Activities For Use In Classroom
by Matt Fidler, Teacher

The New Deal Art project can support virtually any existing social studies program. For example, in New York State, the 4th grade program addresses local and state themes while the 7th & 8th program focuses on state and national themes. Eleventh-grade students at Rome Free Academy study United States History and Government. The mural we are currently exploring, The Underground Railroad, is extremely rich in content and has provided important learning opportunities that are directly tied to our curriculum. The mural is a telling depiction of slavery in local Dolgeville, New York during the 1850's. It very eloquently illustrates the complexities of abolitionism and sectionalism. The mural also presents critical New Deal issues of the 1930's, such as the role of the federal government as a patron of the arts, delivering art to the people, and providing work relief for unemployed artists.

1. Goals: To use public art of the New Deal Era as historical documents, to be windows to the past.

2. Rationale: That the Visual Arts can be a valuable element of Social Studies Education. To use technology to conquer distance between students, information and audiences.

3. Objectives: With completion of the activities, students will demonstrate the following: - improved research skills in observation, interviewing, note-taking, writing and presentation; - knowledge of the critical slavery-related issues of the 1850's, including Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad, Sectionalism and the Compromise of 1850; - knowledge of critical New Deal issues of the 1930's, including the expansion of the Federal Government to meet the challenge of the Great Depression, particularly the various Federal art programs, their key administrators, objectives, and legacies.

4. Ramp Activities: So-called to connote a highway on-ramp and bringing students "up to speed", include the following:

• Background Readings: Bragdon, McCutcheon & Ritchie. (1996). History of a Free Nation. Chapter 28, The New Deal, 1932-1939. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill.
• Park, Marlene & Markowitz, Gerald. (1984). Democratic Vistas: Post Offices and Public Art of the New Deal. Philadelphia: Temple Press.

Issues Discussion

"Using Technology to Conquer Distance"
"Art as a Window to the Past"
"Why Cultures create Art"
"The Relationship of Government and Art"
"Using Art to Promote Abstract Ideas"

The "Info-Seek" Activity - This activity includes a survey and a sort of internet scavenger hunt allowing me to gauge student skills, experience, and capabilities while familiarizing students with The Living SchoolBook project.

The "OQI" Activity - This activity involves Observing, Questioning, and Inferring, and is a simple exercise, which helps students critically examine historical art.

The Guided Practice Activity - Students practice research skills with primary and secondary sources. Skills include note taking, summarizing, outlining, interviewing, documenting, writing, and presentation.

The "Dry Run" - This is a field trip to City Hall in our hometown of Rome, New York, where there is a mural, The Barn Raising, a 1942 oil painting by Wendell Jones commissioned by a New Deal agency. Students use some of the skills practiced in class: the OQI exercise, interviewing knowledgeable people, and photographing and video-taping the mural as part of the investigation process.

Process:

There are two more sets of activities. The first was completed in a field trip to the U.S. Post Office in Dolgeville, New York. There the students studied the mural, The Underground Railroad, by artist James Michael Newell. Students researched the postmaster's files; examined, discussed, and photographed the mural; and conducted oral history interviews with patrons and knowledgeable people. We also visited and photographed the actual station on the Underground Railroad, a privately owned residence. The final set of activities has been the development of a website to present our findings. Student teams have created the following pages within the website:

• Slavery, Abolition and the Underground Railroad
• The Federal Art Programs of the New Deal Era
• The Artist: James Michael Newell
• The Life of a Mural: The Underground Railroad, 1940-1999
• An Art Student's Perspective
• Literature of the Underground Railroad
• Music of the Underground Railroad
• Learning Activities
• Bibliography