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Lesson Plans


Re: censorship

[ Thread ][ Subject ][ Author ][ Date ]
Leon R. Nuell (lrnuell)
Wed, 6 Mar 1996 15:01:36 -0600 (CST)

There is a big (gigantic) difference between pornography and nudity as
found in objects and images in museums. Adults make problems for kids
when they insist that nudity as seen in the museum is nasty, evil and
pornographic. Find your city's poicy definition of pornography and use
that as a basis for discussion with teachers about how the museum images
differs. Teachers should inform parents of the museum trip, of the fact
that there are depictions of human figures with and without clothing and
to so inform the teacher if their child willnot be permitted to go on the
field trip. We have failed in our education of adults re the notion of
art and representation of the human form.

On Tue, 5 Mar 1996, Kathrine L Walker wrote:

> For all the art teachers out there - Try working in a museum where nudes
> and controversial subjects are part of the permanent collection! I have
> encountered everything from teachers asking me to drape paintings and not
> use slides of bar scenes from the collection (even though it had a direct
> bearing on the program). The funny thing is, that the children
> themselves rarely have much of a problem with the material (yes, I get an
> occassional giggle about a nude sculpture, but we simply stop to disucss
> why an artist might need to study the human figure. The giggles usually
> dissapate soon after they see I am taking the work seriously!) How many
> of you have had to fig-leaf Leonardo Da Vinci's Proportions of the Human
> Figure? Join the club!
>
> Wish I had a solution:-)
>
> Kathrine Walker, Beach Museum of Art/Kansas State
>