Theatre Professor Leads International Arts Education Initiative

What is the relationship between the food we eat, or the clothes we wear, and the earth?

Assistant Professor of Theatre Education Beth Murray led a multidisciplinary arts education initiative in 2015-16 that brought together 15 teachers from six local schools to address that question through arts and storytelling. The project, Cotton & Collards: Unearthing Stories of Home Through Kitchens and Closets, included partnerships with area schools, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library, and the Levine Museum of the New South.

An exhibition of products from the year-long initiative is on display at Levine Museum of the New South through July 24.

The project began with a call for proposals from the International Drama Education Association (IDEA). IDEA was founded in 1992 to promote drama and theatre as part of a complete education and to provide a forum for those working as theatre educators throughout the world. The call for proposals asked theatre educators to creatively address topics of “Land and Home.” Inspired by southern gardening and cuisine and the long history of the textile industry in North Carolina, Murray developed the “cotton and collards” theme.

In February 2015, Murray led professional development activities for 15 teachers – a group of arts educators and regular classroom teachers – that included applied theatre strategies, visits to the Levine Museum and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library’s historical collections, and collaborative curriculum planning. Each of the six schools (Martin Luther King Middle, Piedmont Middle, First Ward Creative Arts Magnet, Cannon School, University Park Creative Arts Magnet, and Performance Learning Center) then created its own project with students to address the “cotton and collards” theme through research, oral histories, and arts-based learning. Projects included dances inspired by family recipes, a theatrical performance called “Come to the Table,” a visual art exhibition, a mini-documentary, a process drama about the fashion industry, a school garden, and a radio show created with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library called “In Over Our threads.”.

In addition to the local impact, Cotton & Collards serves as a model internationally for arts education projects that investigate questions of local history and sustainability in agriculture and industry. Through the IDEA network, theatre educators in New Zealand, Sweden, and Uganda have learned about Cotton & Collards, using the themes and processes as models for projects in their countries, with more collaborations possible.