Justice Encounter: To Act OR Not To Act

Hannah Senesh 806 by Linda Stein (2014) 5 ft. sq. leather, metal, canvas, paint, fabric & mixed media
Hannah Senesh 806 by Linda Stein (2014)
5 ft. sq. leather, metal, canvas, paint, fabric & mixed media

GOALS and OBJECTIVES

  • explore issues of social justice and social justice activism as upstander
  • understand why and how people take action to address injustice
  • develop empathy for people whose experiences differ from our own
  • inspire participants (through art) to be upstanders for social justice
  • recognize how one’s life history shapes personal perspectives on upstander behavior and social justice

The Holocaust, slavery, lynchings, and other human rights abuses are not, as we would like to believe, accidents in history. They happened because individuals, groups, and nations made decisions and choices to act or not to act.

REFLECT upon the following questions.

  • How have I been complicit in perpetuating racism, sexism and stereotypes or creating a climate of animosity, xenophobia, or homophobia—(i.e., through jokes, comments, and casual remarks, etc.)?
  • How have I exhibited upstander behavior in either mundane or monumental ways?

MAKE a parallel list of upstander behaviors vs bystander behaviors.

VISUALIZE Social Justice

Envision how we might change our institutions and our psyches…to take seriously the nurturance of consciousness, conscience, compassion, and community.

RESOURCES

  • Curricular Encounters with Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females—Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein @ http://h2f2encounters.cyberhouse.emitto.net/
  • Knight, W. B. (2010). Never again a (K)night with Ben. In A. Arnold, A. Kuo, E. Delacruz & M. Parsons (Eds.), G.L.O.B.A.L.I.Z.A.T.I.O.N, Art, and Education (pp. 126-134). Reston, VA: The National Art Education Association.
  • Stein, L. (Ed.). (2016). Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females—Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein. Philadelphia, PA: Old City Publishing.
Download Justice Encounter lesson plan

From Nativist Hysteria to Upstanders

Ruth-Gruber
Ruth Gruber 805. Tapestry by Linda Stein. Leather, archival pigment on canvas, fabric, metal, zippers; 57 x 57¼ x 2 inches; 2015.

VIEW FILMS:

DISCUSS:

    • Kindertransport as upstander acts
    • Photographs, films, and art as upstander acts: “words and images to fight injustice” Ruth Gruber
    • Restitution as upstander acts

RESOURCES:

    • Knight, W. B. (2010). Never again a (K)night with Ben. In A. Arnold, A. Kuo, E. Delacruz & M. Parsons (Eds.), G.L.O.B.A.L.I.Z.A.T.I.O.N, Art, and Education (pp. 126-134). Reston, VA: The National Art Education Association.
    • Miller, D. (2003). Principles of social justice. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
    • Pérez de Miles, A., & Peck, S. (2017). Exhibition as curriculum: Creativity as a human right. Art Education, 70(4), 60-64.
    • Stein, L. (Ed.). (2016). Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females—Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein. Philadelphia, PA: Old City Publishing.
    • Stein, L. (Ed.). (2016). Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females—Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein. Philadelphia, PA: Old City Publishing.
Download From Nativist Hysteria to Upstanders

Identity

ENCOUNTERS WITH THE FLUIDITY OF GENDER: SCULPTURE BY LINDA STEIN

To begin, sit in a circle and ask the participants to write three words that define themselves or how they would like to be known. Follow this prompt with distributing Black Lives Matter ribbons or post-its that they might wear, and ask what matters to them that others should consider for the good of all. What should matter to the society at large?

Next, the facilitator invites participants in the circle to introduce themselves by stating their name, which can be a name that they wish to use for this session, and to let all in the group know their preferred pronoun. I share a story in which one of my sons said to his younger brother that everyone knows the name our parents gave us reflect our parents’ values. In this session, they can name themselves based on their values. Regarding pronouns, provide examples and clarify some terms that will be helpful in discussing the art in the exhibition. [Linked here is an article on the NYC Commission on Human Rights protecting an individual’s right to a preferred name and pronoun.]

Ask that they use a gender identity concept or experience to write a Find Card. Three resources for terminology are linked here: 1 & 2 & 3 global. A Find Card begins with a directive or prompt to find something in an exhibition. The find prompt is followed by a question. Participants visiting the exhibition create the Find Cards rather than the educator.

As facilitator, introduce the process and provide a handout with the process outlined and with examples of Find Cards (see pdf below for example). The facilitator can either join a team and participate, or circulate to hear some of the conversation among each team.

Importantly, during the second half of the Fluidity of Gender workshop, the facilitator leads the full group discussion by asking each team to take the full group to the work they selected, listen closely, affirm the value of their perspectives, contribute information about the art and artist, and raise questions to the full group from what the team brought to attention. Then ask the authors of the Find Card to discuss what work they had in mind in writing their Find Card and why they posed the question that they did.

