Activity Guide by Tilly Woodward
Curator of Academic and Community Outreach
Grinnell College Museum of Art
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a man who loved our country and wanted it to be the very best it could be. He worked hard to be sure that all people could enjoy freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution. The Constitution is a set of agreements about how our country should work.
Read, Look, Listen
Read the book I Have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Kadir Nelson. Think about Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, and look at Kadir Nelson’s paintings. They are beautiful words, and beautiful paintings. You can watch a video about the book, the speech, and the paintings.
Think
Think about how Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream for our country and worked to make it a better place for all people. If you could do one thing to make our country a better place for all people, what would that be? What would your dream for our country be?
Make
Make an artwork about your dream for our country. You could draw or paint or collage, or mix it up and draw, paint, and collage. Think about the paintings Kadir Nelson made for the book and how beautiful they are. How his colors sing out. Think about how sometimes he zooms in close on a detail, like two children holding hands, and sometimes he zooms way out to show us what the scene the day of Martin’s speech might have looked like from a bird’s eye view.
Do your best work. Maybe you need to have some extra paper to plan, or practice a particular part you’re not as confident drawing, or to try out colors to see if you like the way they look together. When you draw, do big shapes first, and feel free to start with a lot of light, sketchy lines, and then emphasize the lines that are best, and erase the lines that don’t work as well.
Be patient and take your time. You don’t have to finish your artwork in one setting! Take a break when you need to.
Write
Write about your dream for our country and the artwork you created.
Share
Share your dream for our country with someone else. Tell them about your artwork and your writing. Ask them if they have a dream, and listen.
Credits:
Random House Kids
The exhibition, Our Voice: Celebrating the Coretta Scott King Book Awards, was organized by the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature, Abilene, Texas.
Web support:
Daniel Strong
Associate Director and Curator of Exhibitions
Grinnell College Museum of Art