerful for students to see people that look like them represented in museum artwork,” Vestal Elementary teacher Amy Steel observes. At the same time, they wanted to be respectful of the artists’ intentions and the cultural meanings of the original artworks. Native American Art Curator Kathleen Ash-Milby and Associate Curator of Japanese Art Jeannie Kenmotsu both offered valuable guidance, advising the teachers to avoid ceremonial objects by Indigenous artists, to contact living Native artists for permission to use their work, and to steer clear of works that might encourage ethnic masquerade.

The result is a wonderfully diverse collection of images that encourages students to play, to reflect, to have fun, and to find themselves in the artwork. We think you’ll enjoy doing this project, too:

Find a work of art that inspires you—PAM’s Online Collections are a great place to start. Spend a few minutes looking closely. What shapes do you see? What do you notice and wonder? What story is the artist telling?

Now, recreate the artwork with materials you have at home. Assemble your backdrop, objects, people or pets to recreate your scene. Take a photo.

(Adapted from the PPS lesson An Art Imposter in the Museum.)

If you choose to share it online, be sure to tag us @portlandartmuseum #PAMartchallenge #Museumchallenge. 

And take a moment to give a big thank you to the educators in your life.

Image Credit: Vincent van Gogh, Charrette de boeuf (The Ox Cart), July 1884, oil on canvas, Gift of Fred and Frances Sohn, public domain, 2007.68. Recreated by Jay Longfellow, art teacher at James John Elementary School, with paper towels, paper bag, tape, marker, towels, shoes, pillow, & Gus.

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@portlandartmuseum 
@createmorefearless

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