Resources

Gender Bias Bingo Learning Project

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie “we need to deconstruct the way we have constructed masculinity” (April 5, 2017).

Keifer-Boyd, K. (2010). Visual culture and gender constructions. The International Journal of Arts Education, 8(1), 1-44 (In English 1-24, & Chinese 25-44] ISSN 1728-175X. Posted online with permission of the IJAE editors.

Kimmel, M. (2015). Why gender equality is good for everyone — men included. [TedTalk, 15:58 min.]

Killerman, S. (2014). Breaking through the Binary: Gender explained using continuums.

Regender.com

SafeZone Project [Activities focused on Intersectionality such as Identity Signs.] Privilege for Sale(+) (Gender ID Focused Ed).

Trans*Form Education is a website created by Kevin Jenkins (2017) that includes reading Lists, resources, videos, and information about Trans Topics & Trans*Affirming Environments.

Trans Ally Resources by Adetty Pérez de Miles and Kevin Jenkins (2017)

How You Can Help to Protect Trans Kids Right Now by Katie Dupere (Feb. 23, 2017)

Schools in Transition: A Guide for Supporting Transgender Students in K-12 Schools (2015)

Teaching Beyond the Gender Binary in the University Classroom by Brielle Harbin (2016)

Trans 101: Gender Diversity Crash Course by Ygender (2017)

Encounters with The Fluidity of Gender: Sculpture by Linda Stein

Find Card activity

fluidityofgender

2016 Summer Institute Directions

LINDA STEIN LOFT
100 READE STREET
TRIBECA, MANHATTAN

212. 964. 6007
Cell: 917. 902. 8500

Bet. West Broadway & Church St.
(Reade is one block north of Chambers St.)

THE STEIN BELL IS TO THE RIGHT OF THE RAMP
(NOT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BUILDING)

Subways: 1, 2, 3 to Chambers St
A, C to Chambers St
or 4, 5, 6 to Brooklyn Bridge
R to City Hall

Garage on Reade Street, just west of West Broadway

PARKING

Parking available on Reade Street and side streets starting at 6 PM.

View on Google Map

 

2016 Summer Institute Registration

Don’t miss the Summer Art Institute in New York City, July 11-14, 2016!

Make art at Linda Stein’s Tribeca studio in New York City.
Visit galleries and participate in teacher workshops on social justice art curricula.

Space is limited!! REGISTER ONLINE NOW: $485 per person

Scholarships available, call 212-964-6007

Options to register for 3 graduate credits from Penn State’s World Campus,
or receive 2 Professional Development Continuing Education Units.

Free tuition if enrolled in 3 graduate credits from Penn State’s World Campus. Check with your university graduate school policy and program or advisor to approve transfer credits.

Questions about the graduate course AED 813: Contemporary Art & Public Pedagogy taught by Dr. Karen Keifer-Boyd. Contact: kk-b@psu.edu

STEP 1. Please select one that best describes your registration from the following:

STEP 2. Provide Your Personal Information

This will also be your username on H2F2 Encounters website.
 
 

STEP 3. Register

 

July 11-14, 2016 Summer Institute

h2f2-SI-h-0306

Current and future art educators, and others interested in using art to teach social justice—joined artists, scholars, and practitioners with expertise in social justice art education, along with well-known guests such as Michael Kimmel—for interactive workshops and special evening events that focus on curricular encounters with Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females–Tapestries and Sculpture by Linda Stein.

When:  July 11 – 14, 2016

Where:  Linda Stein’s studio-gallery in Tribeca at 100 Reade Street, New York, NY 10013

 

Encounters:  Curricular encounters with Stein’s art begin with Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females (H2F2) as a catalyst to connect to personal experiences, reflections, and perspectives. Underlying all encounters is teaching towards understanding the value of diversity (e.g., culture, ethnicity, religion, race, gender, sexuality, and ability) and understanding that everyone is responsible for the well-being of others.

Encounters with H2F2 can be both a source for examining cultural-historical roots of social and environmental degradation, and a catalyst for upstander actions in rethinking community. Several encounters investigate the role of visual culture as a means of communicating and perpetuating cultural values, including the ways in which visual culture affects perceptions of self and the world. Other encounters explore issues of power and privilege and its various forms in visual culture. The encounters are processes to analyze media, advertisements, photographs, alternative media, objects, spaces, places, signs and codes as sources of power, as well as to “decode” and “encode” the symbols that dominate society.

Have Art: Will Travel!a non-profit corporation, will offer a $1000 annual award to an educator who develops and implements outstanding curricular encounters with H2F2.

The Holocaust Heroes: Fierce Females (H2F2) Summer Institute was held at Linda Stein’s studio-gallery in Tribeca, New York, from July 11-14, 2016, for educators to learn how to bring encounters with H2F2 into their teaching sites. Options included professional development credits (CEUs) and Penn State World Campus graduate course credit.