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Thematic Teaching
politics & art: related resources
Activity Ideas | Related Resources
Find Below: PBS Web Sites, Other Recommended Links, Recommended Books
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American Masters: Bob Dylan
Explore Bob Dylan at his artisic peak, from 1961 to 1966.
American Masters: Allen Ginsburg
Examine how the Beat poet used artistic expression to fight for a more interesting and open society.
American Masters: Diego Rivera
Learn how Rivera's radical political views were articulated through his painting.
Art in the Twenty-First Century
See how contemporary visual artists are fusing social and political issues with painting, sculpture and photography.
Independent Lens: Strange Fruit
Examine the legacy of this classic anti-lynching song made famous by Billie Holiday.
Reel Politics
Debate whether political films can actually influence outcomes of elections.
Treasures of the world: Guernica
Learn about modern arts most powerful anti-war statement.
NOW: Art and Politics
Delve into the history of political theater, motion pictures and satire.
Speak Truth to Power: Art and Human Rights
Read about the intersection of art and the worldwide fight for justice.
recommended web sites
Center for the Study of Political Graphics
http://www.politicalgraphics.org/home.html
The Center for the Study of Political Graphics "collects, preserves, and exhibits posters relating to historical and contemporary movements for social change." This organization houses over 50,000 posters of post WWII graphics in the United States. The virtual exhibitions you can browse on the site are about international ecology, the Labor Movement, the Women of Jurez (where hundreds of women have been tortured and murdered), homelessness, and a Rogues Gallery of Presidents.
Subject: The Arts; Social Studies
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Herblock's History
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/
Herbert Block has been cartooning since the Depression. This Library of Congress exhibit, "Political Cartoons from the Crash to the Millennium," features presidents from both parties, economics, social issues, big business, and many other political topics. An essay by Block about how an idea becomes a cartoon is part of the exhibit, and his opinion that a political cartoon is "essentially a means for poking fun, for puncturing pomposity."
Subject: The Arts; Social Studies
More Recommended Arts Links
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A Visual Journey: Photographs by Lisa Law
http://americanhistory.si.edu/lisalaw/1.htm
Photographer Lisa Law portrays themes from the 1960s counterculture. Communal living, counterculture, Woodstock, music of social protest, and social activism are featured via photos. Images include the Beatles, Kingston Trio, psychedelic busses, Beat Generation poets, concerts, and anti-war rallies. A timeline is found under the "what else was happening" link.
Subject: The Arts; Social Studies
More Recommended Arts Links
More Recommended Social Studies Links
Arthur Miller Files
http://www.umich.edu/~amfiles/
Arthur Miller's success as a playwright began as a student at the University of Michigan in the 1930s. This site by students at the University of Michigan has summaries and analyses of plays including The Crucible and Death of a Salesman. The timeline highlights events in Miller's life along with events in U.S. and world history, for example, in 1932 when Miller graduated from high school, Hitler assumes power in Germany. The text of two interviews with Miller are also available.
Subject: The Arts; Social Studies
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Posters American Style
http://nmaa-ryder.si.edu/collections/exhibits/posters/mainmenu.html
Posters have long played a role in social protest movements. Images and icons can relate messages even without using words. This collection is from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Pay particular attention to the Advice to Americans and Patriotic Persuasion sections. You'll find posters protesting the Vietnam War, boycotting grapes to support farm workers, and supporting the Black Panther movement, among other causes. The process of poster making is presented and the essay titled "The Posters" describes how posters are used to communicate and invite action.
Subject: The Arts; Social Studies
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recommended books
Talk to the Hand: A Doonesbury Collection
By Garry Trudeau
Published November 2004
Grades: 6-8; 9-12
Subjects: The Arts; Social Studies
Trudeau's Doonesbury has been commenting on sociopolitical issues for thirty-four years. This collection looks at Washington, the President, The war in Iraq, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Trudeau was a finalist for the 2004 Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning.
More Recommended Arts Books
More Recommended Social Studies Books
Isms: Understanding Art
By Stephen Little
Published November 2004
Grades: 6-8; 9-12
Subjects: The Arts
This is a guide to many of the terms used to pigeonhole art. It isn't exhaustive, as the author cautions, but it will help you understand what is meant by 58 "isms" from the Renaissance to the Post-Modern. For example, the entry on Pre-Rafaelitism describes the ism, lists key artists, provides key identifiers, features a key work and cites other notables, and relates Pre-Rafaelitism to similar and antithetical isms. This concise book also has a glossary and timetable.
More Recommended Arts Books
Let Fury Have the Hour: The Punk Rock Politics of Joe Strummer
By Antonino D'Ambrosio
Published November 2004
Grades: 9-12
Subjects: The Arts; Social Studies
You can't have a revolution without songs. This is the title of one section in this collection of articles, interviews, essays, and reviews covering the life and music of Joe Strummer, lead singer of the Clash. Music and politics for Strummer were inseparable. He admired the political stances of Chilean Victor Jara and Brazilian Caetano Veloso. In the 1970s when he was a London busker, or street performer, Strummer wore a checked shirt and called himself Woody in honor of another hero, Woody Guthrie. You can expect some raw language.
More Recommended Arts Books
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Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon
By Gijs van Hensbergen
Published November 2004
Grades: 9-12; Professional Development
Subjects: The Arts; Social Studies
On April 26, 1937, the Basque town of Guernica was firebombed by German and Italian planes. Pablo Picasso's monumental painting (30 square meters) "Guernica" was a powerful indictment of the bombing of innocent civilians. This book traces the painting from its conception to its return to Spain after Franco's death.
More Recommended Arts Books
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Finding George Orwell in Burma
By Emma Larkin
Published June 2005
Grades: 9-12; Professional Development
Subjects: Reading & Language Arts; Social Studies
There is a Burmese joke that Orwell wrote three books about Burma: Burmese Days, Animal Farm, and 1984. Burma, now Myanmar, is a paranoid country in which jail and torture are common. The author, Larkin is a pseudonym, traveled and talked with intellectuals, discovering that despite severe censorship and the threat of arrest and torture, it is a country in which people have secret libraries and talk passionately about books.
More Recommended Reading & Language Arts Books
More Recommended Social Studies Books