Teacher Packet: Art and Science of Collecting

The Art and Science of Collecting tour focuses on newly displayed ceramics as well as two-dimensional works of art in Boise Art Museum’s Permanent Collection. Students will talk about the formation and importance of collections and generate their own artful collections in the studios. BAM’s Permanent Collection currently consists of 2,350 works of art including paintings, drawings, prints, contemporary photographs, ceramic works, sculptures, glass works and ethnographic objects. A distinguishing characteristic of the collection is the inclusion of more than 650 works in various media by Northwest regional artists. Works from the Permanent Collection are displayed in themes selected by BAM’s curators.

Art Talk

Please view the two reproductions with your class and lead a discussion using the following questions as guidelines. There are no “right” answers. The questions are meant to guide the group discussion. Students will re-visit and discuss the original works at BAM. The vocabulary in this packet will aid discussion.

Research and experience have shown that students feel more comfortable when they can connect with something familiar once they arrive at the Museum. The students are excited to find “their” works of art while they are at BAM. They enjoy sharing their insights from the classroom discussion with the docent and making valuable comparisons between the textbook-like reproductions and the original works of art.

David Shaner (1934-2002) Stoneware Slab, 1969 Stoneware, 18” x 18” x 2 ½ “ Permanent Collection Gift of John Takehara

What is the first thing you notice when you look at this piece? What do these works of art have in common? How are they different? This piece is made from clay and hangs on the wall. Do you think this should be called a painting or a sculpture? Why? How would this piece change if it had colors like Lucinda Parker’s painting? Why do you think the Boise Art Museum collected these two works of art?

Vocabulary

Collection: A selection of objects grouped together based on some common characteristic(s).

Curator: The person responsible for taking care of a museum’s collection, and for deciding how it should be displayed. Curators are in charge of collecting and caring for objects, as well as explaining their meaning and importance to visitors.

Medium: A specific kind of artistic technique or means of expression as determined by the materials used or the creative methods involved: the medium of lithography.
The materials used in a specific artistic technique: oils as a medium.

Media: The plural of medium.

Curricular Connections
Collecting Across the Curriculum

Careers/Economics

• Determining the value of a collection is an important part of museum work. Discuss with students the difference between monetary value and sentimental value. Are collections only important if they are worth money? Consider auctions - objects that may not be worth a lot of money sometimes sell for quite a bit because someone at the auction is willing to pay for them. Sentimental objects are very important and special to the owner. Visit: The Smithsonian Educator Lesson Plans.
• Ask students to name the people who work in a museum or other fields related to collecting. Guide them through making a list of careers and briefly discuss the responsibilities of each position. Have students choose a job that they will research. Have their research focus on finding a well-known or particularly influential person from that field.

Writing/Reading

• Knowing the story behind historical objects and artwork is important to curators and collectors. Have students select an item that has special meaning to them and write the history of the object: how they got it, who made it, who bought it, where it came from, etc. This is also known as an artwork’s provenance.
• Find an interesting artwork or historic artifact. Without revealing all the important details, give students some general information about the piece. [Example: This is a ceramic bowl. It was first found by a farmer, but now it belongs to a museum.] Ask students to write an imaginary history of the piece based on their observations. Make sure to note that it is more important for students to be able to justify their conclusions than it is for them to be factually correct about the object.
• Work on reading comprehension and descriptive writing asking students to look at a work of art and write a detailed description about the piece on a notecard. Collect the notecards and put the images around the room. Redistribute the notecards to the students making sure that no one gets the same card they wrote. Have students walk around the “gallery” trying to match the description to the painting. Or read the description and have students decide which one they feel best fits the description.
• Have students collect original source material for a research paper/project related to your curriculum.

Social Studies

• Collections can tell us about the past. Think about what you can learn about someone by looking at what they carry in their backpack. Consider what a collection of kitchen utensils and dishes can tell us about the person who owns them. Are they messy? Do they cook a certain type of food? Do they have matching dishes or a lot of different ones? Is this because they break them a lot? Try collaborating with school faculty and letting students identify the mystery person – the principal, the cafeteria worker, the nurse – from a collection of objects from that person’s desk.

Foreign Language

• Have students choose a simple object and ask them to make a collection of words from other languages that mean the same thing. They can then sort and group the words by country, sound, or appearance.
• Have students collect cognates in a notebook. Begin by writing the English word and then list the cognate from your language of study. Students can choose how to organize their words either by subject, meaning, or spelling.

