Editor’s Letter
What do ghost bicycles, the Days of the Dead,
and the Lincoln Memorial have in common? In
different ways, they all commemorate a person,
place, or event. Ghost bicycles are white-painted
bicycles placed at a site where a cyclist died. The
Days of the Dead are the most important celebration of the year in Mexico, as they honor the
memory of loved ones who have died. The Lincoln Memorial honors one of our most revered
presidents.
There are many ways for students to explore the theme of
commemoration in the artroom.
Ghost bicycle.
trated and recorded them for a VoiceThread
project. (You can watch them at voicethread.
com/#q+Denton,+Texas.)
An additional approach to the subject of
commemoration could be to ask your students
to consider which present-day people or events
might be honored in times to come. The daily
news offers much fodder for discussion and
debate. For example, the Library of Congress
Nancy at an ofrenda for the Days of the Dead in a public park in San Antonio, Texas.
Celebrating artist birthdays is one way that can
take many forms (the SchoolArts calendar in the
back of the issue lists many of these). In school,
we are expected to observe months dedicated
to different cultures or events such as Hispanic
Heritage Month, Black History Month, Women’s
History Month, Mother’s Day, and the like. Why
not have students explore why we honor such
observances and then create their own artistic
commemorations?
Even young children can understand rea-
sons for remembering a special person, time,
or place. My fifth-grade students wrote stories
about their favorite memories and then illus-
recently announced that it would acquire the
entire Twitter archive since March 2006. Are
all tweets worthy of preservation? Are any wor-
thy of commemoration? What do your students
think?
