Introducing Mississippi History through the Arts: A Bicentennial Journey
To commemorate Mississippi’s bicentennial year, the Mississippi Arts Commission has released a curriculum exploring the history of the state through the arts. A curriculum spanning two centuries, Mississippi History through the Arts: A Bicentennial Journey is based on select artworks from the Mississippi Museum of Art’s exhibitions, Picturing Mississippi: Land of Plenty, Pain, and Promise and The Mississippi Story as well as photos from MAC’s Bicentennial Folklife Survey.
The curriculum is available for free download through MAC’s website at arts.ms.gov and is appropriate for elementary, intermediate and advanced grade levels. Collaborating with the Mississippi Department of Education, MAC’s bicentennial curriculum aligns with the state’s social studies, arts and language arts standards and focuses on the grade levels in which Mississippi history is taught.
In twenty lessons, the curriculum takes students through the history of the state starting with Native American artifacts and Choctaw baskets and ending with an invitation for students to reflect on the history of the state and envision its future.
To connect the past to the present, the curriculum provides examples of artists who carry on Mississippi’s artistic traditions today in each lesson. Mississippi History through the Arts: A Bicentennial Journey offers numerous opportunities to interact with artists and cultural organizations across the state by encouraging teachers to and invite these community members and groups into the classroom.
This curriculum was created to commemorate Mississippi’s 200th year of statehood, but the document has no expiration date. MAC intends for it to serve as an enduring story of the arts in Mississippi for many years to come.
Download Mississippi History through the Arts: A Bicentennial Journey at https://arts.ms.gov/mississippi-history-arts-bicentennial-journey/.