Lesson video

Hi, everyone.

How are you doing today? I hope that you're really well.

My name's Ms. Afzal, and I'm feeling pretty good 'cause I'm excited for us to get into this lesson today about the power of collaborative art.

Let's begin.

The outcome for today's lesson is I can create a collaborative piece of work that builds community spirit.

Sounds good.

We have some keywords in our lesson today.

They are collaborative and community.

Let's find out what they mean.

So collaborative is to work together with one or more people to communicate common meanings or achieve common goals.

And community is a group of people who share something in common, such as a location, interests, or activities.

I wonder what communities you're a part of.

Even where you are right now, your class is a community.

So our lesson today, This is art: the power of collaborative making, has two parts to it.

There is hands as a symbol in art and then building a sense of community through art.

Let's begin with looking at hands as a symbol in art.

So why do artists create art in the first place? Pause here and share with someone nearby, why do artists create art? I wonder what you came up with.

Maybe something like this.

Let's gather some responses from the group.

They want to express their ideas.

They want to record important events.

They want to copy exactly what they see in front of them.

Do you agree? I wonder if your ideas are similar to these, maybe different.

There are a lot of reasons why artists create art.

Often, artists want to explore their feelings, experiences and observations of the world, and then share their ideas and thoughts with a wider community.

And remember, community is a group of people that we share something in common with.

So maybe we share our location or ideas and so on.

Here's Jacob asking us, "What feelings, experiences or observations have you seen explored in art?" Pause the video and share with someone nearby.

Thanks for sharing.

I wonder ideas you came up with.

Let's have a check for understanding.

True or false? Artists use art to communicate their feelings, experiences and observations.

Pause here while you decide if that's true or false.

Well done if you selected true.

And now I'd like you to provide a justification for your answer.

So why is it that artists use art to communicate their feelings, experiences and observations? Pause here and share your answer with someone.

I wonder if you came up with something like this.

Artists use art in many ways, but often it's to explore their feelings, experiences and observations of the world around them.

Not all artists work alone.

Some artists explore feelings, emotions and observations collaboratively with other artists.

When artists collaborate, they work together to communicate common meanings or achieve common goals that can build community.

I love that, we've got both our keywords there, collaborate and community.

An early example of collaborative art was cave art.

Different members of the community often added to the paintings.

I wonder if you have ever seen images of cave art or perhaps even been in a cave and seen some cave art.

I'd like you to complete this sentence.

Not all artists work.

Some artists explore feelings, emotions and observations by, with other artists.

So pause here and complete the sentences by filling in the missing words.

All right, hopefully you came up with the words alone and collaborating.

Let's read again.

Not all artists work alone.

Some artists explore feelings, emotions and observations by collaborating with other artists.

by coming together to create, find common meaning and achieve goals together.

And here we have an image of a cave painting.

This is called Cueva de las Manos or Cave of Hands.

It's in Argentina.

Take a look at that.

How do you think this artwork was created? Maybe a little clue in the title of this artwork.

Pause the video, share with someone nearby.

Thanks for sharing.

And also, what does it make you think of? What comes to mind as you're looking at this? Again, pause here.

Share with someone nearby.

What does it make you think of? Thanks for sharing.

The Cueva de las Manos, Cave of Hands, is a cave painting found in Argentina, Patagonia.

It was created between 7300 BCE and 700 CE, a pretty long time ago.

The age of the paintings were calculated by analysing the remains of bone-made pipes, used for spraying the paint on the wall of the cave to create silhouettes of the hands.

I wonder if you can guess how many hands there were in this cave painting.

Any ideas? Over 2,000 handprints were stencilled in and around the cave.

This demonstrates that it was a collaboration between many people.

Why do you think these ancient people chose the symbol of the hand to spray on the wall? Pause the video, share with someone nearby.

Why did they choose the hand? I wonder what ideas you came up with.

We'll be exploring more about hands shortly.

And now let's check for understanding.

What does Cueva de las Manos have over 2,000 stencils of? Figures, handprints, animals.

Pause the video while you choose.

Yep, absolutely, it's handprints.

Here's Andeep and Sofia, and they are discussing possible reasons these ancient people sprayed their hands on the walls.

Andeep thinks, "The hand is an important symbol that can represent an individual, lots of hands together could represent a whole community." Sofia, "We might put up our hands in class to get noticed, maybe they're telling us that they were there and they want to be remembered." Love those ideas.

I wonder who you agree with more, or perhaps you have a different idea about why these ancient people have sprayed their hands on the walls.

The hand has been used to connect and communicate ideas across communities throughout times and cultures.

How many different ways can you think of where we use our hands to communicate in everyday situations? Pause the video, share with someone nearby.

How do you use your hands to communicate in everyday situations? Okay, so what did you come up with? I wonder, how do we use our hands to communicate? Here are some ideas.

We often shake hands when greeting, when greeting people.

Hands are often used to show signs of respect, like the BLM fist, which shows solidarity.

