Rebecca, Brittany and Taryn used the special exhibition New Eyes on America: The Genius of Richard Caton Woodville to demonstrate touring techniques specifically useful for different age groups.
Our first stop was Mexican News, and our target group here was Grades K - 2. This is an engraving of the work; we looked at the actual painting.
(Woodville used newspapers in many of his works, and the staff has developed a teaching tool called "Read All about It" for use with students of various ages. http://thewalters.org/teachers/pdf/lesson-plans/common-core-woodville.pdf)
Suggested technique for the youngest students: find a picture book that tells a story you are interested in talking about, and use that as a springboard for your discussion. Here, Brittany used a book about a bunny who decides to publish a newspaper, and discussed various items Bunny had to worry about: Headlines, Pictures, Stories, all the while discussing what's happening in the picture, how the people are reacting to the news, etc. It was a great technique. I'm so impressed they found a picture book on that subject. For older students, you could use many of the same ideas, without the picture book.
For children in grades 3 to 5, Rebecca modeled a compare and contrast technique using these two works:
She suggested comparing and contrasting environment, setting, clothing, gestures, etc., to determine what's happening in the picture and what is different about what's happening between the two. She also suggest dividing the students into two groups, each to do a tableau of one work, as an aid to comparing and contrasting. Finally, she suggested that students in this age group might be asked to deliver a line that each character might say. (Online resources suggest giving olders students a photocopy of the work and asking them to write a speech "balloon" for each character.)
Next we stopped at Waiting for the Stage to use the "I see, I think, I wonder" technique. We wondered why the man reading the newspaper looked like Elton John. This is a great technique for children ages 9 to 12, who are beginning to be capable of abstract thinking and to define relationships. Another technique for this age group might be progressive storytelling. Students could create a conversation between two portraits, or two people in a painting.
One of my favorite techniques, useful for students in grades 6 to 8, involved a variation on progressive storytelling. We stopped at Sailor's Wedding and received a sheet of paper. "Look carefully at the painting, maybe create a telescope with your papers and notice some details."
On a sheet of paper, we drew a square. At the top, each person wrote a question about what's happening in the painting: for example, "What's in the trunk?" The paper is then passed to a second person, who answers the question. A second pass to a third person asks what colors predominate in the picture, and a fourth person then adds words for the emotions expressed. Finally, the last person is asked to put a short poem or a couple of sentences inside the frame, using the words others have filled in around the frame. This was a fascinating way to get older children to look at the painting, and also to see it through another's eyes.
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For the afternoon, we worked on the important skill of transitions. The transition is a tool to keep your group focused on the tour's objectives. John stressed that a transition should be planned in advance and used every time you move to a new object. It is NOT a transition to say, "Now let's move to another work of art." Instead, look for building blocks of art (line, color, shape, medium, light, texture) to compare or contrast, or a thematic link to illustrate.
John demonstrated by comparing and contrasting Ganesa and Krishna in the gallery in the Link to Hackerman House. Both are sculptures. "Sculpture is a major form of artistic expression all over the world and can be made in many forms and from different materials. Let's look at two sculptures from Asia and see how different they can be." For Ganesa: How did the sculptor show movement? What would his music sound like? "Now let's look at another Indian sculpture of the god, Krishna, and we'll compare movement and music. Remember what Ganesa is doing!" Then describe Krishna: How is he different, how is he the same. Etc.
We broke into small groups to practice with assigned objects. It's a lot harder to do proper transitions than it seems. Some successful transitions: between two carvings in stone, how do they each show softness in skin and fabric? From a large object found in a temple, let's move to a sculpture that people would have kept in their homes or carried around with them. For two objects in the same material, contrast carving from one piece with using many small pieces together, as in let's see how an artist carved this differently when he was not constrained by the form of the larger piece. From a picture of a samurai warrior carved on an ivory vase to the suit of armor on display, let's see what the suit of armor actually looked like and we can see how well the sculptor captured it. From the bronze jet pump dragon fountain to a Japanese porcelain dragon, focus on the "wishing well" idea for the fountain and the "wish-granting gem" held by the dragon.
Transitioning is going to take some practice.
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