Art for Activism in Middle School

Yesterday, I had the great pleasure of attending a Michael Franti & Spearhead concert. It was three hours of dancing to upbeat and infectiously happy music, surrounded by my dearest friends and one of the most friendly, inclusive group of strangers I’ve ever encountered.

If you don’t know him, here’s a bit of happy Michael Franti music. As an artist, he acknowledges our challenges and then uplifts us so that we can be better and stronger as we face them. I love it!

My teacher brain never really turns off (sound familiar?) and I’ve been thinking about how this soul-filling evening relates to my work.

Teaching middle school doesn’t feel nearly as grand as a concert tour! But, like Michael Franti, I spend my days encouraging the humans around me - students and staff alike - to “Just work hard and be nice to people.”

I do this work through the arts.

The Arts as Activism, at School:

Many of my students, though they have great access to resources, have had minimal exposure to the arts. Their previous engagement with art that is intended to spark change is often zero. Therefore, my first task is simply to show them that activism is often what drives artists to create in the first place. 

There are two main ways in which I introduce the arts as a space for activism.

The first is by asking students to create something that illustrates their own viewpoints. Metaphor is essential in this work: you can find my process for creating with metaphor on my blog, and I’ve shared handouts and teacher guides in my Teachers Pay Teachers store. 

The second is by sharing many examples of artist-activists who create to address a wide variety of causes, and their pieces and causes. The opportunities for curriculum connections are endless!

Arts & Activism Throughout the Disciplines

In Social Studies, activist art pieces can enrich and enliven studies of government, history and current events, which can otherwise feel dry and disconnected from students’ lives. Poetry and music can be highlighted in Language Arts, and all art forms can be used as prompts for writing and paired with course texts to situate course content in the real world while showing students that they can use the arts to amplify their voices.

In Science and Math, art pieces in a variety of media can be used to address the ecological and economic challenges we face today. 

In Art class, students can be introduced to the elements and principles of art through the work of artist activists, and can be challenged to communicate their own viewpoints and advocate for areas of personal passion through the pieces they create.

An Example: The Arts for Activism in a Sixth Grade Democracy Unit

Let’s be honest: when presented with the bare facts, my sixth graders were not highly interested in the pillars of democracy, its historical or contemporary iterations, or citizens’ responsibilities within their communities.

To help them bridge the gap between these big, ‘grown-ups-only’ spaces and their own lives, I guided them through a survey of current political art pieces that addressed current issues in society. 

We watched a Taylor Swift award show performance of “You Need to Calm Down,” as well as a theatrical performance by indigenous tenor Jeremy Dutcher (below), and three or four other pieces. As they watched, students recorded their noticings and initial responses. I invited students to identify both the obvious cues and more subtle hints about the artists’ intentions, and then we shared and discussed them.

It’s important to note that in this situation, we were not debating whether or not we agreed with the artist’s position on the issue, but merely identifying what that position was.

There is absolutely a place for that debate in the classroom - students must learn to disagree respectfully -  but this time, I wanted my students to see that they could fulfill their responsibility to engage as citizens by using the arts to communicate their point of view, whatever that was.

I think that main goal would likely have been missed if I had allowed my students to get caught up in any one specific issue.

I hope I have you thinking about your own classroom activities. There are so many possibilities!

If you’re looking for the specific art pieces to use in your classes, please stay tuned for my next blog post, which will include a big list of artists and their works.

In the meantime, check out my free downloadable resource, Spark & Reflect, which includes a list of art pieces and their connections to core subjects: many of these pieces were created to spark conversations about key issues our society is facing today.

Like what you see here?

I post every other week, so stay tuned for more! In the meantime, please check out my free guides to teaching Art and integrating the Arts & SEL into core subjects! You can find them here.