Major themes or topics: Great Migration, Jacob Lawrence, history, identity, building blocks of art (color, shape, and line), artist process, artistic expression, activism

Key content: Students explore the Great Migration as a pivotal historical event through Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series, discovering how visual storytelling can communicate history, memory, and personal experience. In the gallery and during a hands-on workshop, students examine Lawrence’s artistic process and create their own artworks inspired by storytelling through art.

Focus questions: How can we use art to tell stories about our community? Why is it important to tell these stories? How do these stories help us learn about activism and historical events?

DCPS alignment: Grade 5 Social Studies, Unit 3 - Late 1800s to the Roaring 1920s