I had an amazing experience last night in my Women in Art History Class. I showed a movie about The Harlem Renaissance last night. I only hesitated because out of the 1 hour movie, it really only spent about 10, 12 minutes on women artists--and we're running out of time in the semester. I decided to go with it, however, because a) my students' had no knowledge of the subject, b)it is a compelling and fascinating documentary, 3) it went a long way to explain the diversity of styles found in the work of Lois Mailou Jones and 4) because the African-American artists of the Harlem Renaissance share a similar history with that of women artists.
Still, during the movie, I could hear students moving about in their chairs and I worried that it was too off topic for the class...
I was wrong.
When the film was over, before I turned the lights on, roughly 1/3 to 1/2 half of the students were clapping! I was moved, delighted that they enjoyed the film as much as they did and we enjoyed a wonderful and insightful discussion thereafter.
Sometimes, I just love being wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment