I had a successful tour – the kids learned something (e.g. they now have heard of the Silk Road!) and were engaged by the art and mythical creatures. I had planned to focus a bit more on the journeys of our families (and ourselves) as a theme but in the end the creatures won the day. For the next time, I think I’ll use Jane/Annette’s questions earlier to set the stage and to better drive the discussion. After a brief chat about the exhibit and its context in the Garden, I did ask the students, if they found themselves having to move, to consider “What would you leave behind?” “What would you bring to your new home?” . That generated some discussion but also a fair amount of puzzlement. Maybe a case of ‘read the room.’

Due to the construction, we then moved to the Forest (coming from the gift shop through a number of rooms out of order) and I found that sustaining the immigration flow now felt a bit off. But the art and animals came to the rescue. The Fox Woman and Unicorn were favorites. I told the story of the Fox Woman and legend of the nine tails. We did a drawing/word description activity. The ‘woven’ painting of the Cambodian temple was of interest, visually as it comes into focus and for technique.

The Village Square was a hit. The presence of graffiti was unexpected, the collision of cultures in the collage of signs as well. The painting with the various dragons is worthy of a close look. And of course, Vishnu and Garuda. Throughout the tour I had them on the lookout for the various chimera and guessing what animals comprised the creature in front of them.

We did do a brief stop in the Silk Road, and the students were drawn to foods and musical instruments.

We did a stop at the Dragon’s Landing. Based on Melissa’s prior tour, we discussed the collage and its making and attempted to have the students say what they might include in a collage of their own lives. We ended in the Kitchen with a peek at the Four Guardians. Mythical creatures!

My tours focused on mythical creatures originating from mythologies in Asia. I am avoiding Dave Kim’s theme of the many stages of the immigrant journey because that has not been my personal journey. Also, I am reluctant to ask students to make connections between his journey and their journeys which are highly personal and particularly sensitive when ICE is seizing people off the street in Pasadena. That said, this is what we did on my four tours (Feb. 19 and Feb. 20).

We organized our clipboards with a handout that I had prepared. Then, we created and sketched on our handouts a hybrid creature, with each person in the group suggesting a physical feature. For example, body of bird, neck of giraffe, head of horse, ears of elephant, and so on. Then, we looked at my handout which shows two categories of creatures from Asian mythologies: Hybrid Creatures and Shapeshifter Creatures. By then, they already had the concept of “hybrid,” so we turned to shapeshifters where we had a conversation about what they are, their favorites, etc. We then looked at my handout to see the creatures listed under each category: Hybrid – dragon, qilin/kirin, phoenix, garuda; and Shapeshifters – nine-tail fox and tanuki. Our goal was to make a check mark on the handouts each time we saw one of these creatures.

Upon entering a gallery, we looked for the creatures listed on the handout, working individually, with partners or in small groups. Then, we compared results and had conversations about which creatures on the list pulled them in/made them wonder and why. We focused on close looking so that we could make comparisons when we saw the same creatures in other galleries and they could choose their favorite creature at the end of the tour. As part of close looking, we talked about the physical features of each hybrid creature.

We sometimes talked about creatures that they liked but which are not my list. We tried to do this in a way so that they could make comparisons and connections – for example, the faces of the copper deer in the wetlands to the face of the kirin in the forest or the legs of the cranes in the wetlands to the legs of the phoenix.

We also had some good laughs – waving our arms like a phoenix and imitating the pose of tanuki.

As part of our conversations, I tried to convey a variety of things. For example, I sometimes asked them about the dates when objects had been created to convey that the creatures have been depicted by artists over the centuries. I gave examples to convey that the creatures are more than symbols of various things (e.g., good luck or blessings) but also carry stories with life-lessons. Sometimes we looked at where the objects were created to convey that although a creature may appear across Asian mythology, it may be depicted and interpreted differently from culture to culture (e.g., Japan vs. China).

