Dispatches: Stories of Struggle in Bosnia Through Jacob Lawrence

Posted on October 23, 2015 by Experiment Station

Phillips Educators Rachel Goldberg and Andrea Kim Neighbors are in Bosnia facilitating workshops on Prism.K12 and Jacob Lawrence with students, emerging artists, and teachers.

Mostar emerging artists 2_Rachel Goldberg

Emerging artists in at OKC Abrasevic art center in Mostar work together to tell stories of Bosnian struggle and migration.

Two days into workshops here in Mostar, Bosnia and already we’re seeing and hearing some amazing stories. We’ve explored Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series with emerging artists and elementary school students and asked them to use this masterpiece of American narrative painting as an inspiration for telling their own important stories. So far, we’ve seen and heard stories of struggle, war, migration, discrimination, and hope from these talented young artists.

In the next few days, we’ll be working with high school students, orphans, and teachers. We’re looking forward to hearing and seeing the stories they share!

Rachel Goldberg, Head of K-12 Initiatives

Elementary students in Mostar.

Elementary students in Mostar created a 3-part collaborative series that told the story of the 1992-1995 War in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mostar emerging artists 1_Rachel Goldberg

Emerging artists in at OKC Abrasevic art center in Mostar work together to tell stories of Bosnian struggle and migration.

The Phillips and Jacob Lawrence in Bosnia

Posted on October 20, 2015 by Experiment Station

Educator Rachel Goldberg’s desk as she packs for a trip to Bosnia.

We’re excited to share that Rachel Goldberg, Head of K-12 Initiatives and Andrea Kim Neighbors, Specialist for School, Outreach, and Family Programs are leaving on a two-week artful adventure to Bosnia. In Sarajevo, Mostar, and Trebinje, we will be facilitating workshops on Prism.K12 and Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series. We invite you to follow our adventures working with young students, teachers, and artists here on the blog and on Twitter @EducatorRachel and @LetsGoToMuseums.

Deconstructing Lawrence’s Struggle Series: Panel 5

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Experiment Station

Jacob Lawrence, Struggle … From the History of the American People, no. 5: We have no property! We have no wives! No children! We have no city! No country!– Petition of Many Slaves, 1773, 1955. Egg tempera on hardboard, 12 x 16 in. Private Collection of Harvey and Harvey-Ann Ross. © 2015 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

This spring, former Phillips curator Beth Turner taught an undergraduate practicum at the University of Virginia focusing on Jacob Lawrence’s Struggle series. In this multi-part blog series, responses from Turner’s students in reference to individual works from the series will be posted each week. Read the introductory post here.

We have no property! We have no wives! No children! We have no city! No country! —Petition of Many Slaves, 1773

The struggle here is related to a slave revolt. The gold-colored mountain or wall in the center is representative of the impenetrable American government that refused to listen to the slaves’ petitions for a better, free life. Lawrence composed this panel to emphasize hardship, but still an unwavering courage to continue fighting.

One of the slaves who participated in a petition for emancipation in 1773 was Felix Holbrook. Holbrook was living in Boston and was a neutralist. This caption is a quote in a letter that Holbrook wrote to the provincial legislature of Massachusetts. He wrote the letter on behalf of his fellow slaves with the intention of finally gaining freedom. The letter was one in a series of four petitions. Holbrook narrates a life of hardship in his petition that compliments Lawrence’s ability to capture the fed-up, but forever brave sentiment of Felix’s letter.

Amy Woo