MASKHEADER
 
The NEA Conference on Racial and Social Justice 2022 partnered with the MASK Consortium to produce an immersive art experience for conference attendees and participants. Segments from the re:mancipation project stimulated the interest of NEA educators looking to bring productive and healing conversations into the K-12 classroom, aided by the curriculum developed by the project.  This is in line with the NEA's commitment in support of members to teach complete and honest history to its students.  We feel this curriculum is also in alignment with the NEA's #FreedomToLearn campaign which seeks to highlight the books and authors who’ve been removed from courses and classrooms, with an emphasis on leveraging member voices, NEA leaders, and authors.  The re:mancipation project provides a great way to provide curriculum via tech and art to teach history and address monuments with dialogue and response. 

 
NEA's Creative Director, Stephen Chavers, recommended the CENTER FOR PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE & STUDENT LEARNING as a potential partner in the:
  • Development of curriculum that discusses the challenges posed by monuments, historical markers, and public art to exploring our country's history 
  • Distribution of these materials (through alternative media, livestreams, and symposia)in the face of conservative political groups’ weaponization of “CRT” and other attacks on intellectual freedom to curtail, if not prevent outright, our students' ability to think critically, as well as our teachers ability to share information, or develop professionally.
With guidance from the UWM Education faculty, the re:mancipation project will develop curriculum materials and resources intended to build the confidence of educators to understand, confront, and participate in the conversations surrounding our country’s legacy of racism, posed by historical markers, monuments, and public art. Two distinct sets of materials will be developed; both building on the Emancipation Group, and the work of Artist Sanford Biggers and the MASK Consortium.
 
Learning Outcomes
(1) Unpack the complex iconography of monumental sculpture
(2) Recognize that life experiences and historical context all factor into how people respond to works of art.
(3) Creatively engage in response to these objects through art, politics, education, and action. Both will develop the students capacity to “read” the landscape of art and history in their own communities.
 
Deliverables
(1) The first set of materials, intended for use by high school educators, will include historical primary source material, contemporary art, and lesson plans that support the development of disciplinary and critical thinking skills.
(2) The second set, intended for use by educators at youth-centered community-based organizations, explores local monuments and historical markers, and empowers youth to understand, re-interpret, and respond in their appropriate contexts.
 
Process
The development of both sets of materials will be guided by an expert educator focus group, recruited from local schools and community based organizations that serve a diverse youth.
 
Materials will also be tested and revised based on feedback from a multi-site field test in 2024-25.
 
Completed materials will be distributed locally and regionally through educator networks, such as the Wisconsin Council for Social Studies. There will be a kick-off event in the summer of 2024, at which the field-test educators and youth will share their experiences. Materials will be nationally distributed through the website and through collaborations with NEA and NAIS.


Budget
The University of Wisconsin-Madison and The Andrew Mellon Foundation have  contributed funds to support this initiative.
  • Graduate project assistant - $50k
  • Educator focus group- $5000
    • The focus group (comprising local teachers and community-based educators serving diverse youth) will provide critical guidance at two half-day meetings. In summer 2022, they will offer upstream formative feedback on the conceptualization and outlining of curriculum materials. In summer of 2023, they will evaluate the completed draft materials. honoraria and materials for local educator focus group: 5 people, two half-day meetings @$500/person/mtg. Mtg 1 focuses on early/upstream formative feedback, Mtg 2 focuses on review of completed draft materials.
  • Field test support - $4000
    • Four educators (two school-based, two community-based) will be recruited from organizations serving diverse youth audiences to implement and provide feedback on materials. Field test honoraria @ $1,000/site for four sites (two schools, two CBOs) in the period 9/23-24

 
The NEA's CENTER FOR PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE & STUDENT LEARNING can provide critical resourcing to empower these efforts 
  • Educator focus group expansion for diversity - $25k
  • Artist response stipends - $15k
  • AV Support - $20k
  • Symposium Production - $25k
  • Design - $15k
  • Promotional Materials Production (posters, billboards, shirts, buttons for Voting Awareness & Education - $20k
  • Travel and Accommodations - $20k
  • Materials Distribution - $15k
  • Admin - $20k
 
 
 

 


APPENDIX A 

Case Study – The Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison 

In 2020, a bronze statue called the “Emancipation Group” by Thomas Ball draws national attention and headlines amidst the confederate statue reckoning that wracks America after the murder of George Floyd. The Boston Art Commission votes to remove the work from public view amongst criticism and fears of it being toppled. It does so swiftly, with little fanfare, and with no clear plan for future exhibitions. The Chazen Museum of Art at the University of Wisconsin-Madison realizes that it also has a white Italian marble version of the “Emancipation Group” and seriously considers removing the work from public view. 


The university engages MASK to assist with the evaluation and deep study of the object. Below are some of the accomplishments from the multi-year collaboration: 
  • Cross-disciplinary collaboration at the university 
  • Practical application of engineering to art and social justice (STEAM) 
  • Art & artifact representation adjustments in the art museum database based on research 
    Curricular change 
  • Observed increase in the cultural sensitivity of museum security detail 
  • Fostered artistic and academic exchange between local communities of color and the university 
  • A hybrid exhibition, part pedagogical, part contemporary comprised of artworks, and responses from the impacted community fosters dialogue and healing 
  • Other universities with editions of the controversial object in their possession have expressed interest in receiving the touring exhibition and developing responses unique to their community 
  • Comprehensive curriculum is being developed with support from the Mellon foundation, and advisory guidance from the MonumentLabs projects 

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