Grades: K–1 Subject: Social Studies, Visual Art, Speaking & Listening Length: 40–50 minutes total
Students will discuss the late 1930s painting Quenching Their Thirst by Eliseo Rodriguez and make their own watercolor paintings to explore and express the need for water.
Students will discuss the late 1930s painting Nambe Valley, Summer by Sheldon Parsons and explore how residential buildings are designed and constructed in relation to the environment. They will then design and present their own structures in response to natural or local “challenges.”
Grades: 4–5 Subject: Visual Art, Art History, Speaking & Listening, Language, Research Length: 45-minute lesson + two 45-minute optional extensions
Students will explore concepts of realism and abstraction in western art and art history through the careful study of 1930s landscape paintings by New Mexican artists.
Grades: 6–8 Subject: Visual Art Length: Three to five 40-minute periods
Students will explore concepts of gesture and movement in art, first through study of Allan Houser’s 1942 Apache Crown Dancer painting, and then by creating their own action-oriented wire sculptures.
Grades: 9–12 Subject: Visual Art, Social Studies, English/Language Arts Length: 65 minutes abridged / 3 hours 35 minutes full
Starting with a close study of Albert Lorey Groll’s early 20th-century etching, Inscription Rock, students will consider how the western American art tradition intersects with the tradition of establishing National Monuments and explore the values at play in both.