While in Chicago we had a chance to visit two or our partner organizations, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) and Project AIM at Columbia College. Working with several schools, and a cadre of teaching artists, these organizations were exploring the concept of mapping with students. We took this idea of mapping and began applying it to literature. In Santa Monica we worked with elementary school teachers and mapped the life of Frida Kahlo through symbols and images.

Download the PDF and read more about Mapping Literature:  mapping-literature

Doris Sommer looked at an unseemly building on a high school campus in Mexico City, “That looks like a canvas, let’s paint it.” Tagging texts is a way of re-creating classic works of literature by tagging essential lines on the walls of the school.

Download the Tagging Texts Description: Tagging Text

Our approach to creating photographs based on literature has been influenced by numerous photographers including Mary Beth Meehan in Providence, Rhode Island, Joao Kulcsar in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Cynthia Weiss in Chicago, Illinois. You will often see a photography exhibit in the halls of our school displaying both our students’ photography and the inspired text.

Read more about photographing text here: Photographing Text