In the fall of 2010, a teacher from Fisher Middle School in Ewing Township School District, New Jersey shared a great lesson with our Education Department that she did with her sixth grade students on the artwork, Over and Above, by Clarence Carter. This artwork is featured in the Museum’s galleries, and is often discussed with students during their visit. It is actually part of the Blanton Museum of Art’s collection in Texas and is on loan to the Michener Art Museum.
The teacher used this artwork to inspire her students to create surrealist self-portraits using a similar compositional approach to Carter‘s. In addition, students also added famous quotes about friendship or caring quotes. The students’ portraits “peered out over thoughtful words.”
This teacher demonstrated one great way to approach this work, incorporating visual and language arts as a follow up to her school’s Museum visit. For supplies, students used 24″x36″ paper, markers, pencils, rulers and mirrors to capture their likenesses.
Do you have a lesson plan you would like to share with us that uses artworks featured in our galleries? Submit your lesson ideas and occasionally we will post them on this blog! Thank you to Kathy from Fisher Middle School for her contribution. We love to hear what teachers are doing with artworks in the classroom!
You can also use our Discover and Learn Family Guide to learn more about Clarence Carter’s work during your visit.
Learn more about another work by Carter in the Over and Above series entitled Over and Above (Fox) in the Michener’s permanent collection.
Related Resources
Teaching Poster: Over and Above Series (Fox) by Clarence Holbrook Carter
Clarence Holbrook Carter, Bucks County Artists’ Database
Over and Above Series (Fox): Google Art Project
Youth Audio Tour: Over and Above (Fox) by Clarence Carter