Math

• Explore symmetry and asymmetry by arranging and rearranging objects for a display. Consider choosing some objects that are identical and some that are similar. Also explore fractions and division as students try to make objects fit into different sized displays. [Example: How many different ways can 12 cups fit in a display with 3 shelves? Can you fit them symmetrically or not?]
• Using graph paper, magnets, transparencies, or the black board have students arrange artwork of varying dimensions on the “gallery wall” according to specific instructions. Younger students can physically place them on the wall with tape while older students can use rulers and graph paper to draft their layout. [Example: If the wall is 12 feet long and 10 feet high determine how many 1 foot by 1 foot paintings you can fit on that wall. Keep in mind that curators generally do not hang paintings 1 foot from the ceiling or the floor (no one would be able to see them).] Your rules and instructions should include things like the minimum amount of space between each piece, how many rows are allowed, which pieces can be used, how many pieces, and how much space should be left at the top and the bottom of the wall.

Geography/Science

• Have students bring in something they own that came from another city, state, or country. Have students share information about the object with the class and mark the place of origin on a map. Students with items from the same areas can sit in a group to discuss the similarities and differences between their objects and how they came to own them.
• Discuss what tools are necessary for collecting scientific specimens. Have students create their own collecting kit that might include a bag, a pencil and a notebook, a magnifying glass, etc. Send students out to collect objects or natural materials related to your science curriculum.
• Learn about sorting, classifying, organizing, comparing and labeling by giving students collections of rocks, minerals, bones, leaves, shells, nuts, or seeds to arrange into a display. Once each student has displayed his or her collection, have students walk from desk to desk to visit other collections. Encourage students to ask each other about how they went about organizing their display. Hint: Egg cartons are great for displays.
• Have students collect scientific data and create an organizational chart to explain their findings.

Other

• Have students bring an item from their personal collections to share with the class. Have them explain what the common characteristic of their collection is, how it is displayed at home, and why they started collecting the items.
• Use words related to collecting as part of vocabulary and pronunciation lessons. [Examples: www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0769637.html (names of people who collect certain things) www.cornwallwildlifetrust.org.uk/educate/kids/groups.htm (names for groups of animals)]

Related Web Sites

For Kids

http://kids.si.edu/collecting/ (Smithsonian Kids – informational site for students and teachers)

http://smartmuseum.uchicago.edu/smartkids/ (from the Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago – a completely interactive site with educational games for kids and resources for teachers based on museums)

http://www.diduknow.info/ (games related to collecting, collections and museums: The Exhibitionists, Conkers Collectibles, and Agents of Deterioration)

http://www.wildlifeart.org/Education/Identity/curator.cfm (for older kids or younger kids with assistance)

For Teachers

www.sesameworkshop.org/parents/advice/article.php?contentId=1027& (brief article about collecting for kids)

http://www.42explore.com/collect.htm (website for educational resources about collection topics)

http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/kearny/arthist/ (lesson plan for learning about art history through a team game)

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos065.htm (Bureau of Labor Statistics, detailed information about museum jobs)

http://aic.stanford.edu/library/online/brochures/index.html (American Institute for Conservation – how to take care of different types of objects)

http://www.education-world.com/a_tsl/archives/00-1/lesson0005.shtml (lesson plan for collecting details from stories)

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art31080.asp (article titled “What is a Curator?”)

http://lewisandclarkexhibit.org/4_0_0/page_4_1_3_2_3_2.html (lesson plan for connecting collections to Lewis and Clark expedition)

http://biology.arizona.edu/sciconn/lessons2/Barber/overview.htm (lesson plan for plant collecting)

Post-Visit Activity: MAKE IT!

To extend the museum experience and connect the tour to your curriculum, please consider using or adapting this suggested lesson

Image Collecting and Picture Journals

Introduction

This activity can be applied to almost any subject, requires only a few supplies, and can be used throughout the year. It helps students of all ages build decision-making, analytical and organizational skills. It also promotes individuality and connects visual and verbal expression.

Materials

Standard composition notebook with lines or grids (Available at Staples for less than $1.00 each)

Scissors
Glue
Pencils
Newspapers, magazines, photocopies, things that can be cut and pasted

Activity

Students collect, organize, catalog, and maintain their own book of images. Images can be taken from any appropriate source and organized however you or your students decide. Below are some suggestions that show how versatile this activity can be. Journals can be used for images only or a combination of images and writing. Student journals can be started at the beginning of the year, added to throughout the year, and used for several different assignments. Encouraging students to use images that they have collected based on their interests creates built-in connections to the assignment and enables students to better understand their own likes and dislikes. Remember to schedule short periods of time throughout the month for students to organize and paste their images.

Applications

Writing and reading

After students have had a chance to collect a few images and put them in their journals have them write a short response about what their images mean, why they collected those specific images, and where they found them. Focus on how the images connect to each other.

Use the journal as a starting point for weekly writing, a creative writing unit, show and tell sessions, poetry workshops, homework assignments, or independent reading.

Have students write descriptive words next to each catalogued image to help build vocabulary, then have them find a common word or phrase to describe all of the images. This word can be the title of a chapter, a poem, a story, or a research paper.

