Tuttle Kids Get a Lesson in Art and History

Three 5th-grade classes from Tuttle Elementary School embarked on a field trip Wednesday to Yale University’s Art Gallery.

More than 60 students were released into the curious world of art and they didn’t hold back their questions.

“My passion is fueled when the kids visit on field trips because kids of any age can make sense of art,” said Jessica Sak, the associate curator of public education at the gallery.

“I find it thrilling that when they get to the middle school levels they really begin expressing themselves in conversations about various pieces of art with all the whys and whats about everything,” said Sak.

There were three pieces of art on the agenda Wednesday. The first was a painting depicting the story of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Yale graduate student and guide Erin Thomas told the kids the story of Hamlet and how he figured out that his uncle, King Claudius, was responsible for his father’s death. Thomas elaborated on the use of expression in the painting’s faces and the 5th-graders, in turn, described what they saw.

The next piece was located in the African Art section. It was a wooden headdress called a Doomba that Thomas said was carved from solid wood and worn for various tribal ceremonies, such as weddings or funerals.

The last work brought the most out of the children. The exhibit, “Embodied: Black Identities in American Art,” included a painting that was born out of a photograph taken in 1970s Paris of two well-dressed black men. The clothing and jewelry, of course, were tied to the time.

“They are disco guys,” said 5th-grader Nicole Delucia.

Another child noticed the hairdo on one of the men and said it was an Afro. One student asked why the top of the taller man’s head was cut off in the painting.

Thomas told the student that the cutoff was a consequence of the original photograph.

“Cameras have come a long way since then, [but] the artist merely painted what he saw,” she said.

One of the 5th-grade classes was Dana Nelson’s. Nelson said she was happy with the students’ reaction to the art.

“I was thrilled with the inquisitiveness and appreciation the children shared and how their minds are so much like sponges at this point in their lives,” she said. “Not only did the students get to view great works of art, they also got a history lesson.”