The Power of Visual Storytelling

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How did the idea for Artful Disclosure come about? 

The idea began simply enough: to conclude a semester high school elective course on Jewish women in modern America by interviewing a woman at least 80 years old. We had worked together for many years incorporating art into many different courses, including English lit, Dante’s Commedia, and Biblical women—so it was no surprise that Sheila suggested these interviews might be turned into visual stories that could be exhibited on the school’s empty walls. Little could we have imagined the legs that idea grew. That notion was the beginning for Artful Disclosure, which came to include yearly anticipation for the projects, culminating in community-wide celebrations and display in what became The Women’s Gallery, taking up most of our school’s first floor.

What inspired you to combine oral history and visual art in this unique way?

Written memoirs, once completed, can easily be relegated to a library shelf and forgotten. On the other hand, art—or visual storytelling—invites ongoing conversation. We realized the act of translating ideas into visual imagery and metaphor was in itself an act of creation and interpretation. The artist interprets and creates, and simultaneously the subject is brought out of obscurity and into public view. This mutual recognition is transformative. 

What do you hope participants gain from the process of oral history interviewing?

Oral history interviewing is a great teacher. We learn from it the importance of patience, of careful listening, of not prejudging or anticipating an answer, of silence as a precursor to more complex answers, of the ability to be surprised and amazed and the curiosity to ask follow-up questions and then patiently await the response.

How do you guide participants who may not consider themselves artists through the art creation process?

Talking with participants about the metaphoric potential of a variety of materials and priming the pump with examples are good beginnings. Folding in time to talk through what they want to express visually is a good on-ramp for confidence. There are specific art media that are more responsive to the less secure artist, like collage or multimedia art to build the story.

What kinds of responses have you gotten from participants in this program? 

Barbara: We have notebooks of participant reflections of how this course impacted them. They are regularly amazed at the challenging lives they are learning about. On some level they understand Maya Angelou’s line, “There is no greater burden than carrying an untold story.”

One example: Fifteen years after his high school course, a former student, by then a successful businessman and entrepreneur in another city, was visiting his old high school. By chance, I saw him standing by the piece he had created, weeping. I came over to say hello and ask what had brought him to tears.  He said he had come to town to attend his grandmother’s 100^th birthday party.  “I suddenly realized,” he added, “I would never have known who she was without this project, would never have known her disappointments and challenges and the complex decisions she faced. I would have always thought of her as a generic old cookie-making, not particularly interesting Bubbie. Thank you for helping me know where I come from, and who I am.”

Sheila: Two participants representing a prominent cultural center from Montreal, Canada (my original hometown) attended our teaching workshop in Atlanta. They successfully replicated our model in their arts curriculum. I personally attended their “vernissage” (exhibition) of the finished works, accompanied by a video of meaningful and inspiring testimonials of the participants and the experiences they shared about their artistic process.

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