The Stories We Tell – Exploring Narratives through Figurative Ceramics

by Professor Sara Parent-Ramos, Assistant Professor of Art and Ceramics Coordinator

The theme of my Smithsonian Fellowship was to create an interdisciplinary sculptural project to be completed by Ceramic I students during a remote course I taught during the fall 2021 semester. The students were encouraged to use their ceramic work as a forum to discuss the current systemic social/cultural challenges facing America and the world. In the process, they also gained a better understanding of historical and contemporary ceramic practices.

In collaboration with Professor Naliyah Kaya (Sociology dept.), I created an interdisciplinary sculptural assignment that not only built on the wealth of historical and contemporary ceramic objects in the Smithsonian collections, but also asked students to reflect on their relationships to current social movements. Students were asked to consider their relationship to contemporary social movements through a sculptural exploration of the physical and metaphorical power of the human hand(s). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ceramics I class and Smithsonian project component were conducted virtually via Zoom and Microsoft Teams.

This scaffolded project included the following student-enacted components;  • A photographic research of “hands in action” using their cell phones.

• A written reflection on a figurative sculpture drawn from tailored Smithsonian Learning Lab database.
• A written reflection on student’s papers discussing contemporary social movements. The papers to be examined by my students were written by the students of Professor Naliyah Kaya as assignments for her Introduction to Sociology
• Access to synchronous and asynchronous demonstrations relating to relevant ceramics techniques. Students were provided with a tailored individual feedback.
• Completion of sketches for a final ceramic figurative sculptural project. These projects focused on the narrative power of human hands and incorporated their reactions to the Smithsonian Learning Lab and to the previously examined student papers on contemporary social movements.

The resulting sculptures were shared in class during a final artistic critique. In addition, the finished ceramic sculptural work was also shared with the collaborating social sciences students from Professor Naliyah Kaya’s class.

The student work that resulted from this project evidenced both technical skill and a profound grappling with personal and larger social narratives. At the outset, I was concerned that the online Smithsonian project would have the same impact as an inperson visit. However, while students did not get experience of exploring a curated Smithsonian exhibition as a class, they were able to examine a wider range of objects/ videos and recordings from various Smithsonian’s collections. I look forward to integrating both the Smithsonian Learning Lab resources and in-person visits into future iterations of this project.