Reusable Bags

Objective: Artists will create a reusable bag that expresses their feelings about a cause that is important to them.

Overview: Students will begin this unit by learning about how plastic has negatively impacted the environment, specifically in regards to marine life. Students will learn about specific actions that we can individually take to help prevent plastic pollution (using reusable items, reducing plastic consumption, recycling, etc.) Students will then be tasked with creating their own reusable bag to help diminish their use of plastic bags and help make a positive impact on the environment. I've used fabric scraps to create our bags, but you can ask students to bring in old clothes to repurpose as well.

Students will then learn ways that artists have been able to make a difference in the world through their art. We will take a look at several art activist for inspiration and students will be asked to create an image that represents an issue they wish they could change in the world. By creating this image they are able to bring attention to this issue every time they go out in public and use their bags!

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Student Art

Below are images from another variation of this lesson that I have taught. In this version, my young artists used the computer program Pixlr to create a digital collage that represented an issue or topic they wish they could change in the world. After creating their photoshopped collage, we printed the negative onto old transparency sheets to create a film negative. We used those negatives to transfer our images onto fabric using a cyanotype technique.