Art from Many Hands: Multicultural Art Projects

by Jo Miles Schuman

Book Overview

Dozens of rewarding, easy-to-do craft and art projects from all over the world. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871921502
• ISBN13: 9780871921505
• Release Date: August 1984
• Publisher: Davis
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.9" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A whole lot of wonderful packed into a small book!

I'm going to be homeschooling my three kids and we're starting next year with a world tour theme in Kindergarten. My search for multicultural resources led me to this book but I resisted buying it because the price is so much steeper than for others out there. I kept coming back to it though, hoping there would be a new review to tell me more. Finally I bit the bullet and bought it because I wanted richer art experiences for my kids than what I found in other sources. Specifically, I had already purchased Global Art: Activities, Projects and Inventions from Around the World and I found it lacking in pictures, historical/cultural linkage of the art, and authenticity of materials. It felt much more crafty than artistic to me, although there were quite a few good ideas in it and I do think it was worth the price. I also have Discovering Great Artists: Hands-On Art for Children in the Styles of the Great Masters (Bright Ideas for Learning). I do like it but its scope is fairly limited in terms of time (mostly Renaissance to modern) and culture (mostly Western). That said, this book has far exceeded my expectations. I have a big problem with the abundance of arts and crafts in schools while true arts programs are being dumped left and right. A morsel of the latter is worth buckets of the former, in my opinion. I think arts and crafts have a use and they're fun for kids (albeit short-lived fun without as much pride in craftsmanship that can come from creating original art). This book, however, is not about arts and crafts. In contrast, it is full of history and culture. The author instructs educators about art from a wide variety of cultures and gives them the tools they need to help kids create similar art. Sometimes the medium is altered because the original material is not practical or is unavailable. Solid gold is out of my budget and I don't have any whale bones lying around! Because these activities are so visually interesting and based on history, I think they would actually appeal to kids from K-12. As the author points out, kids of different ages will obviously get varying results based on skill level. The author gives instructions for modifications to make activities manageable for younger kids. As a special note to homeschoolers, I should say that because most of us have more one on one time to spend with our kids during these activities, many of the modifications might not be necessary. They just might need more direct guidance. I'm thrilled that this book pulls true art forms from all over the globe and then presents projects based on that art. Below is an outline of the projects included. West Africa - tie-dying cloth, traditional dashikis, papier mache masks and sculptures Ghana - Adinkra designs on paper and cloth Nigeria - Adire Eleko cloth designs and Counter-Repousse (metal work) Egypt - plaster hieroglyphic tablet, jewelry/clay beads, tapestry Israel - paper and tile mosaics Iran - Persian miniature paintings France/Spain - pre

Art Teacher's review

I've done many of these projects with children, and they are both educational (the book gives some cultural and historical references on the projects) and a cut above some of the really simplistic projects found in a lot of books. I go back to it again and again! I'd highly recommend it.