Karen Keifer-Boyd

Upstander Encounters with H2F2

Empathy is crucial for upstander behavior to occur as well as intensity of conviction for justice. Art can evoke empathy by invoking the past. Through the specifics and particulars of human life, people are moved to take upstander action.

Fostering brave upstanders of justice through art encounters aligns with the Social Justice Research Agenda set forth by the National Art Education Association (NAEA) Research Commission to “prepare art educators to respect and teach content based on social justice [and] promote understanding of diversity with regard to sexual orientation, cultural identity, religious beliefs, and other areas where prejudice and marginalization may exist.”

Specifically, the encounters with H2F2 are designed as catalysts for awareness of and intended behavior to be an upstander. An upstander joins with others, or stands alone, to protect others from violent circumstances in everyday experiences, such as bullying and systemic inequalities and oppressions, or actively engages in promoting the well-being of all.

Begin the upstander encounters by looking at Stein’s art in the H2F2 series

Click here to see the art in the H2F2 series:

https://www.lindastein.com/series/holocaust-heroes/heroic-tapestries/

Some groups suffer disadvantages as a consequence of their gender, race, class, language, age, sexuality, religion, nationality, or ability. Stein’s tapestries concern heroes who challenge and change violent and oppressive conditions and circumstances to realize a just and compassionate world. The heroes honored in each of the 10 tapestries saved lives and risked their own lives to do so. An art teacher in our 2016 pilot of the H2F2 encounters stated: “These tapestries and sculptures challenged the way I typically think.”

The purpose of several of the curricular encounters with Stein’s tapestries is to learn about acts of agency and resistance by women who stood up for change during the WWII Holocaust. Each person honored by Linda’s Stein’s tapestries is a hero and, by extension, is a leader and a role model. Leadership can be everyday actions or passionate activism that advances social justice.

In response to Stein’s art along with the teaching strategies of the H2F2 encounters, an art educator noted in exploring the H2F2 encounters that the collage process is “relevant to middle school students. Collages can be beautiful, evoke empathy, and initiate memory. Thanks for introducing to photovisi.com for creating photo collages, which has an overlapping fade feature that could be used to convey juxtapositions of past and present suggesting trajectories for the future” (personal communication, July 2016).

Upstander Encounters with H2F2: 

Lesson Plan & Syllabi: 

Further Resources: