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The students at Marysville Elementary are of a very diverse cultural background. With as many as eighteen different languages that are spoken within the school itself. Many of the students have recently come from their homelands in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Central America with their family to create a new home here in Portland, Oregon. Other students were born here in the United States, after their family resettled here within the past ten years. The Marysville Elementary community is incredibly diverse and hopefully through projects like the Marysville Pictograph Project we can create a greater connection between the different cultures by honoring the history and culture of the Clackamas Chinook.
The importance of art within culture is pretty apparent if we look at the history of human kind. It is in part through art that cultures have developed their unique identity that makes them who they are. At this point of time, we are seeing a lack of art within the public schools here in Oregon and throughout the rest of the United States. What do we lose when art is removed from our public education systems? It is crucial especially in a community so diverse to establish a way of communication through creativity when diversity causes seperation because of language and cultural barriers. So how do we connect the various cultures? It is usually the children that become the bridge for their parents when they find themselves in a foreign nation. The children are put into school to start learning how to speak english and to earn an education as their parents learn to adapt. The parents usually find themselves disconnected from the rest of the community as a result of not being able to speak english. Many of these families were forced to leave their homes from abroad as a result of poverty, politics, and war. Art is not only a way to communicate, but also a way for children to process all that they have been through, whether it be the trauma they experienced back in their homeland or learning to have to adapt to their new home here in Portland. The creative process is so important in helping to heal and to transform emotions that have been locked up inside.
Esme's Paintings
The 65 4th and 5th grade students got the chance to create art for two hours each week during the last 7 weeks of 2005-2006 school year. Scott Sutton worked with three different classes each week creating art and teaching the students about the importance of art, culture, and history. The main focus of the project was for the students to recreate the story of "Tongue" through painting and ceramics. The students studied pictographs and petroglyphs from the Columbia River, but also from Africa, Austraillia, Asia, Europe, Central America, and South America. By emphasizing the importance of the art within the cultures throughout the world, the students learned how to communicate ideas, stories, and visions into their own art. Embracing the art and culture of each child's ethnic background is vital to their own personal connection with their own heritage and development into adulthood. Cultural identity is so important for a child especially when we live in a world that has become a vicitim of diaspora. Learning about other cultures allows for the students to develop an understanding and respect for each other while building relationships that honor the differences that exist within each culture. As a result the students also gain a sense of self and an awareness of the uniqueness of their own cultural background.
Below are three categories that can be selected to see more images of the students painting, making paint, or woking with clay. Please click on the image to visit each page of the students in the creative process.
Below are three categories that can be selected to see more images of the students painting, making paint, or woking with clay. Please click on the image to visit each page of the students in the creative process.
PAINTINGS
CERAMICS
PAINT MAKING
Marysville Pictograph Project
Student's
Art
Art