The Art of Getting by in Junior High : The Social Media Artist Study

At the end of the last school year, for our final project, students engaged in something a bit different. The seventh grade students chose artists to research that interested and inspired them. They dove in deep, immersed themselves into the chosen the artists' life and work. We took this information and our artist's perspective and created social media pages.

Students had very few limits on this project. They had to include a profile pic (portrait), work by the artist (we aimed for 3), and it had to be from the artist's point-of-view with quotes (primary sources). We did a lot of discussing about what artists, from a long time ago, would want to express to the people of today. It seems some artists are more tech savvy than others in this digital age. Students collaborated to find the important information and influential work from these famous individuals, and had to work together to find a unique way to present it. Although we all used a similar jumping-off point, no two artist studies look quite the same (even the ones that chose the same artist). All Facebook pages use the same format but, students took that template and let their imaginations run wild.

I was very impressed at how students recreated some of these very famous works of art. The "profile pics" are so expressive and fun! Some of the studies are informational, some are humorous, and most are a good mix of both. If you are reading this via the QR code in the cafeteria, thanks for coming! If you are not, here are a few examples of our Social Media Artist Studies, enjoy!