An Art Educator’s Journal: Flipping the Class Getty Museum Style

Whoever said you cannot teach art in the form of distance learning; really needs to cut themselves some slack and get inspired by some of the internet trending challenges.

Through the last couple of working-from-home weeks, there have been a least a dozen of ideas trending on my social media feed. However, the most popular of them all happens to be the Getty Museum Challenge, where people recreate a Masterpiece from the confinement of their homes. It each carries its own originality and humour. A lot of these trending recreation carries a subtle reference to the on-going pandemic faced by the world – Coronavirus, otherwise known as Covid-19.

Not missing a beat, the teaching team that I work with at INTI’s Center of Art and Design (ICAD) got together and brainstormed a similar effort for the Foundation in Design (CFDE) students that we teach. You see at ICAD, we run this semesterly project titled Creative Archive. It is through this project that we gather the CFDE students of all semesters into one room and get them to think-tank creative ideas inspired by the current issues or cultures from around the world.

In this round, the students were gathered and given three days to scour around their homes for household products to recreate an existing masterpiece while bearing the Covid-19 theme. However, they weren’t placed in a physical room but were gathered in a virtual classroom hosted using our Blackboard LMS. Students were briefed and then broken into smaller groups to discuss the sub-themes that can be addressed under the Covid-19 banner. Upon sharing these ideas, they were dispersed to their respective classes to further the realize this project. Come to day three, they were all brought back into the same virtual room to present their final outcome and share their art direction! And well, the outcomes? Each and every individual presented an amazing and creative expression. My personal favorite was the Girl with pizza! Well, it was not the original name but a good outcome of what she was trying to portray.

For more, you can view them at online exhibit on Instagram.

#gettymuseumchallenge2020 #gettymuseumchallenge #gettychallenge #iicsicad #icadsubang #intifam