Make Sense of This

SCHOOL: Turner Elementary School

MATERIALS: Paper, photographs, foam, fabric

ARTWORK INSPIRATION: Jamea Richmond-Edwards, Archetype of a 5 Star, 2018

Kindergarten and Medical & Educational Support students explored their identities through the creation of vibrant collages. Inspired by artists featured in Multiplicity, including James Richmond-Edwards, Deborah Roberts, and Helina Metaferia, the students incorporated photographs they took of each other to offer intimate glimpses into their lives and personalities. These collages serve as visual narratives, inviting viewers to see each student’s identity and personality.

PARTICIPATING STUDENTS

SCHOOL: Rocketship Legacy Prep

MATERIALS: Canvas, burlap, jeans, hair twists, beads, paper, acrylic, gel paint, cotton, embroidery thread

ARTWORK INSPIRATION: Tscahabala Self, Sprewell, 2020

Inspired by Tschabalala Self’s Sprewell, fourth grade students captured moments from their lives in collage. Like Self, students chose to highlight everyday scenes, celebrating the diverse experiences that shape their lives.

PARTICIPATING STUDENTS

SCHOOL: Washington School for Girls

MATERIALS: Mixed media with hand cut and torn elements

ARTIST INSPIRATION: Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series, Panel No. 23: The Migration Spread, 1940-41

Middle school students headed to The White House this spring with The Phillips Collection education staff to learn about Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series. The young artists connected Lawrence’s subject matter to today and each created a panel about their communities, which are displayed here. Beneath each artwork is a seven word story crafted by the artist.

PARTICIPATING STUDENTS

SCHOOL: Horizons Greater Washington

MATERIALS: Oil pastel on paper and mixed media collage

ARTIST INSPIRATION: Howardena Pindell, Untitled #3C, 2009

After viewing Howardena Pindell’s artwork and learning the origin of her circle collages, rising 8th graders from the Horizons DC Summer Program made collages connected to their own experiences. They began by using compasses to create circles of different sizes. Then, they applied oil pastel blending techniques to fill them with color. These circles, along with others punched from different types of paper, built up the layers of their collaborative collage. Each student artist also created a circle to represent their layered identity. In selecting different kinds of papers and materials to embellish their collage, they considered what is easily visible and what is often hidden about themselves. What do you learn about these artists by looking closely?

PARTICIPATING STUDENTS

GROUP: Summer Institute for Teachers

MATERIALS: Mixed media, including paper, photographs, fabric, and reclaimed materials

In an immersive one-week Summer Teacher Institute at The Phillips Collection, educators from across Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC, explored Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage. Inspired by the ways in which the works reveal intricate tapestries of cultures and individuals, they first created individual collages to reflect their identities and then combined them into a large-scale patchworked collective artwork. Facilitated by artist-educators Monica Cohen Lenoff, Leslie Turner, and Dr. Fatemah Khawaji, the teachers considered how collage can foster both student and teacher creativity in and out of the classroom.

PARTICIPATING TEACHERS

Collage is a melody
Collage is a dance
Collage is a narrative of many languages

In its purest form
Collage is an unfolding of stories
And a melding of remnants

Together
Collective in our individual fragmentation
We transform the bits and pieces of our lives
To illuminate the ethos of humanity

-L. Turner, 2024