Science, Geography and History

Have students collect images that are examples of your current science unit. As students learn more about the topic they will make more complex connections between their images and the subject. For example, weather is easy to visually identify. Students can collect pictures of clouds, storms, sunshine, rainy days, wind-blown trees, and snow. As students learn more about what causes certain types of weather they can start to write specific information next to each image that includes what part of the weather cycle it comes from or how it is formed.

Students learning about animals can find an image of an animal, research it, and list the animal’s kingdom, family, genus, and/or species. Teachers can ask students to find an image of an animal from a certain family as a homework assignment.

Images can add depth when studying different countries or cultures. Chart cultural items or objects from different countries. Postcards from historic museums are very helpful.

Mapping historic events in a timeline that pairs images with facts will help students remember important dates and events, especially when they choose images with meaning for them.

Visual Art

Collecting images based on particular elements of art is a simple way to help students learn how to categorize, organize, and make decisions based on visual similarities and differences. For example, asking students to find images that illustrate the use of line and pattern can help students identify that element in artwork, nature, and everyday objects.

Ask students to collect pictures of things that are their favorite color and arrange them based on how the colors relate to each other. Have them create a system to name or number the colors they find. This will help students learn to identify and describe subtle differences in colors. For example, if the first color collected is light blue and the second color is navy blue students can use those two colors as the ends of their system and compare and place additional colors according to their relationship to the light and dark ends. Creatively naming and numbering each color will reinforce the differences as well. (sky-blue, gray-blue, after-the-rain-blue, etc.)

Sketches can be added to the journal in response to certain images or groups of images or an entire art project can be based on a page of the journal. It can also help inspire students who “don’t know what to do”.

Games

Younger students can create their own I Spy books and trade them with other students. Have students collect images based on a theme and collage them on a page. Then have them write a list of things to find on the facing page. (Hint: You can easily make an answer key by photocopying the page and having the student circle the items as he/she makes the list.) Finally, have students trade their books and search for their partner’s hidden objects.

Students of all ages can create entire stories with just images. Have older students write an outline for a story. Make sure the outline includes descriptions that will help them find the images they need to illustrate the story. This project can prompt discussions about careers in art. Consider storyboards used by advertising designers, children’s picture books, and signs used in buildings and cities visited by several different nationalities (like airports and museums.)

Ways to Organize

Catalog – Images are arranged with specific information about the image listed in a consistent format.

Chronological – Can be sorted based on date found, date entered, time of day shown in image, etc.

Collage – An “organic” method can be grouped by colors, subjects, themes, or be completely random.

Chart – Any type of grid where there is a connection between one image and the next.

Chapters – Divide the notebook into sections and create titles for each group of images. Pages within each chapter can be arranged differently depending on the goal of the project.

Below are examples of charts for the use of lines and patterns.

Bibliography

Preschool

• Hannah’s Collections by Marthe Jocelyn; Dutton Juvenile, 2000.
• Look-Alikes by Joan Steiner; Little, Brown and Company, 1998.
• Treasures of the Heart by Alice Ann Miller; Thomson Gale, 2003.

Pre-K through 3rd Grade

• Anna’s Table by Eve Bunting; Northwest Press, 2003.
• Can You See What I See?: Cool Collections by Walter Wick; Cartwheel, 2004
• Collect This: A Cool Guide to Collecting for Kids by Donna Guthrie and Christy Zatkin; Price Stern Sloan, 2001.
• I Spy by Jean Marzollo and Walter Wick; Cartwheel, 1992.
• The Kid’s Guide to Collecting Statehood Quarters and Other Cool Coins by Kevin Flynn, Ron Volpe, Kelsey Flynn; Whitman Coin Products, 2000.
• Let’s Go Rock Collecting by Roma Gans; HarperTrophy, 1997.

4th & 6th Grade

• Collecting Gems and Minerals: Hold the Treasures of the Earth in the Palm of Your Hand by Chris Pellant; Sterling Pub Co Inc, 1998.
• Collecting Passions by Susan Macleod O’Reilly and Norman Eyolfson; Key Porter Books, 2001.
• Kidcollectors: The Incredible Collecting Book by K.D. Kuch; Lowell House, 1997.
• Kids Collect: Amazing Collections for Fun, Crafts, and Science Fair Projects by Dan Hubley; Bluefish Bay Publishing, 2002.

Junior High & High School

• The Banana Sculptor, the Purple Lady, and the All-Night Swimmer: Hobbies, Collecting, and Other Passionate Pursuits by Susan Sheehan and Howard Means; Simon and Schuster, 2002.
• The Nobel Book of Answers: The Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Shimon Peres, and Other Nobel Prize Winners Answer Some of Life’s Most Intriguing Questions for Young People by Bettina Stiekel; Atheneum, 2003.
• The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2005 by Ken Park; World Almanac, 2004.

Resources For Teachers

• Things: Collecting for Kids and Their Families – Over 20 Collectibles Covered by Arthur Bochner; Wealthbuilder Publications, 2000.