Themes | Activities

Andrea Kalinowski's artwork brings up various ideas and issues, both historical and aesthetic. Providing them in advance with some contexts in which to consider the work, the viewers' experience of the exhibition will be enriched. The educational component to the exhibition has three broad objectives:

1) Expand understanding of the history of Jewish-American immigration and the connection between the experiences of the Jewish pioneer women and the waves of migration that have occurred throughout world history and that continues in the present day.

2) Explore the impact of pioneers on the American West and the role women played in shaping the lives of their families and larger communities and the meaning of their experiences for contemporary times.

3) Increase awareness of the role of art as a catalyst for social change.

Suggested preparatory activities, readings and discussions:

1) View the video (click on "The Artist"). Lead a discussion with the class about the Jewish immigration experience. Connect the history of Jewish immigration to the migration experience in general. What causes people to immigrate? Cite examples of areas that have seen emigration in the past, and talk about areas that are experiencing emigration today and why. Have them imagine what it would be like to uproot their lives, bringing only a few of their most valued possessions with them, and even leaving some of their family behind.

2) Read excerpts from women's or children's diaries (or read fictional accounts based on such diaries) about their move to the West. Discuss traditional roles for women in that era, or what was expected of children during the migration to the West. What were their responsibilities? How were they able to fulfill those responsibilities, or what difficulties did they encounter? (Refer to bibliography for options for journals appropriate to students' age level.)

3) Read in your history textbook, supplemented by primary source readings from The American Frontier: Opposing Viewpoints, to learn about the frontier of the American West. The primary source material will provide perspective about the diversity that existed on the frontier: men, women, Native American, African American, Spanish-American, and other ethnic groups. It will also demonstrate to students that the American West was not uninhabited and undiscovered territory, as it is often represented to be. (The American Frontier is directed toward students ages 15 and up. An alternative to illustrate frontier diversity for younger students, ages 6 and up, is Jewish Heroes of the Wild West.)


Themes | Activities | Top of Page

THEMES FOR TOURING THE EXHIBITION

There is an old African saying that until the lions have their historians, the stories of hunting will always glorify the hunters. Similarly, until there were women historians of the American West, the conventional historical view had focused on the larger-than-life personalities of famous men. Andrea Kalinowski's artworks provide another perspective that allows us to appreciate the daily lives of ordinary people, specifically Jewish immigrant women, as the basis for creating a new understanding of history.

By researching and telling us the stories of Jewish women living in the American West, Kalinowski has connected to her own heritage. Yet the stories she relates have parallels among many other cultures and ethnic groups. The cross-cultural connections are worth investigating with visitors, who might find this as an opportunity to consider their own families' experiences with respect to migration and maintaining cultural identity.

Some of the important themes that might be discussed with visitors are noted below. Please refer to the bibliography for readings on these topics.

1) A History Tour

Objectives:

• Expand understanding of an important and little known aspect of the history of the American West‹the role of Jewish immigrants and women.
  
• Allow viewers to make connections with personal stories and local history.
  
• Engage viewers in considering what Jewish-American history has to teach us about contemporary issues and concerns.

The excerpts that appear in the artworks are taken from diaries, journals and
letters gathered by the artist from archives throughout the country. These documents give valuable insight into what life was like on the American frontier from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. In their migrations, these pioneers, many of whom had recently completed journeys to the United States from Europe to escape persecution or political repression, faced experiences that were entirely new to them and that challenged the perspectives and cultural practices that they carried with them from the "Old Country."

Discuss some of these excerpts and what we can glean from them. What do we learn about the individuals who wrote them? What do they reveal about the time period and the social changes taking place? Below are some other things to consider based on a discussion of the excerpts:

• Jewish Immigration
  
  The artist asks us to consider what compelling reasons drove these Jewish pioneer women to such bravery and willingness to stray from their familiar lives and endure such hardships.
  
  Fanny Jaffe Sharlip vividly describes her family's journey from Russia to the United States. What were the instructions her father gave to her mother for the journey? Why was the cow so important to the family? What are some of the things she remembers from the trip across the ocean? What were the conditions like on the boat?
  
