Telling community stories: although this mural experience focused on New York City stories, the process can be adapted to any locale.

What do Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Helen Keller, Lena Horne, and Christopher Walken have in common? They all lived in Queens. The borough of Queens is significant to the history of migration and immigration in New York City. In the early 1900s, the borough had a population of 152,099. Currently, in 2002, the population estimate is more than 3 million.

The unique history of Queens is illustrated through the creation of Procession: A Mural About Migration and Immigration in Queens. Funded by a college grant, part of the curriculum for the Mural Painting Class included historical research and contemporary oral histories. Students incorporated this research into the mural-making process. Over a period of four months, eleven graduate art education students interviewed a diverse group of immigrants. They studied historical records of famous Queens residents and documented their stories as part of the process. Since most interviews came from family histories that went back two or three generations, the class gathered stories that spanned the past hundred years. These interviews led to the creation of original drawings and designs, which were then incorporated into a final full-scale rendering. The project offered the community a deeper understanding of the generations who came before us.

An Interdisciplinary Approach

The aesthetic challenge for students was to produce a professional and sophisticated work of public art that tells a collective story. Procedures included gathering oral histories of a cross section of people who represent the area, historical research, and design decisions. From the oral histories, students represented their impressions of immigration and migration through photographs, drawings, collage, and paintings. We shared in the strengths associated with interdisciplinary approaches for our students, most of whom were prospective teachers. Students utilized oral history methods from the social sciences, mural creation from fine arts, and communication skills from the foreign language classroom.

Pre-Service to Public School

Many of the New York City public school teachers who worked on this mural, are now using the mural experience in their own classrooms. At the elementary level, an after-school mural club works with the theme of famous African Americans who lived in the neighborhood; and a secondary level program uses murals as a framework for understanding the community through art and local history.

Although this mural experience focused on New York City stories, the process can be adapted to any locale. The following unit plan describes how the disciplines of art, foreign language, and social studies are taught through the examination of the mural-making process.

Art and History Connections

Oral history provides teachers with an opportunity to transform stale textbook stories into living lessons as the experiences of people known to students take center stage in the classroom. By generating documents that are their own primary sources, students create personal texts that balance the panorama of history in their textbooks. They compare the experiences of their interview subjects with the experiences described in textbooks. Thus, the use of personal stories not only promotes critical thinking, but also sparks an interest that may motivate further study, or help students obtain another perspective. The stories of those who migrated to the United States serve as material to be illuminated through artistic media.

Art and Foreign Language Connections

Language teachers spend considerable time studying the literature and culture of the languages they teach. Knowledge of aesthetics and artistic works are often a part of the language teacher's preparation. This makes language teachers excellent resources for culture-based interdisciplinary units. They understand the need to be vigilant. They also understand that teachers and students need not act as "spokespersons" for the people who speak the language of study. A balance is needed to insure that students present an insider's perspective, and that teachers relate assignments to global and local diversity.

For the purposes of community mural making, the language skills of interviews, transcription, composition, revision, and recording come into play. The overarching goal is to aid students in communicating in the required language.

Interviews

Students use their language skills to gather information to develop subject matter for the mural. Students may rehearse their interview questions and audiotape responses for later transcription. In most instances, the questions are simple: "When did you or your family come to the United States?" "Why did your family move from your previous homeland?" "Describe your first memories of life here." The interview tapes become a part of the historical record of the community.

Transcriptions

Students engage in learning new vocabulary and expand their knowledge of culture and history by translating and transcribing portions of the tapes. Transcriptions become the focus of student's own written and artistic compositions. They allow students to revisit the interview session, and write, and sketch initial impressions based on what was heard.

Composing

Students develop narratives, focusing on a group of people, a particular theme from several interviews, or a variety of other topics. It's important for students to focus on issues that come out of the interviews, rather than imposing their own agendas. As the compositions are drafted, revised, and corrected, students begin to develop simple drawings based on the narratives. The descriptions and details offer ways to re-image words into pictures, background details, and colors.

Revising

Most proficient writers do not simply revise once. They tend to revise as they go along, adding information, expanding, moving, and rethinking their expressions. This process worked well in the mural unit, as new insights or angles emerged during discussions of information learned from interviewing.

Recording

Students express what they have learned and add their own thoughts about the experience by making audio or video recordings.

Community Support

An advisory board, made up of a cross section of community organizations, enables input prior to the painting of the mural and garners support from the community. It also serves to diffuse possible misunderstanding by allowing representatives to clarify specifics that might be inadvertently missed by the mural makers/designers.

Conclusion

A work of public art was created and rooted in the personal narratives of a cross section of Queens residents. We hope this article may stimulate further discussion and understanding about the relationship between art, foreign language, and history in the interest of art, social change, and personal development. Public art-making in schools offers teachers a chance to cross disciplinary boundaries, transform common themes and curriculum, and create a learning environment that releases the imagination through the power of art.

NATIONAL STANDARD

Students synthesize the creative and analytical principles and techniques of the visual arts and selected other arts disciplines, the humanities, or the sciences.

Rikki Asher is an assistant professor of Art Education at CUNY Queens College in Flushing, New York. David Gerwin is an assistant professor of Social Studies Education at Queens College. Terry A. Osborn is an assistant professor of Educational Linquistics and Second Language Education at the University of Connecticut.