http://www.umuc.edu/colorinfreedom/
March 4th -8th

      For the next two weeks in art the 4th and 5th grade students will be exploring a series of pieces painted by the African American artist, Joseph Holston. The work is entitled "Color in Freedom: A Journey along the Underground Railroad".  The students will be responding to the artwork as literacy for a grade. They have two weeks to complete this project.  See the link above to view the virtual tour of Mr. Holston's work.



In “Color in Freedom: Journey along the Underground Railroad,” Holston joins generations of artists who created art to deepen understanding of history. Created in four distinct movements, and unfolding like a great symphony, the works chronicle specific periods in the saga: Arrival in the Unknown; Living in Bondage—Life on the Plantation; The Journey of Escape; and, Color in Freedom. Included here are selections from the exhibition. The entire collection of 50 works, including 32 paintings, as well as numerous etchings, studies and drawings, has been traveling to museums and galleries throughout the United States and abroad since 2009.The exhibition is divided into four parts:
Part one: Arrival in the Unknown
Part two: Living in Bondage- Life on the Plantation
Part three: The Journey of Escape
Part Four: Color in Freedom (a celebration of attaining their freedom)

Part one: Arrival in the Unknown

The series starts out depicting the Africans as Kings and Queens in their native home of West Africa.

Next we see several paintings that show them being taken captive and chained together. 

Next we see them getting off the boat where they had to live in deplorable conditions. They are then introduced to the plantation owners.

They are surrounded by the strangers and sold like animals.  They are torn from their families.  They intentionally separated them so they would feel alone and hopeless.  They often never saw their family members ever again. Even the little children were separated from their mothers and fathers.

We see their despair in the colors and in their body language.

Part Two: Living in Bondage-Life on the Plantation

They were shown their duties on the southern plantation which kept them busy from sun up to sundown.  Their chores were many and very hard.  Not only did they have to work for the plantation owners after their hard days work, they then had to live in deplorable conditions in the camp.  They had all their own chores to do in order to live.  They were often beaten, if the owner did not like the way they performed their duties.  They were abused in many other ways as well.  Life as a slave was harsh, and left little hope for happiness.

Part Three: The Journey of Escape

They began to hear about a better life in the north.  There were other white people who believed slavery was wrong and were willing to help them escape.  The route to slavery was called the Underground Railroad.  The slaves had to memorize the journey, and also used freedom quilts to help them remember the route to follow.  If they were caught, their owners would beat them and often hang them to death for all to see.  They hoped this

would discourage others from trying to escape.  If they were successful, they would travel by night and sleep, hidden in the houses or barns of those that thought slavery was bad. They had to learn to follow the stars and use other signs to find their way along the hard and scary journey.  They were encouraged by others, like Harriet Tubman to make their way to freedom. Harriet Tubman was an African American woman, who escaped from slavery in the South.  She returned many times to the south to rescue both family members and non-relatives from the plantation system. She led hundreds to freedom in the North as the most famous "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, an elaborate secret network of safe houses organized for that purpose.

Part Four: Color in Freedom

In this part of the series, we see them celebrating their new found freedom, and we see the change not only in the body language, but also in the color pallet that Joseph Holston chose to express the hope and gladness they now felt!

    Your assignment will be to write a paper about how Joseph Holston’s artwork told the story of the African slave,s journey from being  taken into captivity in Africa, to how they made their way to freedom through the Underground Railroad and all the parts in between. I have given you a summary of all the events covered in Mr. Holston’s works of art.  Your paper is due no later than one week from today.  You will need to turn it in by your next art class next week.  Make sure it is neat. Feel free to type it if you like.   This is a major part of your grade.  It requires not only your knowledge of the artwork, but writing skills as well.   You need to make sure that you structure your paper in the following way.  To be complete, it should include an introductory paragraph, 4 paragraphs(one for each of the sections Mr. Holston divided his work into) and a concluding or summary paragraph. Each paragraph should include all of the following topics.

Introductory paragraph:

This paragraph should include the following points.

*The purpose of the paper

* Who is Joseph Holston?

* Who is the artwork about?

* What story is the artwork trying to tell overall?

* Tell about how Mr. Holston broke his series of paintings into four distinct sections and name those.

Next paragraph: Arrival in the unknown

 This paragraph should describe how they were taken captive, and lead to an unknown world across the Atlantic ocean.  Be sure to include how they would have felt, how they were chained together and how they were treated.  Next, talk about meeting the plantations owners and what happened to them and their families.

Next paragraph:  Living in Bondage-Life on the Plantation

    In this paragraph, be sure to tell about their daily responsibilities and what it was like to be a slave. 

Tell how they might have felt, and how were they abused.

Next paragraph: Journey to Escape

   In this paragraph, tell about how the heard about the Underground Railroad, Harriet Tubman, and those who believed slavery was wrong.  Tell how they traveled to freedom, and what that process looked like.

Next paragraph: Color in freedom ( celebrating their new found freedom)

   In this paragraph, be sure to tell how the artwork changed, and how the newly freed slaves might have felt.

Concluding paragraph:

   In this paragraph, be sure to summarize how effective you thought Joseph Holston artwork was in communicating the journey of the African slave to freedom. Do you believe that art can be just as powerful as words in communicating a story?  You decide and state your opinion in this paragraph. Is a picture worth a thousand words?  You decide!