Witness & Legacy - Contemporary Art about the Holocaust

Witness & Legacy in the Schools

     In 1996, the Knoxville Museum of Art launched a major initiative establishing a new paradigm for in-depth museum/school programming. A unique partnership in the development and presentation of the exhibition, Awakening the Spirits: Art by Bessie Harvey, was created with Austin-East High School, an inner city minority magnet school of 700 students. The tremendous success of this model has led to the development of a similar project during academic year 1997-98 in conjunction with the exhibition, Witness and Legacy.
     Witness and Legacy has provided a rich opportunity for the Knoxville Museum of Art to collaborate with two diverse high schools, Austin-East and West (an urban socio-economically diverse school of 1,400 students), towards a unique understanding of this significant historic event. It has also provided an important forum for the rich exchange of ideas and work between two very different community cultures within this area. Students and faculty from both schools worked together with the museum staff in the planning, interpretation and presentation of this exhibition and all related programming.
     Two planning teams, representing the faculty, administration and students of both schools and working with the museum staff, met for several months and established program goals:

to provide the diverse faculty and student populations with direct involvement in the many aspects of exhibition interpretation and presentation
to present multi-disciplinary faculty training on the Holocaust and related issues
to introduce the students to the Holocaust through a wide range of disciplines, information, and experiences
to create opportunities for faculties and students of two highly diverse schools to work together to create "bridges of understanding"
to disseminate to the schools information, programs and resource materials on the Holocaust developed by faculty and students at both high schools and the KMA staff; and
to involve community representatives and parents in all aspects of planning and implementation

     This project was developed to be multi-disciplinary and integrated into the curriculum of almost all classrooms (social science, language arts, foreign languages, music, drama, visual arts, vocational arts, marketing and computer science) in both schools. Learning activities were taught not only by appropriate members of the joint faculty and museum staff but also by local and regional artists, writers, musicians and historians. Issues related to the Holocaust were examined and interpreted during 16 days of art residency experiences, led by artist Susan Harrison. Creative writing and poetry were created during 23 days of residency experiences led by Leslie LaChance and Heather Dobbins. A student video project was directed by David Drews, a West High School intern from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The resulting student art was presented in the museum; performance pieces were showcased at the Knoxville Museum of Art to their schools, other schools and the general public. (You can sample the students' works by clicking on the links to the right.) Students researched the Holocaust and its impact on different cultures through a variety of national and international resources (Internet, museum/libraries, interviews with participants). They assisted in developing explanatory text. Teams of students planned a symposium on the Holocaust for other high school students and orchestrated a community opening celebration. It is estimated that approximately 1,000 students were involved in this highly unique and enriched experience.
     Collaborating with the students were the 175 members of the Austin-East and West High School faculties. Their participation has been enhanced by two joint one-half day in-service programs led by experts in the Holocaust. A community advisory committee composed of representation from the Jewish community, parents from both schools, Holocaust survivors and liberators, and community leaders provided valuable resources to the program and assisted in its guidance. One key advisor has been Dr. Gilya Schmidt, Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Tennessee and an expert on the Holocaust.
     On January 11, 1998, a busload of 24 teachers, 12 from each high school, 5 students, and 6 museum staff traveled to Washington, DC and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The purpose of the trip was to learn how to teach the Holocaust through different educational disciplines. The Holocaust Museum's educational staff involved the teachers, students and KMA staff in two days of classroom work.
     The implementation of the Witness and Legacy project had a multi-faceted impact on both Austin-East and West High Schools:

a rare opportunity for over 1,000 students to become integrally involved in the development and implementation of an exhibition and related interpretive programming
experiences in professional development and new strategies for teaching curriculum for 175 faculty members
an important vehicle for community involvement and visibility; and
a forum for the rich exchange of ideas and work between two diverse schools

The impact on the Knoxville Museum of Art has also been profound:

the development of a successful program model which integrates the resources of the museum directly into the curriculum of high schools
the addition of a "community voice" and diverse point of view to exhibition interpretation; and
the opportunity for audience development and expansion

VIRTUAL TOURS

Museum Installation
[ IPIX | QTVR 1 | QTVR 2 ]

VIDEOS