Mennello Museum of American Art, The

MMAA will be able to provide elementary students with a pre-recorded or live video adapting our Art Trunks on the Go program highlighting the works of Earl Cunningham. The program will remain similar to the classroom experience, led by MMAA Curator of Art and Education Katherine Page, but designed for students and parents to engage with each other to learn about talking through art! It is a great lesson to pair with the history and ecology of Florida.

Engaged students will be able to explore Florida’s diverse history and unique environmental landscapes through the paintings of treasured American Artist, Earl Cunningham (1893-1977). Often considered an American Fauve, Cunningham’s paintings, on permanent display at the Mennello Museum, evoke a strong sense of time, place, and social equality while inspiring the endurance of individual creativity. Students will draft and create 2 or 3-D representations of their own favorite places, concentrating on the setting progressing to the actions and depictions of the people who live there. They can explore both traditional and nontraditional art mediums such as pastels and charcoal or even colored pencils (whatever you have at home!).

Students participate in discussions of folk art and Earl Cunningham’s work using Visual Thinking Strategies participating in respectful discussion demonstrating evidence-based opinions and observations. They plan and design their own compositions of their own favorite places.

Students analyze significance of history, location, and representation within art through the choices of Earl Cunningham who depicted natural environments at various times of day, during all seasons, and who included a diverse representation of peoples in America within a natural sanctuary.