Children - Lesson 1: Heirlooms and you
Child
Hi. Art is more than about making visual things. It’s also about how to talk about pictures and things that other people have made. But how do you get started? Let’s begin by finding something in your home that means something special to your family and asking questions about it. Then take a picture of yourself and your heirloom, and we’ll post it.
Adult/Teacher
Hello. In this first lesson in Art History, engage a child by finding an heirloom in their home and asking questions about it. History is storytelling. Help the child learn how to study art and to tell stories about the art and objects around them. Share the heirloom with us.
Heirlooms
Just as children draw in order to know their worlds, children—even very young children—learn about art and objects to understand many different things. The study of art (Art History) opens the door to making art a meaningful part of their lives. Many of us do not continue drawing into adulthood, but can we even talk about art? Can we look at an art work or object and find the tools to explore it? Or do we fall into the uninformed traps of, “I don’t know anything about art, but I know what I like.”?
Explorations of this kind begin when we are young. Talking about history might not sound especially fun, but it is. It might seem difficult for a young child to grasp, but it’s not…with your help.
Every art work or object has a story to tell. But what is that story? Art History is detective work. It is putting the pieces of a puzzle together. It is an investigation of a narrative mystery. In this unit, we have created five lessons for children that aim to provide the tools to study any art work or object.
Adam (Darien, Connecticut, United States) is holding his grandfather’s whittling that was made long ago at one of the many scout camps he led. His grandfather once told his mother, Emily (pictured above) that he liked whittling (carving wood with a pocket knife) at scout camp because it piqued the boys’ curiosity, and they would come talk to him about it. It was his way of connecting with them.
Start with an heirloom in your home
Select something in your home that is an art work or an object. Maybe it is a croqueted collar that your great-grandmother made; maybe it is a cross-stitch sampler from a distant aunt; perhaps it is a wooden bowl carved by a grandfather, a watercolor of an ancestor’s home, a christening dress, a piece of pottery, an article of clothing of your parents, an old hand tool or vintage kitchen tool of some kind. If it is a family heirloom, it is likely that your child has already seen it, but now is the time to go deeper and share the stories locked within it. With the heirloom in front of you, discuss as many of the following as you can and ask additional questions and tell stories that will encourage your child to want to learn even more:
What is this?
Who made it?
What was the person who make it like?
Do you know what the person looked like?
Where did it come from?
When was it made?
Whom was it made for?
What do you think its purpose was?
What tools were used to make it?
What is it made out of?
Have you seen other objects like it before?
How do you imagine that people responded to it or used it?
What else would you like to know about it?
These are basic Art History questions, and they function equally well to begin a study of art works or objects. The advantage of selecting an heirloom for discussion with children is that it opens the door to conversations about their relatives—even distant ancestors—and provides a tangible object that links children to their own history. Regarding your object, you might not be able to answer all of the questions above. If not, discuss how someone can discover the answers. The sleuthing is part of the adventure. What are the clues that the art work or object provides? What other resources exist to help tell the object’s story?
Share with us
Do you have a photograph of a child looking at a family heirloom that you’d like to share? Send the photograph and the child’s name (first name only) and the city where you live to glen@centerforlatterdaysaintarts.org
Above: Adam (Darien, Connecticut, United States); Thatcher (Palo Alto, California, United States)