I recently attended the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Conference in Columbus, Ohio, as I have done nearly every week before Thanksgiving for the past 20 years. The speakers they host and the sessions they offer create powerful, collaborative energy for teachers. It’s the shot in the arm most of us need. The conference is also well-organized, supportive, and inclusive of all teachers of English, no matter how many years you’ve taught, where you’re from, or who you are.
In addition to all the great sessions I attend, I always treat myself to a solitary writing-walkabout at a local art museum in whatever city is hosting NCTE that particular year. Last weekend, I took Saturday afternoon to walk to the Columbus Museum of Art to sit and write and absorb and be inspired.
At the end of my visit, I had written around 15 pages of hastily scribbled notes and impressions and taken about 20 pictures of paintings and sculptures that compelled something in me, that I wanted to return to again. All of this fodder will eventually be turned into something, a collection of scraps that will inspire a poem, a short story, an essay or vignette.
And, as always, I wish I could have had my students with me. We take two field trips a year, one in the spring and one in the fall in order to get out of the classroom and into the world to write. The local university art museum and the local art galleries are our go-to places for inspiration.
While I encourage students to free-range in the museums, some students need a framework for beginning to use art as an inspiration for writing. I offer them the below questions not as a worksheet to fill out, but as a means of engaging with the art. They can answer all or none of these, as long as they write and engage with the works.
Choose one work that speaks to you and stand or sit down in front of it. Make sure you are not obscuring the work for others or causing a barrier for foot traffic around you. Look at the work for a long time, then start writing with, about, or to it.
What story does this work tell?
Write 5 macro and 5 micro details about this work. Pick two of them and use imagery to describe the essence of this work.
Select a color or shape in the work and allow it to dictate the mood of a poem you write about a feeling or a memory you have.
Observe the passing people as they move through the room in and around the art you are observing. In what way does the work itself reflect or absorb the energy of the day?
Choose one element of the work and adopt its point of view. What does the character/element hear? Feel? See? Smell? Taste? What is this character/element thinking?
What choices has the artist made to create this work of art?
Create an inner monologue from this artist’s thoughts and feelings to you as you stand in front of their work.
I hope these questions help your students engage with art as well. The art walkabout doesn’t have to be a get-on-a-bus field trip. Create your own gallery walk with color photos of classic art taped to a wall outside your classroom. Visit your school’s library or cafeteria if there is art work there. Collaborate with your school’s art teacher to view the work of student artists to inspire student writers.