Day of the Girl 2020 and the OHHS Art and Design "Girl Rising" Project
Day of the Girl is an international observance day declared by the United Nations first celebrated on October 11th, 2012. The observance of the day supports increasing opportunities for girls and increasing awareness of gender inequality faced by girls worldwide based upon their gender. Inequalities include areas such as access to education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, and protection from discrimination, violence against women, and forced child marriage. The celebration of the day also “reflects the successful emergence of girls and young women as a distinct cohort in development policy, programming, campaigning, and research.”
Communicating Social Narratives: “Girl Rising”
During the 4th Quarter of 2020, while engaging in Remote Learning, Drawing and Printmaking students worked to create a narrative image based upon one of the story vignettes that they selected after viewing the film “Girl Rising”. “Girl Rising” uses the power of storytelling to change the way the world values girls and their education. The approach to the rendering style of the project was inspired by contemporary artist Kara Walker. Students studied the approaches taken by Walker in addressing issues of race, sexuality, and gender through her silhouetted forms.
The students went through an extensive planning process involving the deconstruction of concepts addressed by the stories of the girls in “Girl Rising” into symbolic elements that translated the essence of their journey into a single frame, or image. The compositions students created demonstrate the unification of their notes and sketches taken during the viewing of “Girl Rising”, research related to the girls’ stories, and preliminary project planning.
Check out some of the works created below:
To learn more about “Girl Rising” and their programming supporting the education of girls around the world, visit: www.girlrising.org
