An Intercultural Peace Mural Project:Lets Make a Peaceful World

Hand in Hand!BY JAEHAN BAE

Figure 1. Brainstorming Activity.

January 2012 /ART EDUCATION 47

urals have become a powerful art form for portraying antiwar, human rights,social justice, and human dignity issues (Kaneda & Fischer, 2009). Educators andartists have conducted mural workshops with adolescents in international settingsto educate them about peace, human rights, and cultural tolerance (Anderson,

1997; Colman, 2006). Learning with murals has been shown to be pedagogically meaningful inhelping students better understand their ethnic, historical, and cultural roots and communities(Bae 2009); collectively find resolutions to a community's problems (Hutzel, 2007); and advancecooperative learning skills (Hubbard, 2010). Murals have been found to be effective inenhancing learning in a variety of content areas (Chilman, 2004).

This article describes a weeklong workshop in whichKorean and American students worked together to create apeace mural, and provides insights for teachers conductingsimilar work with an intercultural group of students. Theworkshop was intended to promote a culture of peace andintercultural competence among participants and helpthem develop cooperative learning skills, goals that aredeeply intertwined. A culture of peace is one in whichpeople respect each other and resolve conflicts withoutviolence (Boulding, 2000). Intercultural competences aredeveloped through interaction with people from differentcultures (Bennett, 1993) and among its major goals aremutual respect, understanding, and the elimination ofstereotypes and ethnocentrism (Barna, 1993). In coopera-tive learning, students study and work coUaboratively insmall groups to enhance learning by achieving learningoutcomes collectively (Slavin, 1990).

Description of the ProgramIn the summer of 2009, Korean elementary and

secondary students visited the United States to learnEnglish and experience American culture in a Midwesterntown. As part of their experience, 14 Korean studentsparticipated in the peace mural workshop, along with 10American students who joined the program to makeKorean friends. The peace mural workshop was conductedduring the second week of a 3-week summer program thatincluded such courses as dance, photography, and cooking.Students in the 5-day mural workshop met for 2Vi hourseach day, and were divided into two groups based ongrade. The six Korean boys were in grades five through 10,and the eight Korean girls were in grades three through six.The American boys were in grades four and five, and theAmerican girls were in grades four and six. Two of theAmericans were Asian-American and siblings, one wasMexican-American, and the rest were Caucasian. At thetime of the workshop, four of the 14 Korean students hadattended school in the US for 7 months. All of theAmerican students in the workshop attended the sameChristian private school, with the exception ot two boysand one girl who were homeschooled siblings.

Implementing the WorkshopIntroducing Molas

As 1 had never before taught mural making, 1 researchedpractical and safe ways to execute the workshop. Braoun-Reinitz and Shicoff (2001) suggested the use of fabricrather than paint for mural making with students, and thiswas ideal, because I had many diflerent textures, colors,and sizes of fabrics on hand and a very small budget. Themola art form lent itself perfectly to our mural project notonly for practical reasons, but because it enriched theactivity by exposing students to the cultural and historicalsignificance of molas, part of the traditional dress of theKuna people of Panama (Chanda & Marstaller, 2006).Molas are brightly-colored, hand-stitched cloth panelscreated using a reverse appliqué technique. On Day 1,students watched Paper Molas with Peggy Flores (Hubbard& Hubbard, 2001) as an introduction to the historicalbackground of molas, and then were asked to reflect ontheir life experiences and draw a design for a mola. Ishowed them the assorted fabrics they could use, andexplained how they would use the mola technique increating their murals.

Connection With Popular CultureUsing music and lyrics in classroom instruction provides

students with varied perspectives that allow them to makemore sense of the class themes and the world at large(Goldberg, 2006). Moreover, using popular culture iconscaptures students' interest and increases their motivationfor a project (Briggs, 2007). Because I wanted to use a songthat relates to peace and to children, 1 chose MichaelJackson's Heal the World (lackson & Foster, 1991). First, 1asked students to read the lyrics, and then showed themthe music video on Youtube. The younger group of Koreanstudents had a hard time understanding its meaning, so Ibriefly explained it in Korean. Minjoo,' nine years old,made the observation that a peaceful world may comeabout not only because of adults, but also children, becausethe video showed children giving flowers, a symbol oípeace, to a soldier.

48 ART EDUCATION / January 2012

BrainstormingWe began Day 2 with a brainstorming activity. To enlarge

the students' concepts of peace, I wrote the word peace on theboard and asked students to think and write related words.This exercise allowed them to discover new relationships,connections, and meanings. The older students, those ingrades six through 10, wrote 84 terms that linked with peace(see Figure 1). They also wrote abstract nouns such asfriendship, kindness, sharing, compassion, love, and teamwork.Some wrote the names of historical events: World War II, theKorean War, and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Thestudents also included slogans: give hope, all for one and onefor all, no fighting, no homeless animals, food donation, loveeach other, and plant more trees. The younger students, thosein grades three through five, were very excited about writingon the board. One student wrote Michael Jackson and anotherwrote her favorite Korean singer's name. Once students sawthe names, they started to sing and dance. Because they wereno longer attentive to the brainstorming activity, weconcluded the exercise.

