Tradition/Innovation : American Masterpieces of Southern Craft and Traditional Art

For Educators - Pre- and Post-Visit Activities - Using the Visitors Guide

The Visitors Guide is available online and can be used with your students before and/or after the museum visit to discuss the diversity of arts they will see in the exhibit - everything from a bronze diving helmet to delicate ceramic sculptural pieces. It gives you an entry to discussing the similarities and differences between contemporary and traditional craft artists. Questions that are excellent for sparking discussions are included in the sections about each artist as well as at the end of the Guide.

The Guide is also useful in helping you discuss with your students how the exhibit is divided into sections. The exhibit sections (Cultural Practice, Relationship to Place, Innovation and Evolution and Connections) help to explore the role of contemporary and traditional craft artists in society,

Introductory Section Contents:

Overview of the Exhibit
Regional/State Maps of Exhibiting Artists
Pre- and Post-Visit activities
    What does mastery mean?
    Using the Visitors Guide
    Scavenger Hunts
    “Reading” a Work of Art
Themed Galleries/Lesson Plans
PowerPoints by discussion topic
Create your own gallery activity
Supplementary Materials
Resources

rather than looking simply at the art objects they create. The sections ask viewers to think about how artists create, how they see themselves as connected to the past and to the future of the arts, how they interact with their communities, whether those communities are the geographic communities where they live and create or international communities of artists working in similar artforms. Discussing these issues with your students before the visit could help them to have a more in-depth experience.