April 2025 UPDATE: Less than 100 days in to Trump’s second regime DOGE demolished the NEH, among many other wonderful organizations. Thereby cancelling MY summer program in DC. I hope I will be able to one day reverse this statement & we can bring back a healthy federal government. Until then I resist.
Sunday, June 18
I had a VERY early flight into Detroit, I thought I was going to spend the day exploring the city but with my bag and general early flight/pregnancy exhaustion I just walked a little then mostly sat and read my book. I found out our AirBnb was in an awful neighborhood so I was not going to hang out there one second before my roommates showed up later that evening; the Uber driver was really reluctant to even drop me off there.
Monday, June 19
We met the other participants over museum-provided breakfast & ice-breaker activities, and then we went over the agenda overview for the week. We then got to visit the Toledo Museum of Art’s exhibit Expanding Horizons: The Evolving Character of a Nation that serves as a foundation to our week’s curriculum. I do with we could have spent more time together in that exhibit.
That afternoon we had a discussion on some contemporary Indigenous artists (Marie Watt & Ken Williams, Jr.) and we were presented with the Art Minute assignment were supposed to make by the end of the week.
That evening a small group went out on a Toledo Boat Tour (not worth the money) and then we did dinner together.
Tuesday, June 20
This morning we visited the art library and conducted some research. I will say I felt that the research morning was too early in the week; we had just been presented with what we were supposed to do and suddenly expect to research it without any other lecture or gallery visits to get our minds turning. At least I knew I wanted to do Marie Martinez because she was in the Expanding Horizons exhibition and one of her black-on-black ceramic pots is in the AP Art History curriculum.
That afternoon we had a lecture on the history of contemporary Native American art (Wendy Red Star & Shan Goshorn) and another one on Newark earthworks. The galleries were closed today so we did not get to go in – I was so bummed!
My roommates and I went to a Detroit Tigers game that evening – what fun! Unfortunately, no one else in the group was as adventurous as us so we did pretty much all our evening outings together.
Wednesday, June 21
The last two days were focused on Native American artists, and today that shifted to African American art and we went back into the galleries! We spent the morning in the Black Orpheus: Jacob Lawrence and the Mbari Club exhibition with a lecture by the curator and a gallery activity. (P.S. Jacob Lawrence is also in the AP Art History curriculum).
That afternoon we had a lecture on contemporary black artists from the museum (Alison Saar & Kara Walker) and then an activity that was WAY outside my comfort zone but so cool – we got to make glass art! Apparently Toledo is known as “glass city” (because of the Libby Glass family) and they have a history of glass art. Watching someone blow and make glass by hand was breathtaking. We did not blow glass for our activity, thankfully, but we were given a glass square to decorate with glass pieces that was then put into the kiln for us to take home. Mine hangs in my classroom now. 🙂
Thursday, June 22
This morning was focused on SmartHistory’s Seeing America online material, which is a fantastic tool to diversify the history curriculum (it focuses on US history but there is a lot that can be pulled for other courses).
The afternoon fell a little flat for my personal interests but it was a good behind-the-scenes look at art collecting and protecting. We visited the print study room and had a visual tour of the art book Ragmun Collection of Folkquit Stories by Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson. Last for the day, we went outside for a mindfulness session that felt like it did not connect with anything else for the week.
Friday, June 23
I loved this morning’s session on reframing history highlighting Titus Kaphar and Kehinde Wiley. The Kaphar painting was Shadows of Liberty, a reinterpretation of George Washington on a horse versus white-created historical portraits. We also watched the TED-Talk “Can art amend history?” by Titus Kaphar that I NEED to figure out how to incorporation it in my AP Art History the classroom.
The afternoon was fun and pretty low-key. The founder of Black Art Library came with a collection of books and spoke about her goals of collecting and promoting literature on black artists. It was wonderful to see her passion for her project. We ended the day with short presentations on our Art Minute Assignment and then I had my flight home that night a 9:50 pm.
JMF
P.S. this has been the only NEH I have done that did not require any pre-reading, at first I was pleased (less to do!) but in retrospect, it meant I showed up with no background at all and I think it served as as detriment.
