Art Escape: Washington DC

Art Escape: The Smithsonian Institute
Washington, DC
May 14-16, 2010

On Friday, May 14, 2010, I and my colleagues of artsAPS Cohort # 2, under the guidance of Dr. Colette Hopkins, boarded an Amtrak train from Atlanta, GA heading to Washington, DC. Prior to boarding, I had already gone online to visit the Smithsonian website and had made some preliminary decisions about where I wanted to visit upon my arrival in DC. On the website, I discovered a Motown Exhibit scheduled to be housed at the Anacostia Museum during the time of our visit. So naturally, I selected the Anacostia Museum (http://www.smithsonian.org/visit/whatsnew/AN.ASP) as my first experience of the day. The second experience I chose was the National Museum of African Art (http://www.smithsonian.org/visit/whatsnew/nmafa.asp). I planned to visit these two museums.

On Saturday, May 15, 2010, we arrived at Union Station in Washington, DC. The group quickly assembled to go over the plan for the day. We broke up into groups. The Anacostia group got together, got into three taxicabs, and headed for the Anacostia Museum. After taking a series of photographs outside, we then proceeded in.


I entered the building, I could hear the receptionist telling members of our group that the Motown Exhibit was gone. I was a little disappointed but I proceeded to the exhibit that was currently there. It was called The African Presence in Mexico: From Yanga to Present, Who are we Now? Roots, Resistance, & Recognition. The artwork in this exhibit told the story of the existence and contributions of people of African descent in Mexico for almost 500 years. I had no idea until I saw this exhibit, that Africans had arrived in Mexico with the first Spanish conquistadores.


I saw a huge parallel with the Mexicans of African descent and African Americans. Their plights were similar, they were taken from Africa through slavery, a caste system was forced on them by their oppressors, and they still struggle for their unwritten contributions to be placed in the history books where all people can have access to their contributions. I also discovered that there was collaboration between the African Mexicans and African Americans. There was the Underground Railroad in Mexico, the Louisiana Creole Connection, and the Black Seminole Migrations. The Mexican Americans have also provided a safe haven for African Americans and Latinos seeking more freedom than they were offered in America.
The second experience we experienced at the Anacostia Museum was a hands-on music workshop experience with Bill Jenkins. As arts educators, this was a wonderful way to start the day. It was meaningful to us because it connected to who we were and what we do. He had a large variety of instruments from percussion to stringed instruments. Bill Jenkins’ World of Music has over two hundred music instruments. It was a wonderful musical experience and we enjoyed exploring a large range of instruments that we don’t get to perform on in our work environments on a day to day basis.

When we left there, I went on visit the African Art Museum. When I entered, there was a live performance going on in the basement. It was a modern dance presentation and it was very informative and enlightening. I particularly enjoyed the education on the top ten components to look for in a modern dance number.
After I left the modern dance exhibition, I went on to visit several other exhibits in this museum. There one was that stays in my mind daily. It was an exhibit by Paul Emmanuel of South Africa. His exhibit is called Transitions. The subject of his work that I related to the most was A Rite of Passage, which depicted a series of images of young men marching to military camp to get their heads shaved for induction into the military. This drawed me in because my father, who is now deceased, was a military man. The white t-shirts hanging on the clothes line and the men getting haircuts reminded me so much of him. Paul Emmanuel has comprised a series of seemingly photographic pieces of artwork. However, they are not photographs. A museum guide explained to me that he takes a fine steel blade and obsessively scratches away the black exposed and processed emulsion that coats photographic paper. I noticed not only black and gray colors in his work but also rust colored tones that I was told was created by the weight of the blade on the photographic paper. It was remarkable. I was certain that I was looking at a photograph.

I found meaning in the Transitions exhibit. Reflecting on my experience in this exhibit immediately makes me think of Pink’s “A Whole New Mind”, when he talks about meaning . This particular work by Emmanuel gave me a sense of spiritual fulfillment. It took be beyond what I was actually looking at and I began to see other visuals from my own life in my mind as they related tomy father. I see why it is so important for the learning experience to be meaningful. It allows the student to connect to learning in a way that he or she will not be able to forget it. And at the same time, story was evident as well. After viewing these works of art that were meaningful to me, I began to see my own story unfold in my mind. It’s not a day that goes by since I have returned from this Art Escape that I don’t see one of Emmanuel’s images in my mind. To me, that’s powerful.

The Sunday, May 16, 2010, we arrived back in Atlanta, GA. Later that day, my 11 year old daughter had her dance recital, and sure enough, I found myself looking for those ten components of modern dance that I had experienced at the African Art Museum on Saturday. I shared this connection with my daughter.
I really enjoyed this escape and hope to be able to provide some type of arts escape for my students in the upcoming school year. Learning can take place in non-traditional environments. Hopefully I can find some that will impact my students the way this arts escape impacted me.