Appreciation o/GuernicaLater on Day 2,1 displayed Picasso's Guernica (1937) on a

hillboard and asked students to look at it in silence for a fewminutes. The younger group responded that Guernica wasscary and that they didn't understand what it meant becauseof the non-realistic and abstract styles, chaotic compositionsof images, and unusual scenes. The older group respondedmore precisely that it represented war, human suffering, andmassacre. Because the older American students had taken aworld history class, they knew about the Spanish Civil War(1936-1939), which is an important historical context for thepainting.

I gave the students a brief historical background on thebombing of the Spanish village, Guernica. I shared that as aresult of the bombing, many innocent citizens, mostlychildren, women, and the elderly, were injured or killed. Iconcluded by drawing their attention back to the painting,and explaining that Guernica is a powerful antiwar mural andstatement of protest against the senseless brutality of war.Making Peace Murals

On Days 3, 4, and 5, the students made the murals. I beganby dividing the older and younger students into two groups.The boys asked to work together, so the two groups weredivided by sex, for a total of four groups. Each group beganby discussing initial ideas, and drew preliminary drawings insketchbooks. Each student was responsible for contributingimages to the mural. Students fashioned small images ofanimals, the earth, children, continents, peace symbols, andweapons, and placed them on a large felt background. Thislarge picture plane challenged students to enlarge theirimages to fill in the background. Students transferred their

images onto big pieces of paper and cut them out, thenaltered and trimmed their images until they were satisfied.

Students then chose colors, patterns, and textures of fabricbased on their plans. They used tape to place their paperimages onto fabric prior to cutting them out. I remindedstudents of the mola technique they learned at the beginningof the class, and encouraged them to make a few layers ontheir mural images with different colors. I asked the studentsnot to glue their images down on the felt background untileach member of the group consented to the final design.

Once all the groups had completed their murals, I attachedthe four murals to the wall with Velero and displayed them inthe lounge of the dorm where the Korean students stayed andAmerican parents picked up and dropped off their children.All students had a chance to appreciate their mural and tocompare and contrast it with the murals of the other groups. Iwas pleased to watch some of the students explain the muralsto their parents and friends, and to see a few Korean studentsdo the same in Fnglish with their American host families.

Themes of the MuralsThe Older Boys'Mural

The older boys' group was composed of four Korean boysand two American brothers in grades six through 10. Theirmural showed both a sense of unity and their individualvoices. All the Korean boys utilized circular shapes andrepresented their ideas about peace through these images(see Figure 2). The two elder Korean boys composed imagesfor the parts of the mural and the two younger Korean boysrespected their leadership. The American brothers workedtogether, but they did not follow the lead of the older Koreanboys. Rather than creating images of the earth, the brothersmade images like hands, a smiley face, a tree, and the slogan"No war at all the time."

Min, who was 14, put a clock motif on his image of theEarth and wrote the words that had been generated in thebrainstorming session: Hiroshima, friendship, community,help, compassion, together, and happiness. Min stopped hisclock at 8:15, the exact time Hiroshima was hombed, to drawattention to the tragedy of the many innocent people whodied at Hiroshima, including Koreans who worked at amunitions factory as compulsory laborers.The Younger Boys' Mural

The younger boys' group was composed of two Koreanboys and three American boys in grades three through five.These boys demonstrated more mutual assistance than in theolder boys' group, most likely because a Korean and anAmerican student in the group were good friends who hadattended the same school. The Korean student spoke Englishwell and tried to relate his ideas to the Americans, as well astranslate the Americans' comments for the other Korean

January 2012 / ART EDUCATION 49

aboveFigure 2. The Older Boys' Mural(74"x88").

rightFigure 3. The Younger Boys'Mural(74"x88").

50 ART EDUCATION/January 2012

boys. As a result, they exchanged more jokes andconversation than any of the other groups. Since one boywas absent on the last day, the group had to do extrawork to complete their mural. They cooperativelydecided to create bigger images and utilize some imagesfrom Guernica.

Chu, 10 years old, used symbols and metaphors in hismural images: an image containing an eraser, a key, and alock (see Figure 3). He came up with the images throughconversations with a Korean assistant who assisted oneday. Chu said he wanted to remove the border betweenNorth and South Korea because he hoped they would beunified. For him, the eraser symbolized the removal ofmilitary tensions and distrust between the two countries,the lock depicted a stumbling block to unification, andthe key was the solution that would create harmonybetween the two Koreas.

