CONNECTIONS

Scavenger Hunt

Eleanor Norcross Connection

This scavenger hunt, created by Rebecca Chin with help from Ben Ferris, is a tool to encourage kids and people of all ages to take an interest in the Eleanor Norcross exhibit at the Fitchburg Art Museum. Printed scavenger hunts and coloring utensils are provided near the entrance to the museum. The PDF version can be accessed to the right.

Global Africa

Connection Blueprint

Hammond table first floor (level ground)

This week on Wednesday morning from 9am-noon

Our table will display a poster board, global africa flyer (visual), the Indigo Project exhibit picture, a sign with all Thurston Radio/ Fitchburg Art Museum information.

Supplies needed from FAM: Poster board, textiles (cut out), pens/markers, sticky notes

Supplies we have: textiles (cut out), global Africa flyer, global africa article from website, exhibit picture, Thurston Radio / FAM info.

Reason for having a table:

Our Document Design Class is collaborating with the Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM), in promoting the museum as well as connecting the students on campus to the museum. We believe that through our table event this will engage students in learning about the museum, in particular the Global Africa exhibit, giving students the opportunity to ask questions, as well as getting to know a community (FAM) that is based here in the center of Fitchburg, MASS. By having this table, we’re creating a community collage made up of textile prints that show their story (culture, identity, heritage, community values, etc.).

Instructions during our table event to the students that arrive and participate:

Instagram Photos

SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN -Blueprint

A local artist, Nayda Cuevas, displays her creations in the People Watching: THEN and NOW exhibit in the Fitchburg Art Museum. Cuevas’ #Latina:ReclaimingTheLatinaTag focuses on encouraging other Latina women to take pride in who they are. Taking selfies is a way for other individuals to show others how they want to be represented and how they want others to see them as. Her emphasis is on the importance of the individual within the Latina culture, counteracting the stereotype that Latinas are hypersexualized. Our goal for this collage was to build off of individual expression through social media, by taking pictures of students how they want to be portrayed. Cuevas’ miniature creations were replicas of real selfies from Instagram and other social media formed into a painting. Her take on painting selfies is through portraits, as well as self-portraits. In another part of the podcast interview, she mentions how she is who she is because of her culture, how she was raised, and her values and beliefs. From this, she creates her artwork by making pieces that show her culture. The artwork is how she shows her story.

As a social media campaign, our team likes to explore and execute the idea of taking selfies. From the selfies posted on social media, we then turn the photos into one big collage.

This connection relates the Fitchburg Art Museum to the student body and faculty here at Fitchburg State University not only by promoting the new exhibit, People Watching: THEN and NOW, but connecting the concept of selfies in pictures and on social media with how the individual wants to be represented. Our target is mainly college students that use social media everyday.

We asked students from other communications media courses to take part in our activity.

We connected this campaign with all other podcast campaigns by emphasizing creativity, community, culture/heritage, and remembering our roots. This is a community effort because we incorporate all individuals, and we understand that every person is not the same. We emphasize culture because we learn about the artists from the exhibit and learn about not only their process of creating a piece, but also their personal background. We remember our roots, just like Eleanor Norcross, the founder of Fitchburg Art Museum (FAM), remembers her roots back here in Fitchburg, MA. Within, the Global Africa exhibit, there is a reason why those pieces are there, and it is because the artist wants to give visitors an opportunity to experience, learn about another culture, and expand their horizons to other cultures. This reiterates that the artist didn’t forget where they are from. Eleanor Norcross, Global Africa, Nadya Cuevas, and Egypt all in some way or another are rooted in their culture and background and are firm in where they are from.

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On campus connection= We can make an instagram frame. The frame will represent how an individual wants to be seen, or how they want to represent themselves in a picture. Nayda mentions during the podcast how she thinks that selfies are a way to represent self and to express and show personality, to show the world who we are.

Materials:

-Poster board

-Markers

-Printout of Instagram symbols

-Rebecca C.

Here is how the connection turned out!

In order to start the collage, we need participants. These participants are first asked to write down some thing or place that is important to them on a given note card. It can be something they love or cherish, something that they see themselves in and identify with, or something meaningful. There are no restrictions. This represents how to visually show who people are and how they define themselves through their surroundings. These index cards are then collected.

The participants will also be asked to stand for a photo to be taken from the neck down. In artist Susan W. Brown’s pieces, she tends to replace the subject’s face with a white rectangle to mask their identity, but represent who they are through context clues in the surroundings. Some of her work is currently being shown at FAM’s People Watching exhibit. This connection will be conducted with participants from Rob Carr’s classes, as well as others on campus.

The center of the collage will have a piece of paper vertically aligned with the title of this connection, Faces Through Spaces, as well as a description. Around this paper will be the photos of our participants. To either side of all this will be the index cards that were written on. All are anonymous unless someone chooses to write their name. The index cards will be vertically aligned as well in the same way the white squares are within Susan’s pieces.

-Emily Floyd

Pyramid Origami

With Ben

Egypt Proposal:

The purpose of this Egypt connection is for children and adults to understand the Egyptian culture in an interactive way. An important part of Egyptian history was the mummification process. Within the template of the origami are different aspects of the egyptian culture we emphasis besides the mummification process, such as the Pharaohs or hieroglyphics. The main purpose of these pictures is to allow kids a way to interact with egypt and have fun with it. Then if someone is interested, they can learn about the mummification steps on the poster which includes more information.

Origami Steps:

The pieces at the museum and the poster can help to give people a basic understanding of mummification. After learning about the process, they will have an option to fold their own origami pyramid with a step by step video that will be provided. The video will go step by step on how to fold the creation. At the end, there will be pictures of mummies on the sides of the pyramids for children to color. The overall goal is to make functional hands on activity that makes learning about the process fun since you will have something to leave and reflect on.
The materials needed are the templates (depending on how many people will participate, print out “X” amount- they are available on our website for a pdf version printout). Scissors are not necessary but can be used if preferred. Lastly, all that is left is getting some crayons, markers or colored pencils to color in the template.

-Ben Ferris

On the poster students will choose a textile that they feel and believe represents them and their heritage. They can use a piece of tape to attach their textile so it can flip up. On the back of the textile, they can initial and add a quote or phrase that resonates with them or their upbringing.

There will be a border on the edges of the poster where people can answer a general question about their heritage and traditions, as well as add quotes/phrases about traditions.

Question for the border:

How do you define your culture / show your heritage?

Conducted by Emily Floyd, Dillon Hammond, Rebecca Chin, and Ben Ferris

Faces Through Spaces

Susan Connection Proposal

In an effort to visually represent the themes from Susan W Brown’s work through the campus community, the proposed idea of Faces Through Spaces is created. The end result will be a collage piece.