  Compare her trip across the ocean to Fanny Brooks's trip across the United States in a wagon. What sorts of supplies did Fanny Brooks's family bring with them? Discuss how even the most basic of essentials‹food‹was in limited supply for these travelers.
  
  Now imagine you are a Jewish immigrant from Germany or Russia traveling to the American West. Why did you decide to come to the United States? What had your life been like in the "Old Country?" What are some of the things you may have been fleeing? What did you bring with you? What did you leave behind? What do you imagine your new life will be like (i.e., what is your "American Dream"?) What was your journey like? How did you travel? What hardships and dangers did you endure?
  
  You entered the United States through Ellis Island in New York City and settled there in a small apartment building surrounded by other immigrants. What new things did you encounter once you reached America? Did you encounter any language obstacles? How was your everyday life different? Did you practice Judaism as you had in Russia?
  
  Your family decides to move to the West. What are some of the reasons you decide to move? What is the allure of the West for your family? What is your journey like? How do you travel? What difficulties did you encounter? How will life in the West be different from life in New York City?
  
  
• Worldwide Migration
  
  Fanny Sharlip had an idyllic upper-middle class childhood in Russia, but increasing acts of anti-Semitism began to erode her family's sense of security. When the windows of her father's business were broken, they decided that the family must leave Russia. Her father "was determined to go where Jews could worship God as they pleased, where they could breathe freedom, and where their life was not threatened every minute of the day . . .that was infinitely more important than money."
  
  Connect the experience of Jewish-American immigration to instances of worldwide migrations happening today. Discuss why such migrations happen, e.g., as a result of war, starvation, poverty, religious persecution or political repression. Think of current or recent examples (e.g., movement of people from rural areas to urban centers in search of work throughout Latin America and Asia; immigration of Mexican laborers to the United States in search of jobs; Afghan refugees fleeing to the Pakistani border to avoid US military action; Cubans coming to the United States in makeshift boats; movement of Rwandans to refugee camps to flee the civil war).
  
  Now imagine you are suddenly caught in a situation where your continued security or even your life is threatened. What situations would cause you to consider leaving your home and family? What are some of the things that would cause you leave? What would you take with you? What things would you leave behind? What do you imagine your new life will be like? What will your journey be like? How will you travel? Will you need to cross borders illegally? Will you need to bribe people to help you? What hardships and dangers will you endure?
  
  
• Maintaining Cultural Traditions
  
  Sarah Thal describes being asked by a neighbor to cook a crate of pork. Sophie Trupin describes the lack of a synagogue and her mother's efforts to maintain the Sabbath, keep a kosher home, and observe the holidays, and being unable to fulfill the obligation to take the monthly ritual bath known as the mikvah.
  
  Consider how Judaism remained important to the pioneers in this era.
  What are some of the challenges they faced in practicing their religion? Did religion make their travels easier or harder? In what ways? Did their practice of Judaism change?
  
  Think about your own family's cultural traditions. Do you have any special foods that you eat or rituals or holidays that you observe? Have these traditions changed over the years? Do you maintain cultural traditions in the same way as your grandparents? Think about how other traditions have changed over time, and how culture changes to adapt to changing circumstances. Do you think these cultural traditions are still important to maintain in the contemporary world? Why or why not?
  
  
• Young Pioneers of the American West
  
  Children took on many responsibilities during the long journey West. Some of the pioneer women were only teenagers when they undertook these arduous travels and experienced these life-changing events.
  
  Fanny Brooks was only 16 years old when she emigrated from Germany, Rachel Calof was 18 when she arrived in North Dakota as a mail-order bride, and Sophie Trupin was only 5 years old when her family arrived in the United States.
  
  Consider how your childhood is different from that of a pioneer child in the 1800s. What are some of the experiences you might have endured as a young pioneer? What are the activities that you enjoy that someone your age in the year 1875 would never have imagined possible? How are your responsibilities different from a young adult in the late 1800s and early 1900s?
  
  
• The West of Our Imagination
  
  We often have a romanticized view of the American West, based on
  Western movies, novels, and other representations of life on the frontier. How do the accounts of life in the American West that we see in Andrea Kalinowski's artworks differ from the West as it has been depicted in popular culture?
  