The Older Girls'MuralThe older girls' group was composed of three

American and two Korean girls in grades six through 10.Each Korean girl in the group worked independently increating her own images, while the three American girlsworked together. As a result, three major areas in themural could be distinguished: a letter of peace with anangel and the sun; weapons, and maps of Korea andJapan; and images of earth, a man, trains, and a lamb anda lion on a hill (see Figure 4). Although the American

girls created many words and slogans during thebrainstorming session, they did not use them in theirmural. This should have been addressed during theworkshop in order to help them transform theirconceptual ideas into visual images.

Eleven-year-old Ko portrayed historical events andmilitary tensions between South Korea, North Korea,and Japan. Her topics were the Korean War and WorldWar II. A tank and military dagger represented war andtragedy. A peace sign on the map of the Koreanpeninsula and a broken pistol conveyed her mural'smessage. She also marked the location of Hiroshima onthe map of Japan to memorialize the bombing victimsthere.

The Younger Girls' MuralThe younger girls' group was composed of four

Korean and three American girls in grades three throughfive. At first, I was unsure whether the younger Americangirls completely understood the project since they hadcreated images of animals. Upon talking with the girls,I learned that they had designed animals because theybelieved that animals never harm or kill one another,and they meant for their mural images to represent apeaceable animal kingdom. The two Korean girls, on theother hand, created images that represented unity,compassion, and friendship between Americans andKoreans (see Figure 5).

Figure 4. The OlderGirls'Mural (74" X 88")

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aboveFigure 5. The Younger Girls' Mural(74"x88").

rightFigure 6. Rhee's Image.

In order to engage studentswith different native languagesand cultures in cooperativelearning, teachers must learnabout the major impedimentsto interculturalcommunication, as well as thecultures of their students.

52 ART EDUCATION/January 2012

I

Eleven-year-old Rhee's mural images andinterpretations were noteworthy because shecreated a particularly evocative representa-tion of a culture of peace, with compassionfor the poor. Her motif centered on caringabout others and her mural depicted peoplefrom many countries gathering tiny pieces ofa heart, representing love, harmony, andcoexistence as the core components of peace(see Figure 6). Rhee wrote, "Peace is big love"on her image of tiny people getting togetherto make a big heart shape that was about 80%complete. A circle surrounded the heart witha base that could represent the earth or asavings box. A big jar of hearts was almostfilled with small hearts, echoing the donationprocess. Rhee explained that love should bedirected toward the poor, endangeredanimals, and children who suffer in wars andpoverty to make our fragile planet a betterplace for all.

OhservationsWork Patterns

The group of older boys first discussed thealignment of the primary image of the muraland then individually designed differentimages of the earth, providing viewers aunified vision as well as individual represen-tations of peace (see Figure 2). In the younggirls' group, the American students producedanimals together, while the Korean studentsworked individually, resulting in a muralwith five different clusters of images (seeFigure 5). Similarly, in the older girls' group,the American girls worked together, whileeach Korean girl created images on her own(see Figure 4). The group of young boysseemed more flexible; most worked individu-ally, although one boy who had finished hisimages helped another who was still workingon his.

Overall, the students worked bothcooperatively and individually within theirgroups, although the American studentstended to engage more with each other thandid the Korean students, who mainly workedindividually. The older Korean boys workedindividually after first coming to a consensus;the older and younger Korean girls workedindividually without any consensus. Incontrast with the Korean students, who didnot talk much with each other during theworkshop, the American students talked a

great deal with their peers, although theirconversations were not directly associatedwith their mural making.Visual Presentations

I noticed an interesting difference in thevisual presentations of peace created by theKorean and American students. In general,the images of the Korean students reflectedan interest in the outside world, internationalrelationships, networking, and internationalhistorical events such as World War II, theKorean War, the atomic bombing ofHiroshima, and the unification of South andNorth Korea. They frequently used nationalflags, images of maps, images of the earth,and human chains. American students, bycontrast, focused more on personal interestsusing images such as friendships, the naturalenvironment, and the love of animals. Thus,while the Korean students' peace topicstended to reflect broader internationalconcerns, the American students' peacetopics lay more within the boundaries oftheir localized and personal experiences offriendships, family, and school.

The reason for this divergence may relateto the different cultural, political, andeconomic contexts of Korea and the US. Theintense competition in Korean society and itstraditional Confucian value on education,combined with Korea's limited naturalresources, dense population, and fiercecompetition for college admission and jobopportunities, means that each individual'swelfare depends on being well-educated andhighly knowledgeable. In Korea, the more aperson knows about other countries, themore he or she is considered to be learned.Further, because the South Korean economyrelies heavily on international trade, youngpeople in South Korean learn to be sensitiveto the developments and tensions betweenother countries. This awareness was clearlyreflected in the work of the Korean studentsparticipating in the mural workshop.Conversely, the American students' tendencyto create images within a personal ratherthan global context may reflect anotherperception—that what happens in the rest ofthe world is removed from their well-beingas citizens of the US.

