Fourth Graders Explore Art and History on Field Trip

Fourth Graders Explore Art and History on Field Trip

By Michelle Vitone, Fourth Grade Teacher

Margaret Syan-Russell, our wonderful art teacher, curated an amazing experience for the fourth graders this fall. We journeyed to downtown Portland where we viewed Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe at the Portland Art Museum. Howe is a Native American visual artist. Margaret worked with students before the field trip on how to look deeply at art as well as how to talk about what they are seeing.

Students had the opportunity to see Howe’s artwork, discuss with each other the commentary he shared as an indigenous artist, and read the artist's statements alongside each work of art.

Next, at the Oregon Historical Society, the students toured several exhibits. The highlight was walking through a timeline of Oregon’s history, where we found information about many of the topics we’ve been studying in class, including the Oregon Trail, Letitia Carson (the only Black woman to successfully make a land claim in Oregon under the Homestead Act of 1862), and the internment of Japanese people in Oregon during World War II. The students each found an important artifact in Oregon’s history and thought about its importance to its story. It was great to see the students identify so many things that they have learned about, both past and present.

Added Syan-Russell, “Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe, six years in the making, is a once-in-a-lifetime exhibit, presented by the Smithsonian. Howe is one of the twentieth century's most innovative modern painters, mostly overlooked by the established museums in the country. The exhibit spans 40 years of his life, from a young art student to an award-winning artist. After the field trip, the students enjoyed creating drawings based on their inspiration from Howe's art.”