K-State Research and Extension
New program is an outgrowth of Community Conversations
MANHATTAN, Kan. – An innovative 4-H program launched recently to encourage people to talk openly about society’s controversial topics is providing a springboard for an upcoming effort incorporating the visual arts.
Aliah Mestrovich Seay, a Kansas 4-H Youth Development specialist for culture and communication skills development, said the organization has formed a partnership with K-State’s Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art and the Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy to offer the program, Visual Thinking Strategies.
“It’s an arts-based narrative inquiry that allows participants to be exposed to a series of different types of art, and unpack what is happening in those pieces of art in a very civil way,” Mestrovich Seay said, noting that the program is still three to six months from being fully launched.
“An arts-based narrative inquiry is a research methodology that allows us to connect art and storytelling, and in this case, identity development. We try to connect our values, our beliefs and our behaviors through the medium of art and connect it to our lived experience. That allows us to build more understanding and awareness around our own selves – in this case our cultural self – and more awareness about the cultural selves of those who are different than we are.”
Led by trained facilitators, the program will expose participants to artwork that depicts aspects of social justice related to race, gender and other identity dimensions.
Mestrovich Seay said Visual Thinking Strategies is a reflection of a program she helped to launch this spring, called Community Conversations, which is led by trained youth facilitators who use their leadership and communication skills for reasoned, public discussion on what are often controversial topics.
Some of the subjects discussed recently in Community Conversations include health, safety, violence, education, drugs and alcohol abuse, bullying, rural and urban issues, and others.
In the new program, Mestrovich Seay said staff in the Beach Museum will choose artwork depicting some aspect of social justice.
“Art impacts people differently,” Mestrovich Seay said. “It will evoke different feelings and emotions and that’s what we’re shooting for. There is a way to go about doing this, different techniques we can use, and that’s why we have trained facilitators who will lead discussions.”
For now, the youth trained as facilitators during Community Conversations will also lead discussions held as part of Visual Thinking Strategies, according to Mestrovich Seay.
“Typically what happens is that the facilitator will ask the audience an open-ended question, like ‘what’s going on in this picture?’” she said. “That allows people to openly interpret and express themselves and share what they see.”
The next question, typically, is to ask participants what they are seeing that led to their answer.
“We ask for visual evidence, not just what they think,” Mestrovich Seay said. “That’s a way to build their critical thinking skills around art.”
And finally, she adds, the facilitator asks what more can be found in the picture.
“Just like when we’re talking about societal issues that are really tough, that question brings up tough conversations and maybe even conflict,” Mestrovich Seay said. “There are multiple answers to that question, so it promotes flexible thinking. All of this ties into the principles of civic and civil discourse.”
The program will be offered through the Kansas 4-H Youth Development program, and will be open to people of all ages, including adults. Mestrovich Seay said organizers are currently working to train adult facilitators, extension agents and volunteers to participate, as well.
More information on Visual Thinking Strategies will be available on the Kansas 4-H Youth Development website as it becomes available.
FOR PRINT PUBLICATIONS: Links used in this story
Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, https://beach.k-state.edu
K-State Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy, https://www.k-state.edu/icdd
Kansas 4-H Youth Development, https://www.kansas4-h.org
K‑State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well‑being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county extension offices, experiment fields, area extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K‑State campus in Manhattan. For more information, visit www.ksre.ksu.edu
** This news release from K-State Research and Extension is available online at www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/stories/2020/07/visual-thinking-strategies-connects-art-social-justice.html
Released: July 10, 2020
Story by:
Pat Melgares
785-532-1160
For more information:
Aliah Mestrovich Seay
785-532-5800
