The impact of art on our world is palpable, although we do not always take the time to reflect on it. However, for the IB (International Baccalaureate) art and English students, they chose to spend a day dissecting and interpreting the deeper meaning within some visual art.
On Sept. 8, juniors in IB English as well as juniors and seniors in IB art took a trip to the Akron Art Museum to check out their exhibit for 1980s pop artist Keith Haring. In this exhibit, students learned about how Haring used street and pop art to convey important messages to the general public.
Jill Balderson, the IB art teacher, brought her students on this trip to help them learn about how Haring used his art as a form of advocacy.
“It’s important for students to understand how art is a communication tool and can empower that individual who uses their work as a platform for advocacy, change and the betterment of our world,” Balderson said.
The students on the trip were given a personal tour by a museum guide which included hands-on activities relating to the work of Haring. At the end, students were given time to explore the museum and its permanent exhibits.
Jennifer Caldwell, the IB English teacher, used this field trip to help students analyze non-literary texts as this skill is apart of the IB English curriculum. Prior to the trip, she exposed students to the work of multiple graphic artists to set up their thinking for the works of Haring.
“It is important for students to learn about Haring in order to see how artists can use their work in order to bring social and political awareness to different causes that represent a specific time and place like Haring does for the 1980s,” Caldwell said.
This exhibit focused not only on Haring’s work itself but also the large impact it had on society and current political issues. Haring was known to be a prominent advocate for social issues during this period, most known being the AIDs crisis.
“Haring and his work truly gave me a deeper appreciation for art and what it can convey,” junior Alex Waltz said. “I learned a lot about how art can raise awareness around taboo subjects that would otherwise not be spoken about.”
In addition to the exhibit, students were given the opportunity to make some hands-on crafts. This included a 30 second sketch challenge where students were told to take one of Haring’s favorite figures throughout his art and to manipulate in a different way.
Most notably, the museum brought out a special ink entitled sumi ink. This ink is the same kind Haring used to create his large brushstrokes in his art.
“It was so cool to be able to make our own little postcard with the same ink Haring used to work with,” junior Shishir Tallada said.
IB art and IB English have many parallels within their curriculum including the analysis of art, a skill they were able to use first hand on this field trip. Students studied symbolism and composition as well as how to evaluate these components and many more within an art piece.
