Engage students with project ideas and activities using interview techniques, role-play, creative writing, economic analysis, scientific exploration, historical and political research, mural painting, service learning, music, dance, and graphic arts.
Zarai Zaragoza’s art is influenced by the colors, murals, and Mexican-American culture of the Chicago Pilsen Neighborhood where she grew up. Her art focuses on the multifaceted stories of Latino communities. By employing techniques of silk screen printing, acrylic painting, and other mixed media art, color, texture, and line/pattern are manipulated to communicate, not only her story, but the many complex experiences felt by her community. Aware of immigration and immigration issues, knowing the fear and the complexity that is intertwined into each experience, she pushes her art forward to make people feel and relate, opening up spaces for conversation around the exploration of one’s own relationship to culture, identity, and emotional and mental responses to anxiety among other overwhelming experiences. She studied Studio Art and Education Studies at Middlebury College and is currently the Visual Arts Teacher at Noble Network of Charter Schools.
Gabriel DaSilva has liked drawing since he was in first grade in Brazil; but when he came to the US, his passion for art grew even more. He believes that art is a way of expressing feelings; art is therapy for making people feel good about their thinking. Art is international. You can see a painting from any other place or country without knowing the meaning behind it, but you are able to translate it into your “language” just by seeing, not speaking.
Gabriel DaSilva has liked drawing since he was in first grade in Brazil; but when he came to the US, his passion for art grew even more. He believes that art is a way of expressing feelings; art is therapy for making people feel good about their thinking. Art is international. You can see a painting from any other place or country without knowing the meaning behind it, but you are able to translate it into your “language” just by seeing, not speaking.
Janice Frame (Contributing Educator – Immigration and Imagination Through Images and co-coordinator of pilot program) holds a B.F.A. from Fisk University in Fiber and Textiles and Art Education, and a M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from Cambridge College.
She has been, for the past 35 years, an art educator K -12 on Martha’s Vineyard. Prior to becoming a part of the island community, she taught art in Westfield, MA and in Dekalb County public schools in Atlanta, GA. She also taught weaving as an adjunct professor at Morris Brown College in Atlanta.
Janice has been an integral part of the island art community both in the visual arts and theater arts. She managed the Field Gallery in West Tisbury for four seasons. She is the artistic director of the book Borders to Bridges: Arts-Based Curriculum for Social Justice, and co-coordinator of the pilot program in the Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools. Link to artwork website. Link to Style article.
Artist Fátima Ronquillo Jarrillo was 16 years old and living in the U.S. when she painted this watercolor of her 80-year-old Indigenous Mazateca grandmother standing in a field in Oaxaca in southern Mexico.
Fátima Ronquillo Jarrillo moved back to the United States to study in high school at age 16 and painted this watercolor of her 80-year old indigenous Mazateca grandmother standing in a field in Oaxaca in southern Mexico as an expression of her pride in her Mexican heritage. Fátima is currently studying for her BFA at UMass Dartmouth.
(In “Engaging Students and Families in Cultural Exploration” lesson plan)
Washington Ledesma states that his work is about a basic and simple reflective truth. In the process of creation, the work on clay, paper, or canvas flows without any hesitation, spontaneously, with great vitality and with joyful sense of aliveness. His pieces celebrate all our existence within this ancient, universal truth we carry forward through ourselves from the generations we came from to the future of humankind. Ledesma has gallery exhibits of his paintings and sculpture in his studio and has sponsored other artist exhibits. He teaches classes at Featherstone Center for the Arts. Website.
(In “Exploring through Poetry III: Exposure to Many Poems” lesson plan)
Zarai Zaragoza’s art is influenced by the colors, murals, and Mexican-American culture of the Chicago Pilsen Neighborhood where she grew up. Her art focuses on the multifaceted stories of Latino communities. By employing techniques of silk screen printing, acrylic painting, and other mixed media art, color, texture, and line/pattern are manipulated to communicate, not only her story, but the many complex experiences felt by her community. Aware of immigration and immigration issues, knowing the fear and the complexity that is intertwined into each experience, she pushes her art forward to make people feel and relate, opening up spaces for conversation around the exploration of one’s own relationship to culture, identity, and emotional and mental responses to anxiety among other overwhelming experiences. She studied Studio Art and Education Studies at Middlebury College and is currently the Visual Arts Teacher at Noble Network of Charter Schools.
