Pre-Visit Lesson Plan

For the exhibit- We Make the Road by Walking
Sama Alshaibi and Beth Krensky, on display at the Mizel Museum, October 11, 2007- January 24, 2008.

The title of this exhibit, We Make the Road by Walking, is borrowed from the book by Myles Horton and Paulo Freire. This book is a written conversation between two men who dedicated themselves to education and social justice, and believed that all people must be taught to actively participate in creating their realities and in sharing that experience.

This exhibit is a collaboration between Beth Krensky, a Jewish American artist and Sama Alshaibi, an Iraqi-Palestinian Muslim American artist. Krensky is a sculptor who uses themes of religion, immigration, family history and motherhood in her artwork. Alshaibi is a photographer who is interested in some of these same themes, but also what roles women have in a religious culture, living between two different types of cultures, and what happens when someone does not fit the expectations of their family legacy.

Class Discussion

What do you think is meant by the title of this exhibit?

Who is the “we?”

They made “the road by walking,” how else are roads made?

Why not by driving, or running, or stomping? What does it mean to walk? How fast does a road get made that way?

What are roads for?

What do roads symbolize?

Does their road actually exist?

Where do you think the road leads?

Can an imaginary road cross time? Space?

How can a road and a border be the same? How are they usually different?

What do you think it will feel like to “walk” the road that these two artists have created?

How do you maintain a road that has been made by walking?

Possible projects before visiting

Have your students discuss instances from their personal lives of “divide,” a time of disagreement or misunderstanding that seemed very important to them. Ask them to think about how they could develop a symbol or visual narrative that represented the situation. If there was a reconciliation, ask them to also consider how they could represent that visually.

Have your students discuss instances when they, or other people, have crossed a divide to create a connection in support of something they believed in, like peace, justice or reconciliation. Some examples of well-known people who have engaged in this process are: Nobel Laureates: Dr. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandella, John Hume and David Trimble, Rigoberta Menchú Tum, to name just a few.

Spend time discussing historical and contemporary cultural, racial, or religious divides that your students know something about. Ask them to think about ways that they see these divides. How are they personally connected? Do they have a belief about which side is right and which is wrong, or perhaps both sides being right and wrong? How did they come to this conclusion?

Discuss ideas about barriers and borders, real and imaginary. How can they cross those barriers? What are ways that art and artists can be used to cross those divides?

Discuss different kinds of artistic collaborations and how art objects can engage in “discussion” with each other and the audience.