What Is Your Worth? Connecting Art and Labor

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Notes

¹ The use of the city bus was important to the instructor because it demonstrated to the students in this small economically diverse community the modes of transportation available in addition to private cars.

² Oster's lesson is based on a 2014 Colorado Art Education Association conference presentation by Abi Paytoe Gbayee. Gbayee designed the Living Histories project to encourage community involvement in her classroom. She invited several volunteers to be interviewed by the students who then made artwork based on the stories shared.

³ The caption provided by the Denver Art Museum (2016) with the displayed sculpture states: “In 2010, Theaster Gates displayed shoe shine stands at the elite Art Basel Miami Beach art fair and invited visitors to sit on his ‘thrones,’ where he would shine their shoes. As he cleaned, he asked questions about the fair and people's personal art collections. His intent was to show that ‘certain forms of labor are associated with certain forms of people and to “blow that up.”’”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Connie Stewart

Connie Stewart is Professor, School of Art and Design, University of Northern Colorado Greeley. E-mail: [email protected]

Wendi K. Oster

Wendi K. Oster, Art Educator, Platte Valley Middle School, Kersey, CO. E-mail: [email protected]