ConclusionsIn working together, the challenge for the

Korean and American students seemed torelate to differences in both language andculture. In fact, there was little ongoinginteraction between the Korean andAmerican students, except within theyounger boys' group, where a Korean boywith excellent English-speaking skillsfacilitated the interaction. The Koreanstudents depicted the Korean War, thebombing of Hiroshima, and the South/NorthKorea conflict, but they did not talk abouttheir themes with the American students.Nor did the American students talk with theKorean students very much about their ideas.In general, even though the Korean studentsspoke adequate English, all the studentsseemed to avoid interacting with otherswhose culture and language were unfamiliar.This lack of interaction is not surprising,given that one of the major stumbling blocksto communication between individuals fromdifferent cultures is high anxiety, which oftenresults in withdrawal (Barna, 1993). Since Ispeak Korean, 1 heard a few Korean studentscomplain that American students did notfollow the group's agreements and just didwhat they wanted, a comment that mayreflect different cultural expectations relatedto autonomy (Bennett, 1993).

With a few alterations, however, thelearning potential associated with theintercultural nature of the work.shop can bemaximized. In future workshops, I will haveKorean and American students worktogether in pairs to create an image beforejoining with others to create a group mural.By working cooperatively in pairs, Koreanand American students will have lo engage inongoing, one-on-one interaction as theyshare and negotiate their ideas. Before havingstudents begin the project, however, I willadd an ice-breaker exercise that will requirethe assigned pairs to discover some similari-ties and differences between them, as such anawareness is one of the first steps in thedevelopment of intercultural competence(Bennett, 1993). Another change wouldinvolve creating a schedule that would allowtime for an art criticism component at theend of the workshop to enable students toreflect on what they learned and providefeedback for the teacher. Despite displaying

January 2012/ART EDUCATION 53

all the murals at the end of the workshop,the lack of time for such an art criticismactivity made it difficult for me to explorewhat the students had learned and howthey felt ahout the workshop.

Art educators who wish to execute thissort of workshop with students ofdifferent cultures should be aware thatintercultural communication andunderstanding often do not occurspontaneously and naturally. In order toengage students with different nativelanguages and cultures in cooperativelearning, teachers must learn about themajor impediments to interculturalcommunication, as well as the cultures oftheir students.

Although it is difficult to know if thework.shop will have a lasting positiveimpact on both groups of students, I

believe there was value in having studentswork with the themes "world peace" and"culture of peace," which are so mean-ingful for future generations. Further,conducting the peace mural projectwithin a cooperative and interculturalenvironment enriched the opportunitiesfor student growth. Of course, a singlecontent area and short-term workshop isnot enough. Peace themes, cooperativelearning approaches, and interculturalcompetence principles should beintegrated into the teaching of manysubjects in school curricula. If schoolsand teachers assist students in internal-izing a culture of peace through activitiesdesigned to promote cooperation andintercultural understanding, youngpeople can apply this knowledge to manyfacets of their lives, contributing to theconstruction of a better future for all.

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Bennett, M. |. (1993). Interculturalcommunication: A current perspective. InM. J. Bennett (Ed.), Basic concepts ofintercultural communication: Selectedreadings (pp. 1-34). Yarmouth, ME:Intercultural Press.

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Hutzel, K. (2007). Reconstructing acommunity: A participatory actionresearch study. Studies in Art Education,48(3), 299-315.

Jackson, M., & Foster, D. (Producer). (1991).Heal the world. On Dangerous |CD]. M.Jackson (Performer). New York, NY: EpicRecords.

Kaneda, T., & Fischer, H. (2009). The Kids'Guernica Peace Mural Project: A vehiclefor social justice. In T. Anderson, D.Gussak, K. K. Hallmark, & A. Paul (Eds.),Art Education for Social Justice (pp.195-200). Re.ston, VA: National ArtEducation Association.

Slavin, R. (1990). Cooperative learning:Theory, research, and practice, EnglewoodClitfs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

ENDNOTE' All names in the article are pseudonyms to

protect the identities of the participants.

Jaehan Bae is Assistant Professor of ArtEducation at The University ofWisconsin Oshkosh, He can be reachedat baej@uwosh.edu

AUTHOR'S NOTEThe author would like to thank Dr. Harpring,Dr. Anderson, Dr. Strauch-Nelson, Dr. Hoetîerle,and Dr. Barrett for their valuable feedback andsuggestions on the eariy manuscript of this article,and appreciates the efforts of Younmoo Lee andthe Korean and American students and theirparents who made this project possible.

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TITLE: An Intercultural Peace Mural Project: Let’s Make aPeaceful World Hand in Hand!

SOURCE: Art Educ 65 no1 Ja 2012

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