Partners: Kenmore Middle School

Educators: Meagan Estep, Manager of K-12 Digital and Educator Initiatives, The Phillips Collection; more info forthcoming

Location: Washington, DC

Winnie Brent, 8th grade
Carl at the Scary Creature’s Lair, 2014
Digital print

Prism.K12 sparks K-12 teachers to create rigorous arts-integrated lessons. The Prism.K12 initiative grew out of The Phillips Collection’s award-winning arts integration work, which weaves together the teaching of art with other core subject areas to increase the impact of education. Teachers at Kenmore Middle School, a Phillips partner school, used Prism.K12 strategies to develop multi-layered, arts-integrated units of study rooted in the artistic process of Man Ray, inspired by the Phillips’s exhibition, Man Ray—Human Equations, resulting in the student-created works of art displayed here. Here we see “Increasing Exponentially,” where students deepened their understanding of exponents by forming graduated “hangers” to visually represent the mathematical expression 2n. Simultaneously, students from a STEAM class focused on connecting technology, photography, and math by designing 3D superheroes and creating an accompanying story. This manipulated digital print features inspiration from Man Ray, including both mathematical objects and the 3D figure itself.