Many Teachers College students and faculty actively participate in projects that involve partnering with the larger Columbia University network. We in the Art and Art Education Program at Teachers College are proud of doctoral students, Ayelet Danielle Aldouby, Carina Maye, and Stephanie Boggs, whose engaging curriculum projects are featured in one such collaboration with Columbia University, Teaching the Harlem Renaissance in the 21st Century, a curriculum guide for teachers and community educators. 

An ambitious year long collaboration between artists, curators, teachers and the Wallach Art Gallery, Teaching the Harlem Renaissance in the 21st Century presents student-centered curricula for grades 6-12. Each of its nine modules uses critical inquiry approaches to encourage students’ examination of the materiality of different texts and media as the means for exploring and synthesizing content to arrive at their own new understandings of the Harlem Renaissance. 

Our students developed their featured projects in Prof. Judith Burton’s course, Shaping Priorities: The Arts and Community Engagement. Professor Burton also authored a section in the curriculum guide. 

Learn more about the student projects and their reflections below: 

Ayelet Danielle Aldouby 
Then and Now: A Photographic Journey

"Then and Now: A Photographic Journey, critically explores through archival and contemporary photography the past and present natures and roles of Harlem public sites. The journey began as a curator-artist collaboration with Harlem-based Artist Maren Hassinger. The photography art workshop implemented with TCCS students resulted in a second-phase collaboration with Anne Lattner, the social studies teacher, to translate the art project into a curriculum for the HRC guide. Through this art project I took a deeper dive into the Harlem culture from a built environment perspective to support identity, belonging and connection to place. I was fortunate to collaborate with a renowned artist, a passionate teacher and an extremely professional HRC guide team whose expertise refined and expanded my own skill set. Most importantly, I realized that art projects adapted into meaningful curricula can be brought to scale, become sustainable and have a greater impact outside of the art world." 

Carina Maye and Stephanie Boggs
Harlem Renaissance and the Threading of Meaning 

"For Harlem Renaissance and the Threading of Meaning, we decided to create a module to allow teachers to utilize art as an instructional tool, historical lens, and creative catalyst. We embraced the act of threading meaning to develop a deeper understanding of a critical piece of American history by centering the lived experiences, shared knowledge, and production of people who were raised in, migrated to, and explored Harlem, USA, during the 1920s and 1930s." 

The Harlem Renaissance Curriculum Guide is now available on the Wallach Art Gallery’s website here.