IMPROVING READING AND WRITING THROUGH ART CRITIQUE
MOCA Jacksonville's Voice of the People is an innovative, literacy-based educational arts initiative that hones critical thinking and communication skills as it develops a deeper understanding of contemporary art. Voice of the People serves students at Title I schools throughout the school year and has been adapted for both in-person and virtual learning. During several visits to MOCA (or virtual lessons), students are introduced to exhibitions, from which they select works of art that speak to them. The students analyze the works, prepare descriptive narratives, and create recordings that serve as part of the museum’s audio guide, accessible to all those who visit the galleries during the exhibition or view its 360 Virtual Tour online. In addition to gaining familiarity and comfort within a museum setting and a greater appreciation for art, Voice of the People improves critical thinking skills, encourages participation, develops creative writing and verbal presentation skills, and enhances self-esteem. It also has quantifiable, proven results: Children who participate in the program exponentially improve their reading and writing scores, year-over-year.
Voice of the People has continued to evolve as an arts-based literacy program here at MOCA. For the past two years, we have invited writing students from the University of North Florida to participate in this collaboration. At the post-secondary level, UNF writing students are given the opportunity to engage with MOCA Jacksonville, a cultural institute of UNF, by infusing the visual arts and literacy through writing to create unique audio guides for select artwork in the MOCA galleries. MOCA does not provide guidance on how to write about the artwork. Examples of past writing samples have been short stories, artwork interpretations, songs, poetry, and scripts. Once each student has developed their manuscript based on the artwork they have chosen to work with, they will create an audio recording of themselves reading what they have written. These audio recordings can be created on their own or MOCA staff can coordinate the recordings for students. MOCA staff compiles the audio recordings and creates QR codes that will be on display next to the artwork during the exhibition for the public to access. By accessing the recordings, visitors of MOCA can listen to the interpretations written and recorded by UNF students. As a culminating event, students, faculty, friends, and family will be invited to a listening and viewing reception in the MOCA Theatre at the end of the corresponding semester.
Voice of the People is available as a museum-guided or independent resource for teachers. Contact our Education team to learn more about participating in this program at mocaeducation@unf.edu or 904-620-3212 with any questions.
QUALITATIVE RESULTS
Voice of the People is a singular opportunity that helps students to shorten the achievement gap, while building confidence and momentum as they pass various milestones within the curriculum. Following the preparation and work, audio guides are made available to students, teachers, staff, and family in the museum setting at an opening reception, and the accomplishments of the students are honored and celebrated. Participants often lead family members through MOCA with a sense of ownership and understanding that culminates from their work in the museum setting and familiarity with the art.
The level of excitement around this initiative fosters youth leadership in an educational setting, which comes through on the recordings. Consider this example from Tenisha:
“This amazing artwork is thrilling! When I visited MOCA, my eyes grew wide. The first thing I noticed was the colors popping out like a 3D movie. The colors remind me of yellow tulips in my grandma’s garden.
The masterpiece is called Aizan, Velekete, Govis. The amazing artist’s name is Edward Duval-Carrie. The masterpiece’s medium is fiberglass and resin. Those are toxic and you need to wear a mask when spraying.
When I look at this artwork I see the color spicy orange. I spotted shapes like stars and circles, but there are no patterns. My emotions are happy and I think the artist's emotions were too. I think this is a sculpture of an Indian and the two things on the side look like sticky birds. I see dozens of movements. When I look at this work my eyes move up and down and left to right.
Now you know why I like this masterpiece. Thank you for listening and make sure you come back to MOCA. Bye!”
OBJECTIVES
The program objectives for Voice of the People are to:
- Improve critical thinking skills through facilitated observation based on the Feldman approach—using description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment of select pieces of art.
- Encourage creative interpretation of contemporary art through access to art subjects that grow individualized perspective and foster an understanding of contemporary ideas through personal study and response.
- Develop creative writing skills through the honing of interpretive art responses in the form of written audio scripts.
- Improve verbal presentation skills in a clear and well-articulated manner through the production of digital audio recordings made available to all museum and website visitors.
- Encourage cooperative learning in small groups through the shared production process of writing and producing audio guides for contemporary art.
- Enhance self-esteem through tangible accomplishments in written and spoken products, and ultimately in showcasing this work in the museum setting.
- Improve self-awareness for participants through group work where the voice of every participant is valued and rewarded, and the ultimate product of the program comprises individual efforts that create a cohesive and unified presentation.
MEASURABLE RESULTS
One of the most important measures of success for Voice of the People has been the increase in scores for participants on assessments administered by museum staff before and after the program. This strong evaluative component, given through student and teacher questionnaires, has consistently shown increases in all areas of targeted objectives for this program.
