High School Studio Lesson
Papering Dorian Gray
Caroline Long
The visual arts are flourishing
in the Richmond, Virginia
area with the support of Partners in the Arts, a program
of the Arts Council of Richmond.
Begun in 1994 with a $150,000
National Endowment of the Arts
grant, it is one of the largest non-museum art grants awarded by the
National Endowment for
the Arts (NEA). The program is a unique partnership between Richmond
area schools, artists, and
arts organizations. It offers
grant awards, teacher training, and
resources to emphasize the benefits
of integrating the visual and the performing arts into all aspects of the
K– 12 curriculum.
black-and-white photography into
the English curriculum through
the study of the Oscar Wilde novel,
The Picture of Dorian Gray. The
aim was to combine the discipline
of creative writing with that of photography and the art of handmade
books. To accomplish this, three
professional artists were invited to
ing are inextricably intertwined.
By participating in intense creative
writing, papermaking, and boomak-ing workshops, and creating photographic visual and written works of
art specific to the study of Dorian
Gray, students began a process that
would carry them through the next
six weeks of creativity.
The goals were to help AP English
students understand how art, literature,
and writing are inextricably intertwined.
Integrating Art and Writing
In 2004, I was awarded a grant with
the Advanced Placement English
instructor to integrate traditional
be artists in residence: Carlie Collier, professional photographer; Eve
Barenholtz, professional fiber artist;
and Dr. Kenny Marotta, creative
writing instructor at the University
of Virginia.
The goals were to help AP English students apply the novel to
their own lives by enhancing their
creative writing skills, and to understand how art, literature, and writ-
Self-Depictions
The AP English class created
two descriptive passages,
both detailing descriptions
of their own “self portrait,”
describing verbally what their
portrait would look like, including their clothing, props, scenery,
and expressions. A second written
description of themselves explored
the dark side of their psyches, the
side they hide from others. They
described a portrait with props,
expressions, costumes, etc. Using
detail and figurative language, they
produced a piece of creative writing
