“Romare Bearden Collage Portraits”

Instructional Objectives/Expected Student Outcome:
TSWBAT:
-build upon an appreciation of Art History and relate to the artwork of African American artist Romare Bearden.
-gain experience in the medium of collage.
-make connections to the MLK holiday by analyzing and relating to the theme of civil rights in Bearden’s work.
-make connections to ARRC concepts “Unity & Community.”
-review art principles balance, scale, unity, and harmony.

Materials & Resources: Digital camera and printed photos of each student, construction paper, wall paper samples, plastic bags, scissors, glue sticks, power point presentation, prints and info. on Romare Bearden.

Procedures/ Art Production:
The class will look at examples of artwork by Romare Bearden and create a list of similar characteristics found in each of the artworks. The teacher will share some information on Bearden’s life and art. It will be discussed how much of Bearden’s work represents the African-American life that surrounded him, as well as jazz music. Students will create a collage in the style of Romare Bearden.
Each student will receive a headshot of him/herself. This copy will not be cut. Students will also receive another set of pictures including other students and the art teacher.
The teacher will tell students that they will be using their classmates’ pictures to collage onto their own picture. Not all the facial features have to match. They can use two different eyes, ears, or part of a feature such as a nose or lip. Care should be taken not to cut too close to the features they use because it may not cover the feature on their own picture. Construction paper and wall paper will be used to collage clothing, add accessories or collage parts of the face.
Each student will be given a plastic bag with their name on it to place their cut out pieces into until the next class. Nothing will get glued down until the complete composition has been planned out. When gluing pieces to the picture, it’s a good idea to place the glue onto the pieces and not on the picture to avoid smearing.
Completed collages will be mounted onto a piece of 9x12 construction or wall paper.

Vocabulary:
Collage- artwork in which fragments, such as paper, photographs, cloth, candy wrappers, etc., are combined and pasted to a flat surface.

Evaluation Criteria: General Grading Rubric- Effort/Participation, Craftsmanship/Care Taken, Creativity/Originality, Group Cooperation/Attitude.