Tina Medina, artist, educator, and curator earned her BFA degree at Texas Tech University and MFA degree at the University of North Texas. Since 2006, Medina has served as a full-time professor of art at the Mountain View campus of Dallas College. As part of Nuestra Artist Collective, she is curating and collaborating on a traveling exhibit that features women artists who make art about the border. Through an exploration of fibers, painting, video, and audio, Medina’s art reflects U.S. American history from the point of view of the underrepresented voices in our communities such as people of color, farm and domestic workers, the undocumented and women and children.
Website: www.tinamedina.com
Instagram: @tinamedina_art
Artist Tina Medina, Barreras/Barriers, 2017, flag, felt and thread, 60 inches x 33 inches, private collection of Marian Lefeld. Photo by Melissa Gamez-Herrera.
Medina’s art making involves fibers, performance, assemblage, painting, and drawing. She juxtaposes soft materials with the harshness of the devastation of families being separated or in danger or destroyed. She weaves flags together to show the complexity of belonging in Chicana identity and records voices to document the tenacity of a diverse community. She states “As a US born American woman of Mexican ancestry, I embrace the theory of Xicanisma, a concept that engages and recognizes the indigenous roots of the Chicana identity. In this ‘Xicanciousness’ I am aware that borders are imaginary, and people were displaced by the invention of land ownership and how indigenous peoples’ loss of power still affects us.”
(In “Roleplay Part I: Refugees and Asylum Seekers” lesson plan)
2021, mixed media, 4.5 inches x 8 inches x 2 inches, photo by Melissa Gamez-Herrera.
“I find it essential to revisit the history of the U.S. to remind ourselves how the past informs and shapes the present… My artwork speaks about power and the consequences of colonization and assimilation. I contemplate the loss of culture and tradition and consider the reconfiguration of creating a new sense of self. In my work I explore juxtapositions of history with cultural symbols to reflect the narratives of those whose stories are left untold.”
(In “Transforming an Object to Tell Your Story” lesson plan)
Photo credit courtesy of photojournalist Santi Palacios. See website.
Santi Palacios took his first photo at 10 years old, and at fifteen he photographed violence with the aim to fight against it. These images led him to study Sociology combined with photography studies and to become a photojournalist. From his base in Barcelona, he works with NGOs, news agencies, and various Spanish and foreign media and has focused on migratory routes. His most recent awards include the Spanish National Photojournalism, the Latin America Pictures of the Year (POY Latam), and the World Press Photo awards. With Mikel Konate, he has created Coming Ashore, a short multimedia documentary that gathers coverage on the Eastern Mediterranean migratory route. See website.
(In “Imagination through Images” lesson plan)
Althea Freeman-Miller is a Printmaker and creativity coach on Martha’s Vineyard. The mission of Althea Designs is to empower others to seek joy, celebrate life, live connected to authentic-self purpose, and remember it is in our human nature to be creators.
Artist Emiliano Campobello “Mother and Child in Guatemala” original art print on canvas
Art created with the loving intention to heal, inspire, and nurture
Emiliano Campobello is an artist and activist for environmental/human/indigenous rights. He grew up in a progressive Chicano/Feminist/Pacifist family. His father, an educator, was one of the founders of the Chicano Studies Program for the University of California system. Emiliano creates harmonious, inspiring spaces with his murals by transforming walls, ceilings, and floors with painted illusions. A graduate of U.C.S.B., Emiliano also draws on 12 years of artistic experience in Europe, where he studied marble sculpting with his “maestro” Francesco Grazioli in Italy and decorative arts in The Netherlands. Emiliano also plays indigenous flutes, and is devoted to bringing peace, healing, and inspiration to people through his art and music. www.emiliano-art.com
(In “Nightmares and Dreams: Inside Detention” lesson plan)
João Kulcsár is a leader in cultural education and visual literacy in São Paulo, Brazil. He is a professor and photography coordinator at Senac, a curator, teacher and photographer. João was the visiting scholar at the Harvard Graduate School of Education where he created the featured photography project and exhibition with Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers (MAPS). He received a MA in Photography from the University of Kent. He also works as the Director of the Alfabetização Visual (Visual Literacy) describing photography as a tool of transformation. For more see website.
Barney Zeitz’s sculpture, fused and stained-glass pieces and public memorials are both elegant and energized. The touch of the artist’s hand and passion is imprinted in the metal and glass. His memorials preside with dignified energy in the Wang Center of Performing arts, Boston, the Vietnam Era Memorial on Martha’s Vineyard, the Rhode Island Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Immigrant Memorial at Plymouth Rock, and the Diversity Sculpture in Fall River. The Permanent Endowment for MV is now sponsoring his project The Fliedem Stained Glass Windows Project for the present Evangelical Church in Flienden, Germany which was formerly a synagogue prior to WWII. Website.
