NEWS FROM CAMPUS

Teaching with Art

Faculty tap into museum’s expertise on indigenous art and culture

Kimball Union’s faculty constantly endeavor to bring more informed teaching methodologies to The Hilltop, and in this process, they often find a great resource in nearby Dartmouth College.

Jenny Blue P’24, ’26, English teacher and Dartmouth alumna, and Deb

Springhorn P’17, history and English teacher, regularly participate in workshops provided by the college’s Hood Museum of Art that empower them to use the museum’s extensive Indigenous art collection as a catalyst for conversation in the classroom.

Last fall, Blue and Springhorn participated in a workshop called “Teaching with Indigenous Art and Culture,” which was shaped specifically with Upper Valley high school teachers in mind.

“The workshop incorporated visual art, poetry, and Indigenous speakers, including one of the curators, who is an Indigenous person,” says Blue. “The final project was to develop an application of the work to be used in our own classrooms. I had the Hood’s teaching specialist Vivian Ladd come in for a digital field trip that dovetailed with what the class was reading at the time, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexy.”

The museum’s workshop resonated with Springhorn as well.

Following the workshop, Blue challenged her students to sharpen their critical thinking skills in discussions and writing assignments connected to Indigenous sculptures from the Hood Museum collection. She found their responses to this style of teaching to be both invigorating and inspiring.

Hood Museum of Art

“Vivian and the staff at the Hood Museum are amazing at teaching non-arts experts how to teach with art,” explains Springhorn. “The Indigenous art workshop took it to the next level, using art to force us to scrutinize our own biases and ways of communicating. In the past I would focus on the injustice, violence, racism, and Eurocentricity of colonialism in literature and history, but I have come to see that this still centers the European actions instead of centering the voices of those bearing the brunt of the oppression.”

Blue plans to pursue future workshops with the Hood Museum and is grateful to have access to such a tremendous resource. “The museum is eager for a relationship with KUA, and we’re eager for a relationship with them” she says. “Most especially, the students being able to access this museum is a big deal.” K