We can clap our hands or click our fingers when we like something.

Oh yeah, I love that one.

I wonder if you came up with these ideas, maybe some more as well.

I also like this movement of hands.

This is how clapping is communicated in the deaf community.

Throughout history, since the hands were stencilled in the Cueva de las Manos painting, artists have regularly featured hands as symbols in their work.

Examples include Albrecht Durer's "Praying Hands," Hindu Hastakara Yantra paintings of a hand, Betye Saar's "Black Girl's Window, Sonia Boyce's "She Ain't Holding Them Up, She's Holding On, Some English Rose," Zarina Hashmi's "Ten woodcuts: the hand," and Laila Shawa's "Hands as Amulets." So many amazing examples of hands in art for us to explore.

Andeep and Sofia again.

They are discussing the artworks that include hands as an important symbol.

"There are so many similarities between the hands in the Cave of Hands, the Hastakara Yantra, Zarina Hashmi's hand prints and Laila Shawa's artwork.

And they're all from different times and cultures," exclamation mark.

Yeah, good point, Andeep.

And Sofia.

"Yes, I agree! Hands are often what we use to connect to each other, and art also creates that connection.

Maybe they're saying we have a lot in common?" Yeah, great points.

What do you think? Do you agree with either of Andeep or Sofia's views, or do you have a different idea? Pause the video and discuss what your idea is about why hands are such an important symbol in works of art.

It's time for your first task.

I would like you to create a dotted outline of your hand.

What I'd like you to do is place your non-writing hand over your sheet of paper, spread your fingers wide across the page, and then with your writing hand gently create lots of dots in between your fingers and around your hand.

And remember, don't use an outline.

Pause the video here and enjoy your task.

Okay, it's good to be back with you.

How did you get on with that task with creating a dotted outline of your hand? And there are many possible outcomes that you might have created, perhaps something like this.

Here's Izzy.

"It took me some time to get used to not drawing an outline." That's what we're used to doing, isn't it? Often we put our hand down, we draw an outline.

"And to just use dots like the hands in the cave painting.

But, I'm pleased with how it came out!" I'm pleased to hear that, Izzy, and I hope you're pleased with your outcome.

There are often times during our lives when we have to join a new community or group.

This could be when we start a new club, like Scouts or cadets, or when we start a new job.

One of the most significant times we have to join a new community is when we move from primary school to secondary school.

It's normal to feel a range of feelings.

You might feel excited, happy, nervous, scared, hopeful or curious.

There's no right or wrong way to feel when big changes happen.

Andeep and Alex are discussing how they feel about the transition to secondary school.

"I was super excited to move to secondary school! I can't wait to try all the new subjects!" Yeah, I love that.

And here's Alex.

"I was excited too, but I also found moving to a new school really difficult.

I definitely want to make friends and feel comfortable here." Yep, I hear you, Alex.

It's a mixed bag.

There's a whole range of different shades and colours to this experience of big change.

How do you feel about new transitions, such as starting secondary school? Pause here and share with someone nearby.

And now, for the next part of your task, using your handprint, I would like you to share your individual feelings about a time of transition, such as joining your secondary school.

So you could include what you're excited about.

So as Andeep, excited about all the new subjects, maybe something like that.

Anything that makes you nervous or uneasy, finding your way around, making new friends.

What are your hopes for the future? What you want to learn about.

Experiences you might want to have.

Maybe there are clubs you want to join, after-school activities you wanna get involved in.

You could add patterns, images, symbols or keywords that represent your feelings.

So pause here while you get back to your handprint and share your feelings about this time of transition.

And you can just go for it, using words, symbols, images, patterns, lines, whatever is gonna help you express how you're feeling about this time of transition.

I'll see you when you're finished.

Pause the video here.

Okay, so how did you get on with that activity? Let's find out what some of the others said.

So Lucas says, "I'm really excited about making new friends as I am the only person to come to this school from my primary school." Sam's "looking forward to learning new subjects like drama as I want to be an actor." Ooh, I love that.

And Alex, "I will miss my teacher from primary school and I'm nervous about finding different classrooms." Oh, yes, secondary schools can be pretty big.

Here's Izzy.

"I wanted to add both writing and patterns to show my feelings.

The arrows represent change, the swirls represent uncertainty and the explosions represent excitement!" Oh, I love that.

What a great mixture.

And also I can see some words in there as well.

So Izzy's got this whole selection of patterns, little images and words.

Here's Lucas.

"I have mixed feelings about joining a new school, I'm really excited but also very nervous.

I put positive words in capital letters on the fingers." Oh yeah, I love those.

Let's read those.

We've got hope, future, dreams, curious, fun.

Love it.

"And I scattered my other feelings on the palm." Let's read some of those.

Being alone, old friends, new building, future dreams, sad to leave my old school.

Yeah, I can see, there's such a mix of things going on there.

Oh wow.

Lucas has taken it to the next level.