  Flora Spiegelberg describes founding a non-sectarian school for girls and establishing Children's Gardens in Santa Fe, and her sister Betty's dramatic rescue of a slave girl who had been stolen from her plantation by soldiers. Anna Solomon describes establishing a business providing charcoal to a mining company and delivering it by ox teams. Rachel Calof describes her first winter as a bride sharing a small home with her in-laws. Anna Marks was a foul-mouthed gun-toting storekeeper.
  
  How has this show changed your vision of the history of the American West? Was it like what you imagined life was like then? What did you imagine? Were women and children part of the frontier life you imagined? What about Jews, African-Americans, Spanish-Americans or Asians, or the practice of slavery?
  

2) A Women's Tour

Objectives:

• Expand understanding of how women played central roles in their families in preserving ethnic and religious practices and assumed leadership roles in forging multicultural communities on the Western frontier.
  
• Allow viewers to connect personally with these women's lives and the strength of character that enabled them to endure danger and hardship.
  
• Allow viewers to consider attitudes and assumptions about women's roles in society from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, as well as in contemporary times.

When the women presented in these artworks were making their travels across the Atlantic Ocean and across the United States to settle in the American West, there were definite roles that women had in their families and in society. The excerpts that appear on the artworks provide valuable information about what it was like to be a woman during this period. Yet as the artist points out, "In the early West, women were encouraged by their husbands to take on new roles. It was important that women step out of what had been previously understood as the feminine role. In the West, a woman didn't just work in the family store, she often ran it."

Focus on one or two works in the exhibit for an in-depth discussion of the excerpts, such as the ones noted below, or select other quotes that would be of particular interest to your group.

• Keeping Kosher
  
  Read Sophie Trupin's descriptions of her mother trying to keep a kosher
  home and the family observing holy days and the Sabbath. Was it hard for them to maintain these practices as pioneers in the West? Give specific examples.
  
  How did their practices differ from your own?
  
  
• Marriage
  
  Consider Rachel Calof's description of her wedding. How old was she
  when she got married? Describe some of Rachel's experiences as a new wife. What were the living conditions like? Think about how the lack of privacy affected her life.
  
• Dangers
  
  Read Betty Spiegelberg's excerpts. What are some of the dangers
  she describes? How did the women take care of each other and protect each other?
  
  
• Motherhood
  
  Anna Freudenthal Solomon and Sarah Thal both discuss the challenges of
  motherhood that they faced while traveling to and living on the frontier.
  Describe some of these challenges (e.g., childbirth, infant mortality). How did the mothers take care of their families?
  
  
• Women's Responsibilities
  
  In the "Old Country" Jewish people tended to live together in long-established communities. The Jewish immigrants who traveled West often settled in areas where their neighbors were not Jewish, and they needed to forge new multi-cultural alliances and communities. Based on viewing all of the artworks, cite examples of how women adapted to their new circumstances. What traditional roles did they maintain and what new roles did they find? How did they influence building their new frontier communities? How did the women work together and help each other?
  

3) An Art Tour

Objectives:

• Allow consideration of why the artist chose to combine quilting and digital technology in these artworks and how the history of the quilt relates to the history of women in this country.
  
  
• Allow consideration of how art can act as a catalyst for social change and community building.
  
  
• Connect Kalinowski's art to the development of feminist art in the 1970s.

Themes:

• The Traditional Quilt and Digital Technology
  
  Andrea Kalinowski's work merges modern technology with the traditional art form of quilting. By creating her artworks digitally and then hand-working them, Kalinowski has created very modern manifestations of an age-old art. There are parallels that can be drawn between the quilt, pieced and layered together by hand, and the digital photograph, which is created through another process of layering.
  
  Point out the traditional quilt designs that Andrea Kalinowski uses in her work. Discuss how these quilts differ from a traditional quilt. How has modern technology affected the choices available to an artist? Why did she choose to tell us about each of these women through a quilt, rather than some other medium such as painting or sculpture?
  
  
• The Quilt as a Metaphor for Women's History
  
  Quilts were among the valued objects that families brought with them in their westward journey. They were used to line wagons for warmth and protection and to wrap the dead for burial. They were also heirlooms and reminders of personal family histories.
  
