Encourage students to be political in their art and fight inequality, promote clean living or explore diversity with this ideas from Emma Delpech…
This lesson plan encourages students to explore the world around them: their philosophies and belief systems. Art gives us all a voice and a platform (galleries, virtual, street art) to express these feelings.
Political art starter activity
In groups or individually, give students an advert from a magazine and additional materials. This might include A4 paper, glue sticks and a box of additional ‘found’ materials such as leaves, threads etc.
Give students ten minutes to plan a design using their object. They should then construct the outcome inspired by their response to the advert.
For example, an advert for a beauty product might engage students in thinking about whether society puts too much pressure on people to be ‘perfect’.
An advert selling a car could make students think about materialism; about whether we need everything we want.
At the end of the lesson ask students to present their outcomes and photograph them for their sketchbooks.
The key aim in this is to engage with the messages surrounding them through advertising and to explore how this affects our visual responses.
You can discuss how well some concepts worked, how students could explore them further and make suggestions for objects students might want to bring in for the next lesson.
Emma Delpech is an artist and art teacher at Sevenoaks School, Kent. She is completing her MA in Fine Art with Open College of the Arts (UCA). Get more advice for helping students with their GCSE art final piece.