"I then decided to outline the words in black to create contrast.

I like that it looks like an x-ray! It looks like my feelings are part of my bones!" Yeah, feelings are a big key part of us, absolutely.

I love the way you've made those really stand out.

Great job, Lucas, and I hope you enjoyed making your creations.

And now let's move on to the next of our lesson, building a sense of community through art.

In the Cueva de las Manos, there were thousands of individual hands that all came together to represent the community.

For a community to be successful, it is important that the members feel safe and that there is mutual trust and respect.

When building a community, it's important to consider what shared values and beliefs you think are important.

What shared values and beliefs do you think are most important when building or joining a community? Pause the video.

Share with someone nearby.

I wonder what answers you came up with.

Let's see what Andeep and Izzy had to say.

"I think being kind and supportive of others is really important." Totally, get that, Andeep.

And Izzy, "I think teamwork is important and to take responsibility for our learning." Yep, great ideas.

Maybe you had some similar ones, maybe something different.

Let's check for understanding.

Which of the following are important aspects of building a community? Safety, trust, respect.

Pause the video while you decide.

All of them! When people or artists collaborate, they develop common values and beliefs to enable them to form a community, and safety, trust and respect are really gonna help with that.

Artists often collaborate with others to create artworks that build community.

These could be within a specific community or it could be about reaching out across communities.

Anouk Verviers led a project called "In Between Desks," which linked school groups across Europe and Canada to discuss shared experiences of education.

Studio Lenca often collaborates with refugees and displaced people to help build community.

Check for understanding.

True or false? Artists use art to collaborate and build connections with others.

Pause while you decide if this is true or false.

Well done if you selected true.

And now I'd like you to elaborate on this.

Why? Why do artists use art to collaborate and build connections with others? Pause the video while you share your answer with someone nearby.

Maybe you had an answer like this.

Artists use art to build connections with other people and groups, often working together to develop a project.

Now it's time for your next task.

I would like you to create a collaborative artwork to build community.

Getting all of our keywords in there in this task.

Building on your personal experience from Task A, discuss what shared values and beliefs you think are important to build a collaborative community.

So for the first part of your task you're gonna create, you're gonna come up with a list of words or statements that are gonna communicate your chosen values and beliefs.

You could look for, what were some of the repeated words in your writing? What were some patterns? What do some of the patterns that you created represent? And come up with some new ideas for important values and beliefs.

So pause the video here while you come up with a list of words and statements to communicate your chosen values and beliefs.

Okay, so what did you come up with? Perhaps you wrote something like this.

Be kind and include everyone.

Be curious about learning new things.

Take care of our space.

Listen to each other's ideas and viewpoints.

Lovely, beautiful ideas.

And now, onto the next part of your task.

Choosing one of your values or selected words, write on the back of your hand from Task A.

And consider the composition as you do this.

You may want to write a series of words following the shape of the hand.

You may want to write using an interesting composition.

You may want to use colours or patterns to create emphasis, and consider the scale of each word.

So pause the video here while you choose some of those values and selected words and write them on the back of your hand from Task A.

Pause the video here.

Okay, you may have come up with something like this.

Here's Izzy.

"I chose to write 'listen to each other's viewpoints and ideas,' as I think a good community is interested in what everyone thinks." Love how you did that, Izzy, and those words are so clearly represented on the hand.

And now onto the final part of your task.

I'd like you to discuss how you could combine the hands together to represent your community.

Consider these questions.

How could we display the work to show the hands coming together to form a community? What are the common values we shared as a group, and how can we emphasise this through composition? You may want to hang your hands on a string so you can see both sides, stick your hands onto a wall showing different sides, or arrange them in different patterns.

Pause the video while you decide how you want to combine the hands together to represent your community.

Pause the video here.

Okay, good to be back with you.

I wonder how you decided to arrange your hands to show your community.

I love all the hands that we can see on the screen there.

They're looking so great.

Here's Izzy.

"We all had similar values and mentioned things like sharing and being respectful, but not many of us have mentioned being kind, and I think that's really important in a community." Okay, yeah.

Thanks for noticing that, observing that, Izzy.

"We thought we could create a kindness wall sharing all of our thoughts and feelings." Wonderful.

I love the idea of a wall.

And here's Lucas.

"To show community and coming together, we wanted to display the hands so everyone can see them from both sides.

We suggested to hang them across the classroom to remind us of our shared values." Another wonderful idea.

Maybe that's what you chose to do.

In our lesson, This is art: the power of collaborative making, we've covered the following.

Artists often explore using hands or symbols to share their feelings, experiences and observations of the world and communicate the meaning they have formed from this.

Artists use creative skills and imagination to create opportunity for building community.

Artists can collaborate and work together to communicate common meanings or achieve common goals.

When artists collaborate, they develop common values and beliefs to enable them to work well together and form a community.

It was great working together with you today on this lesson, and I hope you enjoyed it.

See you next time.