  Up until the 1970s, the art world was more or less a man's world. Success for a woman artist was usually hard won, and the exception to the rule. During the 1970s, things began to change. With feminism and the women's movement on the rise, many women artists began to delve into women's experience as the subject of their art. They began the process of uncovering women's history that is usually omitted from conventional historical accounts. They often incorporated or referenced traditional handwork and domestic crafts that ordinary women, usually anonymous, created within the confines of their socially defined roles. Three important leaders in this art movement were Miriam Schapiro, Judy Chicago, and Faith Ringgold.
  
  Why do these artists feel that it is important that women today know about the lives of women from the past? What statement are they making by incorporating domestic crafts into works intended for art galleries and museums? Do you have any keepsakes that are important to you, and what kind of meaning and memories do they hold for you?
  
  
• The Quilt as a Metaphor for the Multiple Histories of the American West
  
  Kalinowski's artworks add the element of personal history by incorporating excerpts from journals and diaries and photographs of the women represented. Historian Elizabeth Jameson notes "Patchwork becomes a precise metaphor for the scraps of documents, letters, memoirs, and artifacts from which historians now piece together the larger patterns of the women's lives."
  
  Note the personal histories and narratives that are told through these quilts. Discuss how artists tell stories through art, much the way a writer might write a biography or autobiography about someone's life. Demonstrate how the quilts communicate ideas through a combination of images and text. If the traditional quilt is a symbol of personal narrative, Andrea Kalinowski's digital renderings of the quilt more directly and visually communicate these narratives.
  
  
• The Quilt as a Representation of the Complex Cultural Crossroads of the American West
  
  Quilting has conventionally been an art practiced by women. Through social interactions such as quilting bees, women have often created important bonds with other women of their community. In this collaborative effort, each woman contributes something to the end result. In this way, quilts often told stories about communities as well as individuals.
  
  Historian Elizabeth Jameson notes: "Jewish women's neighbors might include Hopi, Lakota, Shoshone, and immigrants from Latin America, and Europe... Women's daily work transplanted cultures, built the West's farms and businesses, founded synagogues and churches, schools and libraries. They gleaned the time and resources to build communities much as they quilted, in fragments, and collectively with other women."
  
  What are some other art forms that have been traditionally considered "women's work" and why? Why was it so important for women to create a sense of community on the frontier? Can you think of other activities that build ties between people in a community? Why do people value communities? How do communities help the individuals who make up that community?
  
  
• Quilting and Politics
  
  Quilts have often been used to make social or political statements. For example, during the period of slavery, quilts were used to indicate "safe houses" along the Underground Railroad. During the temperance movement, quilts were used as banners. And during the Civil War, quilting was used to raise money. More recently, people have used the quilt to indicate a sense of community and to raise awareness. For example, the AIDS quilt memorializes those who have died from this disease. Its immense size reminds us of how serious AIDS is, and how many people it has impacted. More recently, in the wake of the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Oprah Winfrey's website oxygen has started a Quote Quilt, which invites people to express their sorrow and their thoughts, which are added to an online quilt.
  
  There is a tradition of art whose purpose it is to promote social awareness and change. Early precedents include the work of Kathe Kollwitz, the Mexican Muralists, and the WPA artists, to cite but a few examples. Artists have been an important part of protest movements including the anti-war movement during the Vietnam era.
  
  Discuss how these kinds of projects can increase awareness about social and political issues, help change people's attitudes, help build a sense of community, or help promote social change. What kinds of projects are there in your own school or community that serve this purpose, such as mural projects?

Themes | Activities | Top of Page

ACTIVITIES

1) Interview an older family member or neighbor to learn more about your family or your community. Below are some questions you may wish to ask:

If family immigrated to the United States:

• When did our/your family first come to the United States?
  
• Do you know what their life was like before they immigrated?
  
• How did their life change when they came to this country?

If Native American:

• How did your family's life change when the Europeans came to North
  America?
  
• Has your family maintained its traditional customs and beliefs?
  
• What is your earliest memory of our family or of our community?
  
• What was your daily routine like when you were my age?
  
• Have you always been able to live according to your beliefs and values?
  
