Fleisher: Costume as Material Culture: Building Cultural Bridges for Communication, Understanding and Appreciation

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Community Partnerships > Public School Residencies > Costume as Material Culture >

Wearable Culture: Personally designed t-shirts with hand beading

Fifth and Sixth Grade Classes

Teacher Partner: Ms. Gates
Teaching Artist: Karen Talley

	A "wearable-culture" t-shirt with the student's personal symbols and images translated into a beaded pattern.

This project involved a rich exploration of the values and costume arts of the Lenape Native Americans. After benefiting from a workshop at the University of Pennsylvania Museum on the Southwest Native American cultures and writing reports on the Lenape, students explored the symbolic value of the Wampum. Utilizing a merit system in the classroom students earned wampum to buy the beads that they used for their creations. They then designed on grids personal symbols and images, which were translated into a beaded pattern on their t-shirts.

The students engaged in many discussions about the cultural traditions symbolized through the design and the creation of the Lenape and their own costumes. The students also reflected about the way this project relates to their own time and culture, making comparisons of tradition within their community.

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