Social Reform Movement inspires Middle School Art

Earlier this month, I had the priviledge of working with students at my old junior high school – Amity Middle School in Bethany, CT! With the help of a grant from the Jamie Hulley Arts Fund, the eighth graders created fiber art about reformers from the Social Reform Movement. 

Before I arrived, the students chose a reformer to focus on for their project and started thinking about what they wanted others to know about him/her. With that prep work done, we were able to dive right into art making using assorted fabrics and, of course, the magical Steam-a-Seam 2. 

The resulting art blew me away in its thoughtfulness and intricacy. The pieces below represent Elizabeth Blackwell, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, and Catharine Beecher. 

Harriet Tubman, Margaret Fuller, and Arabella Mansfield are next
  

Below are Sojourner Truth, Samuel Gridley Howe, and Wendell Phillips

Next are the Grimke Sisters, Elijah Perish Lovejoy, and Harriet Beecher Stowe
 

Below are two pieces about Susan B. Anthony and one about Mary Lyon
  

The Amistad Rebellion and the Underground Railroad inspired these pieces:
  

Maria Mitchell, Henry David Thoureau, and William Still inspired the pieces below
  

And last but not least, we have Horace Mann, Arabella Mansfield, and one mystery reformer (somehow I didn’t record the inspiration for this piece, but I loved it too much to leave it out).