Photo by Keri Pickett courtesy of Winona LaDuke of HonorEarth.org Indigenous Vision for a Sustainable Future
“Mestizo” (1974) screen print on paper Exhibit Smithsonian American Art Museum
Artist Amado M. Peña Jr. is recognized as an Artisan of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of Arizona. This is a particularly high honor and one that he cherishes. He is dedicated to furthering the public’s knowledge and interest in the Tribe, its art, its history, and its culture.
(In “Exploring through Poetry II: Creating a Poem” lesson plan)
Jessica Herrera is a resident of Lynn, MA who graduated from Lynn English High School in 2017. She is currently a student at Salem State University majoring in Business Administration. A lot of her work reflects the history of her parent's home country, El Salvador. She has been with RAW Art Works, a non-profit youth organization, for four years. RAW has provided so much support and is like her second home. Contact.
(In “A Story for a Child” lesson plan)
Artist sculptor Barney Zeitz (Website) Diversity Sculpture for Fall River Government Center. Inscription: “To the Enduring Memory of Our Ancestors: Indigenous Peoples, then immigrants, the enslaved and refugees. May we, their descendants, together with newcomers, help build a more just and peaceful community.”
(In “What’s in a Name” lesson plan)
Brick mural courtesy of Winona LaDuke of HonorEarth.org Indigenous Vision for a Sustainable Future
(In “Living Literature” lesson plan)
Zarai Zaragoza’s art is influenced by the colors, murals, and Mexican-American culture of the Chicago Pilsen Neighborhood where she grew up. Her art focuses on the multifaceted stories of Latino communities. By employing techniques of silk screen printing, acrylic painting, and other mixed media art, color, texture, and line/pattern are manipulated to communicate, not only her story, but the many complex experiences felt by her community. Aware of immigration and immigration issues, knowing the fear and the complexity that is intertwined into each experience, she pushes her art forward to make people feel and relate, opening up spaces for conversation around the exploration of one’s own relationship to culture, identity, and emotional and mental responses to anxiety among other overwhelming experiences. She studied Studio Art and Education Studies at Middlebury College and is currently the Visual Arts Teacher at Noble Network of Charter Schools.
Pawlet Brookes, MBE, is the founder, CEO and artistic director of Serendipity, pioneering the establishment of Let’s Dance International Frontiers, an annual dance festival in Leicester, and coordinates Black History Month Leicester. An accomplished an experienced senior manager and producer, Pawlet has been at the heart of the development of Black arts centers across the UK and was awarded BME Woman of the Year at the East Midlands Women Awards 2018, and received an MBE in New Years Honours in 2022. Pawlet has edited several publications about dance and cultural practice, most recently Identity and Choreographic Practice, Invisible Visibility: Diverse Voices within Inclusive Dance and Ancestral Voices: Dance Dialogues in 2018. Serendipity, Let's Dance International Frontiers.
Roseline de Thélin, Ph.D. Candidate, Founder of Art21 Studio: Ibiza Baleares–Expressive Arts, Digital Media & Contemporary Arts. Roseline is an interdisciplinary visual artist, creativity coach, expressive arts teacher and art therapist committed to share her experience in artistic investigation, consciousness shift, innovation and the processes of change. See website.
(In “Dreamwork Empowerment” lesson plan)
Photograph from the exhibit in Madrid, May 2019 of corregious photojournalists Creadores de Conciencia en el Círculo de Bellas Artes
(In “Life River - Flow of Humanity” lesson plan)
Courtesy of Art and Resistance through Education (ARTE)
Favela Painting courtesy of Edgartown, Elementary School art teacher Nicole Shank
(In “Activism: Creating A Mural/Graffiti Project” lesson plan)
From Bodas de Sangre/ Blood Wedding video created with 70 high school students with help from community advisors from Noche de Hablar Español
(In “Community Connection—Stretching Outside the Classroom” lesson plan)
From Bodas de Sangre/ Blood Wedding video created with 70 high school students with help from community advisors from Noche de Hablar Español
(In “Community Connection—Stretching Outside the Classroom” lesson plan)
From Bodas de Sangre/ Blood Wedding video created with 70 high school students with help from community advisors from Noche de Hablar Español
(In “Community Connection—Stretching Outside the Classroom” lesson plan)
From Bodas de Sangre/ Blood Wedding video created with 70 high school students with help from community advisors from Noche de Hablar Español
(In “Community Connection—Stretching Outside the Classroom” lesson plan)
From Bodas de Sangre/ Blood Wedding video created with 70 high school students with help from community advisors from Noche de Hablar Español
(In “Community Connection—Stretching Outside the Classroom” lesson plan)
From Bodas de Sangre/ Blood Wedding video created with 70 high school students with help from community advisors from Noche de Hablar Español
(In “Community Connection—Stretching Outside the Classroom” lesson plan)
An Afghan family and two Cameroonians arrived at the border between Russia and Finland. Credit ©Carlos Spottorno 2016
Carlos Spottorno, award winning photographer and educator, was born in Budapest, raised in Rome, Paris and Madrid. He graduated in painting and printmaking at the Rome Academy of Fine Arts and was a student at the Loughborough College of Arts & Design, in the UK. His long-term photography projects usually gravitate around economy, politics, and social issues. He has published seven books and exhibits and lectures in numerous international venues and photo festivals. He is currently a permanent member of the Spanish Prime Minister's team of communication advisors. Contact Carlos Spottorn.
