Social Engagement as Art

For my art experience, I did a little experiment with my roommates. Oftentimes, I have ended up doing cleaning checks for my apartment all on my own. So I decided that for this social art experience, cleaning could be art. So I talked to each of my roommates this past Friday night and told them that we would all meet at 10:00 the next morning to clean before our cleaning checks. We also talked about finishing various projects around the apartment such as spraypainting a stool, hanging up a huge mirror, and finishing sewing curtains. On Saturday morning, only one of my roommates woke up with me to start cleaning.

This is me cleaning my bathroom:

This is my roommate vacuuming the hall as soon as we woke up because she wanted the rest of my roommates to wake up and help us!!!
















My other roommate finally got up at like 10:45 to help us clean.





















Questions: What are some ways I could use social art as an experience to unify my future classroom? Could I do an art project at the beginning of the school year to help my class get to know each other better and feel more at home?

Connections to other disciplines: I think you could connect socially engaged artwork to many different subjects. For example, one person in our class asked a lot of people what a certain word meant to them. I could use this in the classroom, in history for example, by asking children after learning about the Civil War, what that war means to them. I could put the words "Civil War" in the middle of the poster and have them all write around it how it has impacted their lives, what they think of it, etc.

Ideas for your own future curriculum: I could easily incorporate this idea into my future classroom, with classroom cleanup!:) I think it is important to keep a clean classroom, and it would be a good idea to make sure every child is involved. I think at the beginning of the school year I can use positive reinforcment, such as prizes and treats for people that are extra helpful, and hopefully the whole class will pick up on it and start helping.

Others' examples: One example of this in my class was a quote wall of funny things someone and her roommates said. I think this is a really good idea to incorporate into a classroom, because children would really love to see funny things they said on the wall:).

Resources:

"Ten Lessons the Arts Teach" by Elliot Eisner