Making Art Theirs: Identifying Funds of Knowledge in a Social Media Challenge to Recreate Artworks  (Poster 2)

• In Event: (Re)Imagining Different Educational Realities: Anti-Deficit Approaches in Informal Learning Environments Research

Abstract

Objectives & Theoretical Framework

In the early days of the first COVID-19 lockdown, a communications assistant in Amsterdam put out a social media challenge for people to recreate works of art using materials found around the house. Museums encouraged the idea, and it went viral (#GettyMuseumChallenge #TussenKunstEnQuarantaine). By July 2020, over 100,000 images of families, seniors, children, pets, and individuals morphed into paintings using everything from toilet paper to family heirlooms. Often made with humor and meticulous attention to detail, the images portrayed many of art history’s most famous paintings in a new way, as seen in Figure 1. The challenge created a global community, sharing ideas, recreation techniques, and interpretations of artworks. This presentation explores how this fun and creative challenge offered an opportunity to explore the funds of knowledge – the embedded social, historical, cultural, and linguistic practices – that potential visitors bring to understanding art in the museum context (Mills et al., 2019; Moll et al., 1992). 

 

Methods

I conducted 16 semi-structured interviews with a range of participants, which I inductively coded to identify the funds of knowledge activated by recreated art. Then, I took samples from 81,086 public Instagram posts to five associated hashtags collected between March and July 2020. I analyzed the samples using an inductive process until I reached saturation. The resulting samples totaled 200 posts and proportionately represented users with different levels of participation.  

 

Results

The findings in this presentation reveal an incredibly diverse range of funds of knowledge that participants employed to select images and make recreations. Participants drew on their experiences of art to identify images to recreate, from prints that hung in grandma’s house to work from exhibitions that stuck with them. As it spread worldwide, touching 128 countries, each region brought its art history to the challenge. To recreate art, participants tapped into every sort of making and creative knowledge available, from painting to face make-up, to baking, to knowledge of experimentation and perseverance. As a community of practice formed, peers drew on each other’s knowledge of art and recreation techniques, forming an encouraging and – for social media – unusually positive creative community (Wenger, 1998; Ebben & Bull, 2022). 



Most importantly, the findings demonstrate how participants accessed these funds through participatory learning practices, like slow-looking and problem-solving. To recreate an artwork, participants had to closely observe the image, which Tishman (2018) called slow looking. This process enabled them to identify objects around the house that could substitute for those in the painting. Then, through problem-solving, participants iterated their recreations to offer an interpretation that told their story at that moment. The resulting ‘copies’ are unique works of art that tell stories about participants’ identities, life (and quarantine) experiences, and cultural backgrounds.  

 

Implications

By revealing participants’ artistic funds of knowledge, this presentation contributes to re-evaluating the expert-led narratives in art museums and shifting the cultural framework to audience-led initiatives. It highlights the power of informal participatory learning opportunities to bring cultural assets to the fore, ultimately making museums more inclusive.  

Author

• Kenna Hernly, University of Maryland