A Culturally Responsive Integrated Visual Art Lesson: Gee’s Bend Quilters

This project is a great example of culturally responsive teaching.

I researched the Gee’s Bend Quilters while preparing for a UofU professional development workshop and it is fabulous. The lesson lends itself well for third through sixth grade and is a wonderful way for students to share their story as well as work collaboratively.

Here’s a bit of history on the women of Gee’s Bend—a small, remote, Black community in Alabama—have created hundreds of quilt masterpieces dating from the early twentieth century to the present. Resembling an inland island, Gee’s Bend is surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River. The some seven hundred or so inhabitants of this small, rural community are mostly descendants of slaves, and for generations they worked the fields belonging to the local Pettway plantation. Enlivened by a visual imagination that extends the expressive boundaries of the quilt genre, these astounding creations constitute a crucial chapter in the history of American art.

Here is the link for the full lesson plan pdf:

 Gee’s Bend Quilters Culturally Responsive Teaching Lesson plan

This blog post was written by Trish Saccomano, lead PDP for the University of Utah.  She assists over 30 BTS Arts Educators and always brings a smile along with great suggestions and ideas.  Trish also teaches in the Department of Family and Consumer Studies.