• How would you summarize your beliefs and values?
  
• What are the biggest changes you have witnessed in your lifetime?
  
• What advice to you have for kids my age?

2) Invite a speaker to share his or her personal story about immigrating to this country. What was their life like in their homeland? Why did they decide to move? What was their journey like? What were some of the specific things that were different here than in their homeland? Have them recall some of the specific stories or incidents about their immigration experience.

3) Make a quilt that tells your own story. Using a template of a traditional quilt design, place a photograph of yourself at the center. Then add words or pictures of people, places, or events that are important to you. You can write on your quilt, or add stitching or collage elements that have been cut out of a magazine. You can also add layers of images by drawing designs like those in Andrea Kalinowski's quilts. When making your quilt, think about what you like to do, what things and people and places are important to you, what your family's traditions are, etc. When everyone has made their own quilt, connect them together to create a larger quilt that tells stories about the entire class.

4) Choose one of the Jewish pioneers pictured in the quilts. Read about her life in the excerpts. Think about what you know about her and what you don't know. Write an essay about what you think her experience was like in the West. How was her experience different from you own? Would you have liked to live when she did or now? Are you inspired by her life? Do her experiences make you understand yourself and your own history better?

5) Think about an object in your family that is symbolic, or has great importance in your family. Ask family members about its history and what it represents to each person. Why is it important? What does it symbolize? What meaning does it hold for you? After learning the story about the object, do you look at it in a different way? Think about what object someone from another society or culture might consider important. Do they value their family heirloom like you do yours? After you have gathered this information, write a short story about the object and its importance in your family.

6) Imagine that you and your family are leaving your home tomorrow to emigrate to another country. You can only bring what you can fit in one bag (a small suitcase, a back-pack or a duffel bag). What would you bring with you? Think about what you value and why as you are packing. Bring your bag to school and explain to the class what you selected. What are the things that you wished you could bring but could not because they would not fit?

7) Watch the movie How to Make an American Quilt. Discuss how quilting brought the women together to form a community. What was the occasion that they were making the quilt for? What did the women learn from each other, and why was the gathering important to each woman? How did each woman stitch something about herself and her personal story into the quilt for Finn? What did Finn learn from the women from an earlier generation? How does quilting build community?

8) Think of an issue that is important in today's society, or an event or moment you would like to remember or commemorate as a group or individually. Make a quilt that pieces together your various thoughts about the issue(s) or event(s). What would you like people to learn from this "issues quilt"? How will the quilt raise awareness?

9) Choose one of the books from the "Dear America" series. Read it and write a book report to present to the class. As you are reading, consider some of the following questions for your book report: What time period did the character live in? What was happening then, and how did that shape the experience that the character was writing about? Describe the personality of the character. Did he or she encounter challenges that he or she had to overcome? What were they, and how did he or she handle them? These books are written as if they were diaries. How did that affect how you read the book and learned about the character? Did you relate at all to the character? Can you think of any comparable experience today that is like what your character went through? Put yourself in the shoes of the character. Write a diary entry in the same style as how the character wrote, in a situation that character might likely encounter during his or her lifetime. After each individual book report, have the children compare and contrast the experiences of their chosen characters.

10) Lead a class discussion about the broader theme of migration, not only as it relates to Jewish immigration but worldwide. War, religious persecution, political repression, poverty or natural disasters are just a few of the factors that might cause people to uproot from their homes and move somewhere else. Of the estimated more than 100 million migrants worldwide, statistics show that more than 26 million are refugees who have been forced by politics or circumstance‹not of their own choice‹to leave their homes. In being displaced from their familiar physical surroundings and communities, people often are forced to leave behind families, possessions and traditions as well. People often are able to maintain their traditions‹whether religious or social customs‹in the face of such migrations, yet those traditions are often transformed as people adapt to their new surroundings and neighbors.

11) Keep a journal for a month. In it, describe your daily routine, the experiences you have and your reaction to them, and any observations you have about the society you live in. Think about the things that you found interesting and important in the first-hand accounts from the frontier that you have read. With this in mind, include things in your journal that you think someone reading it 100 years from now would find useful to understanding what it was like to be a young adult in the United States in the early 21st century.