"I Trust You For Progress"
Design a Coin
Artists: Stanford White, Architect. Sculptors include: Richmond Barthe, A. Stirling Calder, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Daniel Chester French, Malvina Hoffman, Jean-Antoine Houdon, Frederick MacMonnies among many others.
Art Work: The Hall of Fame for Great Americans, 1901, 98 bronze portrait busts
Location: Bronx Community College, 560-foot outdoor colonnade. University Avenue and West 181st Street, Bronx, NY 10453. For information: (718) 220-6003.
Grades: 4-6
About the Art: Each year from 1900 to 1976, a board of 100 electors from various professions chose honorees from a group nominated by the public. People whose bronze busts were created from those chosen include familiar presidents such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, military figures such as David Glasgow Farragut, writers such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, scientists such as John James Audubon and Walter Reed and inventors such as Eli Whitney and the Wright Brothers.
Questions for Discussion: What do you know about any of the people whose busts are here? Why are there so many men and so few women? What do these people have in common with each other? with you? What do they have in common with coins? Why are the busts up so high, above eye level? Why are some of the busts larger than life?
Sample Art Activity: Students design a large coin or medallion using a portrait of one of the Great Americans in the exhibit.
Purpose: To foster community by identifying what people from a time long ago have in common with Bronx people of today.
Materials: paper, pencils, real coins to look at, plasticine, tools such as wooden sticks and plastic knives, container lids such as for yogurt or cottage cheese to form plasticine shape. (As an alternative to plasticine, air-dry clay has the advantage of being permanent although it is more expensive, a little messier, and must be finished in one stage or it will dry out between stages.)
Teaching Strategies:
- Students sketch portrait busts while at the exhibit, drawing from the side (profiles).
- They write down quotes that are especially visionary.
- Students research (see extension activities below) after seeing the busts and before beginning the art project.
- Back at school, have students closely observe real coins during the design phase as well as while forming the coins.
- They push plasticine into the container lid. They press, pull and pinch the surface of the plasticine to show the head.
- Students write with sticks on the surface.
Closure: Display art work with a statement written by each student artist summarizing what he or she learned about the person and the art process. Allow time for students to appreciate each other’s work, and ask for positive comments to share about others’ work.
Extensions:
For linguistic learning: Research one of the Great Americans through books and the Internet, choosing one whose contribution interests you, whether as an author, mathematician, statesman, doctor, etc. Read historical fiction about the period during which the Great American lived and write an essay or book report on it. For kinesthetic learning: Design a project to present to your class to show the Great American’s contribution, for example, a simple science experiment to show how Samuel F.B. Morse discovered the principle behind telegraphy, or how Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. For spatial learning: Create a 2-dimensional collage of a chosen character using words and images to demonstrate this American’s unique contribution to his or her field.
National Art Education Learning Standards:
- Understanding and applying media, techniques and processes
- Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols and ideas
- Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures
- Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines
