Exploring Social Issues Through Art
Student Example Social Issues are prevalent in all cultures. It starts with a problem that many people desire and strive to solve. The current issues that our society faces are not lost on our student artists. They have opinions, stances and feelings about current social issues. Using our current circumstances as an example, I introduced the idea that art can be used to lead to awareness and in some cases social change. Together, my Drawing & Painting students and I watched and discussed a documentary on Netflix called The Social Dilemma . We had rich conversations about all the issues that this documentary brings to light, namely that the technology that connects us also controls us, manipulates us, polarizes us. I introduced artists like John Lekay, Banksy, and Micah Ian Wright. As a class, we compared and contrasted the two war time propaganda posters of Rosie the Riveter by J. Howard Miller and Norman Rockwell , respectively. These two propaganda posters are conside...
