Indigenous Designs
Virtual Workshop
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Throughout time, patterns have inspired artists around the world, and they still do! Use shapes and colors to create a repeating pattern of your own on a piece of functional art.

Workshop Outcomes

  • Students will describe and identify patterns in artwork from various cultures.
  • Students will create a design using repeating shapes and colors.
  • Students will identify a “parfleche” as a work of functional art in the Native American collection.

Content

Content

Students will take a virtual tour of the Nelson-Atkins collection in search of distinctive designs from various cultures, including Native American functional art. Inspired by their observations, students will make a “parfleche,” focusing on the design elements of shape and color to create patterns and balance.

Parfleche Envelope

Adaptation

Tapestry Woven Medallion Rug

Curriculum

Visual Arts
Create artwork using a variety of processes and materials.
Brainstorm multiple approaches to an art or design problem.
Identify and analyze cultural associations suggested by visual imagery.

Math
Recognize and construct lines of symmetry.

Social Studies
Describe ways in which artistic creations serve as expressions and influence behavior of a particular culture.

Vocabulary

  •  Design: An arrangement of lines or shapes to create a pattern or decoration.
  • Pattern: Decorative visual repetition (organized and random)
  • Indigenous: Originating or occurring naturally in a particular place; Native.
  • Balance: Harmony of design or proportion.
    • Asymmetrical – Organization of a design so that unlike objects have equal visual weight.
    • Symmetrical – Organization of a design so that elements are the same on either side of a central axis.
    • Radial – Organization of a design so that elements branch out from a central point.
  • Shape: An element of art that is two-dimensional and encloses space.
    • Organic – An irregular shape or one that derives characteristics from nature.
    • Geometric – Any shape having more mathematical than organic design such as circle, square, triangle, rectangle.
  • Functional Art – Works of art intended to be used in a practical way in addition to being aesthetically pleasing.
  • Parfleche – A Native American rawhide bag

Pre/Post Workshop Activities

Pre-Workshop Activities:

  • Read a book to your class that includes designs from various cultures. Some suggestions are: Gift Horse, S.D. Nelson, Anansi the Spider, Gerald McDermott. The Singing Snake, Czernecki and Rhodes.
  • Most of the indigenous people who once inhabited land in Missouri and Kansas were forced to leave and resettle in Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma, Nebraska, and Kansas) during the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Research and learn about the native peoples of this area. Here are resources you can use to find out about various tribes from Missouri: https://libguides.jeffco.edu/missouritribes Kansas: http://www.knaa.ks.gov/default.htm
  • The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian site, Native Knowledge 360, has many resources for teachers developing in-depth lessons for their students.
  • Brainstorm or research modern day symbols. What shapes and colors do you see? How do they inform us about the idea or object they represent?
  • Have students create symbols that represent aspects of themselves: personality traits, skills, cultural connections, etc. What shapes and colors could you use to represent something about yourself?

Post-Workshop Activities:

  • Collect a variety of objects found in nature such as leaves, flowers, butterfly wings, wood, feathers, seed pods, etc. Provide a magnifying glass to look closely for patterns. Ask if the students see symmetrical, asymmetrical, or radial balance. Compare these patterns and designs with those seen in the virtual tour.
  • Like Jamie Okuma’s Adaptation, many of the works in the museum’s Native American collection include beadwork. Beads were introduced to the Native Americans by the Europeans in the 16th century. Beaded necklaces and other goods were traded with the people of various tribes in exchange for animal skins, furs, and meat. Before this, native makers sewed porcupine quills into the decorative elements of their work.
  • Listen as Jamie Okuma talks about her beading work: Jamie Okuma
  • Listen to Teri Greeves, a beadwork artist enrolled in the Kiowa Indian Tribe, talk about beading Converse tennis shoes.
  • Using self-hardening clay, make your own beads for a necklace or to decorate a functional object such as your backpack. Here is a link to instructions for making clay beads.
  • Watch other Native American artists talk about their work in these videos from the Nelson-Atkins YouTube channel:

 

Register

To register, please click on the following and read our guidelines.

