Global Connections: Kids of Guernica

The readings from this week really opened up the discussion for self-perception verse actual reality of globalization. John Steers’ article Some Reflections of Globalizing (Visual) Culture made me reflect upon some of my own misconceptions about how ‘global’ we actually are globally.  According to Steers (2009), “globalization of culture is as yet a limited phenomenon, perhaps merely the chimera of a privileged minority; and it should be remembered that unrestricted access to global information, production, commerce, and communication is still a very long way from being universal for a variety of practical, social, economic, and political reasons”.  Those a part of a globalized society often forget how remotely we ourselves are compared to the rest of the world---and the mere dissemination of information globally may actually involve a majority of the network of community being more locally. As positive as we want to believe globalization, and media to be, “cultural studies scholars and many others have observed for many years, globalization is seen to have negative impacts on local cultures worldwide” (Steers, 2009).

Tom Anderson’s The Kids Guernica Peace Mural Project: A Paradigm for Global Art Education, covers the journey, social nature of art, and creating art to be relevant to life. Anderson’s work focuses on creating an initiative on creating a focus on art for life. Conceptually, art for life is focused on “achieving personal and social understanding and competencies through aesthetic means and media competence, including the appropriate use of technologies---demands that art education be centered on themes” (Anderson & Milbrandt, 2005).

Inspired by Kids Guernica from Union City, New Jersey to create a mural with my students that represents their understanding and meaning of peace. Through this project, my students will get the opportunity to learn about Pablo Picasso’s Guernica, and create a version of their own. The intended space for the image is an empty section of our mural wall right outside of my classroom---to which we started our own ‘Wyndwood Walls” last school year.

http://kids-guernica.blogspot.com/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.