Thinking While Visiting the Bellarmine Art Museum with Undergrads Yesterday for the Arthur Szyck Exhibit

It's always this way when I come across a historical figure, in this case, an artist, who I never heard of before -- I wonder, "How is that my K-12 experiences never brought such learning my way?" or even better, "Why didn't I learn more about this person while I was a K-12 teacher?" Students need to know their history and to gain perspective from their own analysis.

The Crandall joke always returns to my college days and how I never grasped art history. Art, yes. History. Yes, but Art History. No. When Dr. Michelle DiMarzo heard me say this she quipped, "You just didn't have a good art historian in your presence."

I was schooled. She was amazing. And I learned.

Julie Mughal was right, too. This was a well-timed exhibit not only for our Refugee Literature course, but also with World History where we are right now. We asked our students, "How do you think Arthur Szyck would represent today's happenings?" He was a Jewish refugee with Polish/Lithuanian roots, who knew the world deeply, and always advocated for the oppressed. In the piece shared here, Madness, Dr. DiMarzo worked with students on what they were seeing, including the fact that a rattle snake with Nazi symbols crawls out of the globe taken over by the Nazi party. His lampoon takes note that rattlesnakes only exist in the United States - an American creature that also inhabits our country, yesterday and today. I brought up Philip Roth's The Plot Against America, and Dr. DiMarso held her own. She read it, too, which simply wanted me to take her to lunch and discuss more about this art history thing.

I could write for hours about what I'm thinking: the importance of art, the systematizing of hatred against groups and cultures, the righteousness of some, the anti-democracy of others. It's something (as we bear witness in our own country once again...ideologies fall along party lines - but dare they admit it?). 

Truth be told...the experience simply wanted me to read more...to learn more...to unravel more. Arthur Szyck's history hits me the same way as Prudence Crandall's history....stories untold in our schools...most likely intentionally, which is wrong. Why wouldn't we share more about abolitionists and humanitarians?

Ah, who needs Crandall's thinking when you can read more from the Museum itself: In Real Times. Arthur Szyk: Artist and Soldier for Human Rights

It is amazing how much the books we're reading, the conversations we're having, the experiences we're offering, and the artists we're experiencing have interconnected about the enduring question being asked: What about refugees? I remain honored to be able to teach alongside Julie Mughal...a highlight in my teaching career (and co-teaching is usually difficult....with her, it's a breeze). She says it's because she's a middle child Pisces, and I say it's because I'm a middle child Aquarius with a Pisces moon). Either way, we tag-team magnificently and I'm applauding the Great Whatever for bring the two of us together, not just as colleagues and friends, but as educators passionate about what we do.