Virtual Workshop Guidelines & Registration

Virtual Tour Requests for fall 2021 will be accepted beginning September 1, 2021. Scheduling for 2022 will begin on December 1, 2021.

The Zoom link/password will be sent in an email 7 days prior to your event.

  • Each teacher needs to register for their own class, please do not schedule for others.
  • Encourage students to participate! The experience is best when students engage with museum educators and one another through the chat function and/or through spoken discussion.
  • Be respectful of yourself and others, both when speaking aloud and typing in the chat.
  • Students will enter the workshop on mute.

Group Size
Due to the interactive nature of this experience, virtual school workshops are intended for classes of 30 or fewer students watching together, on individual devices, or remotely from their homes. Please email StudioWorkshops@nelson-atkins.org for more information or questions about virtual capacity.

Art Kits
If you request art kits for your workshop, be sure to provide an accurate attendance number. This enables us to provide supplies to as many students as possible. If your anticipated attendance changes, send an updated count, up to 3 weeks before your scheduled workshop to StudioWorkshops@nelson-atkins.org. The kits will be available for pick-up at Coat Check during regular museum hours 2 weeks before your workshop date. You will need to provide the name of the teacher who registered, and the date and time of your workshop at pick-up. PLEASE NOTE: Art Kits are not provided for the Curator for a Day workshop, but additional digital resources are provided online.

Chaperones

  •  Minimum of one adult chaperone is required for your Virtual Field Trip.
  • Chaperones may be a teacher, para-professional, parent, or other school staff member.
  • Chaperones help monitor chat appropriateness, assist students with technology issues, and encourage participation and respectful behavior.
  • Ask chaperones to identify themselves by hovering over their displayed name in the participants list and clicking “Rename”. Example: Name, chaperone.

Technical Requirements for Live Virtual Tour Experiences

Option 1 In-person class with a digital projector or smartboard including a computer with camera, microphone, and internet connection. It’s best if computer audio is connected to speakers to allow the entire classroom to hear the museum’s educators.

Option 2 In-person class with individual devices connected to the internet and headsets for each student.

Option 3 Remote (at home) each student will need a device connected to the internet to participate via Zoom’s chat feature.

How We Connect
The link/password to your Live Virtual Workshop will be sent in an email 7 days prior to your event.

Test Calls: Test calls are recommended before your first Virtual School Workshop and take only 3-5 minutes to complete. The test call will be scheduled separately via email one week prior to your Virtual Field Trip.

One week before your scheduled Live Virtual Workshop: A Zoom link and password will be included in an email with information about how to connect with us via Zoom at the scheduled date and time. The automated emails are sometimes filtered out, so please check all your mailbox folders.

Day of scheduled Live Virtual Workshop: Click the Zoom link to connect 5-10 minutes before the scheduled date and time of the Live Virtual Workshop.

If students are working remotely, share the link with each of them and all chaperones. If this is your first time using the Zoom platform the link will prompt you to install the free software; installation should take less than two minutes and does not require the creation of a zoom account. If students are working remotely please have them login earlier to allow time for download if needed.

Late Starts
Due to multiple scheduled events, we may not be able to extend your Live Virtual Workshop. Please have everyone ready to begin 3-5 minutes before your confirmed, scheduled time.

Cancellations and Changes
To cancel or make a change to your scheduled Live Virtual Workshop please email studioworkshops@nelson-atkins.org. Please include your name, phone number, order number, name of school, and date and time of your scheduled visit. Cancellations are requested at least 48 hours before your scheduled event.
All changes to date, time and workshop will require the cancellation of your scheduled event and a new request to be submitted via the Virtual Workshop Request form, requiring at least three weeks advance submittal for a new date.

Questions?
For additional information please email StudioWorkshops@nelson-atkins.org

We look forward to working with you!

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