Social activism and art
Brewer Art Teacher, Lori Spruce shared information with me about artist Robert Shetterly’s recent visit to Brewer High School. While there he visited with art and other content classes. We know the arts connect with other content and topics in our schools and throughout the world today and historically, culturally, aesthetically. If you’ve ever seen Shetterly’s portraits you know how monumental they are. If you’ve never seen his work my advice is: GO SEE SHETTERLY’S PAINTINGS! Lori describes the opportunity that Robert Shetterly’s visit provided in her own words:
Robert Shetterly addressed Brewer High school Art, English, Journalism classes and others on the role of social activism and art. He discussed his own reasons for starting the “Americans Who Tell the Truth” project as well as engaged students in discussions about important social movements in the past and current issues that affect them today. His presentation challenged the attention media gives to celebrities and encouraged students to speak their own truths about social issues and how much it can make a difference in changing perspectives and sometimes even the course of our history. Honors art classes are taking the challenge themselves and discovering people who have made a difference in the issues that are are personally important to them and doing their own portraits based on the research they have done.
You can see in the photos embedded the power of his portraits. You can learn more about Shetterly and his book ‘Americans Who Tell the Truth’ about the first fifty portraits he painted at http://www.americanswhotellthetruth.org/
me arts ed 