Clipboards helped immensely with group management and getting responses from everyone in the group. I would use the clipboards in a slightly different way if I gave the group more freedom to choose the subjects of close-looking. In that case, I would ask them to write down several words that come to mind when looking at the object and to group share those words.

Yesterday, I toured with a group of six middle-school (8th grade) girls who were very quiet yet interested. We were only doing one tour as there were only 30 students total. They were English-speaking Mandarin learners. I wouldn’t classify them as engaged, but they responded when asked questions and, on occasion, asked questions of their own. We were asked to include the oracle bones on the tour.

We began the tour with the oracle bones, where I gave a brief history of their discovery and their contribution to written communication and the history of China. We then discussed the process of divination, which I tied to some of Cai’s philosophy of mortality/immortality and permanence/impermanence. Finally, we looked at some examples of the evolution of the language from pictographs to current Chinese writing. 

We spent time in almost every room, discussing various works and processes, focusing primarily on Palmyra, Return to Darkness, and Shadow: Pray for Protection. At Palmyra and Shadow I used the ODIP strategy: observe (silently, what do you see; not what you think you see), describe (share what you see), interpret (based on what you observe and connect, what do you think the story is), and finally prove (what makes you say that; what do you see in the work that demonstrates your interpretation). 

The tour ended when half the group disappeared. They simply went to the restroom with the chaperone! Luckily, we were near the end of the tour, so we spent the remaining minutes in the garden.

Reflection (what would you do differently?):

Comments & Suggestions:
The groups were formed (by the teacher) into single gender (girls/boys) groups, which, in middle school, is a wise decision. Studies have shown that single gender grouping relieves some social stressors within this age group, making for a more successful experience for everyone.

Standing in front of Palmyra or Shadow: Pray for Protection.
Look at it from a distance and write down one word, then write down another word looking at it from a middle distance, and then sit down close to it and write down a third word. Then, share what they wrote down.
In the AI room, find all the places where they can see themselves in the mirrors. Speculate about why this might be and whether it affects how they feel about these works.

Lately, I’ve introduced on my tours the topic of immortality and how it influenced Chinese beliefs. While in the garden, I point to the mountains maquete and the Taihu rocks as being connected to the group of eight immortals in Daoist tradition. I point to the linghzi mushrooms carved on the staircase as a food that promoted longevity. When starting the gallery tour, I connect the discovery of gunpowder as part of the search for immortality. At the end of the tour I raise the idea that maybe Cai’s AI experiments are a way for him to search for immortality as his AI program will continue to create art long after he is gone.

I found the teacher makes a difference in the behavior, attitude and responsiveness of the students. This teacher circulated among his various tour groups, and when he would pop in on my tour, I would ask him to be a docent and ask the students a question about the artwork on view. The kids enjoyed seeing their teacher participate and we had some fun discussions.

I think you would need to judge if this would work in your particular circumstance.

I let them watch the mandala video first, so I wasn’t competing with it during my explanation. I had a picture of a sand mandala which I explained represented the universe and was used as a Buddhist teaching tool. I then pointed out the different parts, and the N, S, E and W gates and the progression towards the center which represents enlightenment. 
We talked a bit about Cai’s interest in Eastern religions and his desire to incorporate that in his work (use of symbols, Tibetan pigments, etc.), how the destruction of the sand mandala paralleled his destruction of the gunpowder mandala illustrating the Buddhist teaching re: impermanence. The kids seemed interested in discussing this, volunteering examples of impermanence.

I can still use the picture of the sand mandala since the video goes pretty fast, but simplify for younger kids.

If students are cooperative and well behaved, I find that it is useful to have them first explore a gallery by themselves, trying to figure out what is going on in the room. Then, I ask them to stand in front of their favorites and those are the ones where we spend our time.
Having them sketch in front of Hercules seems to work well.
Having them identify different things on the time line that they find interesting also works well.

I think it is important to be very firm if students are goofing around, not paying attention or wandering off.