(In “The Bag” lesson plan)
Bruno Catalano is a Moroccan born sculptor who followed his Sicilian born parents to France at 10 years old. He worked as a sailor, studied modeling, and is also an electrician. A flaw in one of his sculpted figures in 2004 inspired his renowned sculptures of “Travelers” (Les Voyageurs), figures with hollowed out body parts. Bruno Catalano's work is represented exclusively by Bartoux Gallery, De Medicis Gallery and Ravagnan Gallery. Website.
(In “What Is a Refugee? Refugee or Migrant?” lesson plan).
Artist photographer Leo Frame captures Miles Davis (1971, Northampton, MA.). Frame says, “Seeing a powerful photograph can impact a person’s awareness, philosophy, and opinions. It opens doors releasing the spirit which can lay dormant until seen with the mind’s eye.”
bio: Leo Frame M.A., educator, mentor, financial advisor, photographer, and activist began studying with distinguished photographer Robert “Bobby” Sengstacke at Fisk University in 1967. As a Black photographer inspired by many great artists, Frame reflects his environment and love for community by taking up the challenge to portray Black America as poignant and beautiful. He has amassed more than 10,000 negatives for an artistic retrospective of politics and music of the 60s and 70s for exhibition.
(In “The Three Layers of Culture” lesson plan)
Ellen G. Levine, MSW, Ph.D., ATR-BC, REAT is a child and family therapist at Sick Kids Centre for Community Mental Health in Toronto. She is the co-founder and a core teacher at The CREATE Institute in Toronto (three-year training program in expressive arts therapy) as well as a Core Faculty member of the Arts, Health and Society Division at The European Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland. Ellen is the author, co-author and co-editor of many books in the field of expressive art therapy. Her most recent book is Play and Art in Child Psychotherapy: An Expressive Arts Therapy Approach (2015).
(In “A Call for Hope: A Mixed-Media Project” lesson plan)
Photo credit: Victoria Dryfoos
Victoria Dryfoos (see Other Contributing Educators) also photographer of Tepeyuano art and Huichol artists José Benitez Sánchez and Julio de la Cruz Días
(In “Mindfulness Exercises” lesson plans)
Huichol Artist José Benitez Sánchez
Photo credit: Victoria Dryfoos
(In “Mindfulness Exercises” lesson plan)
Huichol Artist Julio de la Cruz Días
Photo credit: Victoria Dryfoos
(In “Warm-Up Games”)
Artist Janice Frame “My work, I hope, will serve as a creative connection between the African diaspora and western culture. It is this connection the causes my creative forces to react.”
Janice Frame holds a B.F.A. from Fisk University in Fiber and Textiles and Art Education, and a M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from Cambridge College. She has been, for the past 35 years, an art educator K -12 on Martha’s Vineyard. Prior to becoming a part of the island community, she taught art in Westfield, MA and in Dekalb County public schools in Atlanta, GA. She also taught weaving as an adjunct professor at Morris Brown College in Atlanta. Janice has been an integral part of the island art community both in the visual arts and theater arts. She managed the Field Gallery in West Tisbury for four seasons. She is the artistic director of the book Borders to Bridges, and co-coordinator of the pilot program in the Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools. Link to artwork website. Link to Style article.
(In “Supplements”)
Irisz Lihua Zhuang was born in mainland China where she finished secondary school, then immigrated to the Netherlands where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague. She received a Master of Art and Design Culture from the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong, and a Certificate of Advanced Studies (C.A.G.S.) from the European Graduate School Division of Arts, Health and Society where she is a doctoral candidate. She lived and worked in Hong Kong as a freelance arts facilitator for ADAHK (Arts for Disabled Association of Hong Kong), special schools, rehabilitation centers, facilitator for teacher trainer workshops for schools and organizations, and in her private studio applying Expressive Arts Therapy. She currently resides in Toronto where she pursues her life as an artist studying Expressive Arts as a helping tool for mental health and well-being.
