Virginia Beach Middle School educators selected for Judy Chicago Art Education Award

Eighth-grade student Fawziya Gyamfi with her art about actress Lupita Nyong’o.

The Judy Chicago Art Education Award was presented to Leah Krueger, Jessica Provow, and Anne Baker from Virginia Beach Middle School in March for their exemplary nine-week classroom implementation of Creating Tribute: The Judy Chicago Project. The award presentation can be viewed online at https://meeting.psu.edu/jcae_award.

Inspired by Judy Chicago’s “The Dinner Party,” eighth-grade students in the 2017 award-winning project were presented with the challenge of identifying people that have “changed the world for the better.” In response to the first student-generated list, the teachers facilitated discussions with the students asking why the predominance of white men on their list and so few women and people of color represented. The discussion motivated students to research fields of study that they are interested in with a quest to learn about the women who have advanced knowledge and contributed significantly to society with their work.

From their research, the students created sculptural dinner place settings with each work of art symbolic of a woman and the context of her life. The students presented their art to each other and discussed the symbolism and the importance to honor through art the people who have made the world a better place. NASA scientist Kate Rubins, actress Lupita Nyong’o, Olympic gold medalist Misty May Treanor, theoretical physicist Lisa Randall, Queen Elizabeth II and artist Sandy Skoglund are some of the women honored by the students through their art creations.

The art as dinner place settings was displayed in the main hallway at Virginia Beach Middle School and select works will be displayed at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach.

The Judy Chicago Art Education Award honors Judy Chicago and her pioneering work as an art educator. Penn State’s Judy Chicago Art Education Collection online archive of award-winning curricula offers teachers ways to engage the Judy Chicago Art Education Collection with their students. This might include using The Dinner Party Curriculum Project, or applying Judy Chicago’s content-based participatory art pedagogy, or developing themes from the artworks created in Chicago’s 11 teaching projects from 1970 to 2005. The annual award includes a certificate and a $1,000 prize. For complete details about the award, visit http://judychicago.arted.psu.edu/news-events/news/award/.

The Judy Chicago Art Education Award is made possible by Through the Flower, Penn State School of Visual Arts, and the generosity of Faye Kellerman.