A Shared Canvas of Discomfort and Reclamation: Addressing Racism through the Art of Looking

The art of looking is a museum and art gallery teaching tool at the core of the Visual Thinking Strategies, a Harvard School of Education pedagogy initiated as an educational experiment for schools across the United States almost two decades ago. Today, a large number of schools implement this teaching method to increase student engagement in a non-hierarchical setting that promotes inclusive learning experiences. Students analyze works of art basic elements (colors, shapes, and textures) and complexities (meanings and intentions and ties to cultures and emotions) with an inquiry-based approach. Facilitators are central to the process, but not the authoritative source. At a moment in which racial inequality and injustice flood the media, anti-racist intentional teaching is necessary to produce social change. The discomfort generated by magnifying racism through the lens of art moves the participants to explore how racism can deeply shape social, political, and cultural institutions, acknowledging the root causes of racism and identifying the spaces that perpetuate segregation and discrimination on the basis of race beyond stereotypes. Rather than shying away from difficult issues, this pedagogy encourages the audience to address complex topics and combat social issues head-on. This article contains five essays that highlight the beauty of truthful young voices from a multidisciplinary, higher-education setting that call for racism awareness and action through the art of looking.