(In “Personal Narratives”)
Poet/writer/photographer Justen Ahren Graffiti outside Moria Camp, Lesvos, Greece.
Justen Ahren is an artist and poet, photographer, musician and writing workshop facilitator living on Martha's Vineyard. His current project, After the War for the Valley uses multimedia to create experiential theater performances on the displacement of people. He is author of two collections of poetry, A Strange Catechism and A Machine for Remembering. His work and music can be found on his website.
(In “Poetry, Prose, and Short Fiction” supplement)
Illustration credit: "Illegal Raven" by Joanna Wroblewska, 2018
Joanna Wróblewska is a visual artist and art educator with a Ph.D. in Visual Arts. For more than 10 years, she worked with international students of various ages. Currently, she studies Expressive Arts Therapy in Germany and Switzerland. She is especially interested in working with refugees and migrants who came to Berlin, Germany in last couple of years. Website. Email: contact@joannawroblewska.com
(In “Poetry, Prose, and Short Fiction” supplement)
Jessica Herrera is a resident of Lynn, MA who graduated from Lynn English High School in 2017. She is currently a student at Salem State University majoring in Business Administration. A lot of her work reflects the history of her parent's home country, El Salvador. She has been with RAW Art Works, a non-profit youth organization, for four years. RAW has provided so much support and is like her second home. Contact.
(In “Poetry, Prose, and Short Fiction” supplement)
Janice Frame (Contributing Educator – Immigration and Imagination Through Images and co-coordinator of pilot program) holds a B.F.A. from Fisk University in Fiber and Textiles and Art Education, and a M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from Cambridge College.
She has been, for the past 35 years, an art educator K -12 on Martha’s Vineyard. Prior to becoming a part of the island community, she taught art in Westfield, MA and in Dekalb County public schools in Atlanta, GA. She also taught weaving as an adjunct professor at Morris Brown College in Atlanta.
Janice has been an integral part of the island art community both in the visual arts and theater arts. She managed the Field Gallery in West Tisbury for four seasons. She is the artistic director of the book Borders to Bridges: Creativity-Based Immigration Curriculum Guidebook K12, and co-coordinator of the pilot program in the Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools.
(In “Poetry, Prose, and Short Fiction: Women and Children in Detention Trilogy” supplement)
Gabriel DaSilva has liked drawing since he was in first grade in Brazil; but when he came to the US, his passion for art grew even more. He believes that art is a way of expressing feelings; art is therapy for making people feel good about their thinking. Art is international. You can see a painting from any other place or country without knowing the meaning behind it, but you are able to translate it into your “language” just by seeing, not speaking. While still in high school, he created the artwork contributions for Borders to Bridges.
(In Appendices)
Ellen G. Levine, MSW, Ph.D., ATR-BC, REAT is a child and family therapist at Sick Kids Centre for Community Mental Health in Toronto. She is the co-founder and a core teacher at The CREATE Institute in Toronto (three-year training program in expressive arts therapy) as well as a Core Faculty member of the Arts, Health and Society Division at The European Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland. Ellen is the author, co-author and co-editor of many books in the field of expressive art therapy. Her most recent book is Play and Art in Child Psychotherapy: An Expressive Arts Therapy Approach (2015).
Ellen G. Levine, MSW, Ph.D., ATR-BC, REAT is a child and family therapist at Sick Kids Centre for Community Mental Health in Toronto. She is the co-founder and a core teacher at The CREATE Institute in Toronto (three-year training program in expressive arts therapy) as well as a Core Faculty member of the Arts, Health and Society Division at The European Graduate School in Saas Fee, Switzerland. Ellen is the author, co-author and co-editor of many books in the field of expressive art therapy. Her most recent book is Play and Art in Child Psychotherapy: An Expressive Arts Therapy Approach (2015).
Photo credit courtesy of photojournalist Santi Palacios. See website.
Santi Palacios took his first photo at 10 years old, and at fifteen he photographed violence with the aim to fight against it. These images led him to study Sociology combined with photography studies and to become a photojournalist. From his base in Barcelona, he works with NGOs, news agencies, and various Spanish and foreign media and has focused on migratory routes. His most recent awards include the Spanish National Photojournalism, the Latin America Pictures of the Year (POY Latam), and the World Press Photo awards. With Mikel Konate, he has created Coming Ashore, a short multimedia documentary that gathers coverage on the Eastern Mediterranean migratory route. See website.
(In “Imagination through Images” lesson plan)