The Creating Portraits of Community curriculum teaches middle- and high-school students how to capture the communities around them through multimedia portraits. Over the course of four lessons, students learn to use photography and oral history to record and analyze their own social, cultural, and historical contexts.
The curriculum was developed as a collaborative project between three Smithsonian museums – the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Museum of American History – along with Smithsonian Affiliate museums and teachers in Kansas, Kentucky, and Washington, DC. Student work from the first year of the project in 2024 is displayed in the digital gallery on this page. As more community portraits are submitted, the digital gallery will grow.
As the Smithsonian and the nation mark the 250th anniversary of the United States’s founding in 2026, we hope this curriculum will encourage students across the country to capture and share stories of their communities. We encourage middle- and high-school teachers to complete the curriculum with their classes and submit their students’ community portraits to be included in this digital gallery. More information about submitting student work can be found below.
Lesson Plans
The four lessons are intended to be taught in order as a four-part curriculum, but each lesson can also be taught independently.
Educational Standards
National Core Arts Standards
Creating Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Creating Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Creating Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
Connecting Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art.
Connecting Anchor Standard 11: Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding.
CCSS Standards
CCSS-ELA-SL.8-12.4: Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.
CCSS-ELA-SL.8-12.5: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
C3 Framework
D2.Geo.5.8: Analyze the combinations of cultural and environmental characteristics that make places both similar to, and different from, other places.
D2.Geo.6.8: Explain how the physical and human characteristics of places and regions are connected to human identities and cultures.
D2.Geo.8.9-12. Evaluate the impact of economic activities and political decisions on spatial patterns within and among urban, suburban, and rural regions.
D2.His.7.9-12. Explain how the perspectives of people in the present shape interpretations of the past.
Educating for American Democracy Standards
Theme: Our Changing Landscapes
History:
How has our geographic, social, economic, and political landscape changed over time?
How has the land we inhabit–from our local community to states and territories to the American republic–changed over time, and how have we shaped it?
Civics:
What different perspectives are there on those changes, and on the benefits and costs of those changes?
What principles and values do Americans invoke in our debates about these issues?
Student Submissions
This digital gallery showcases community portraits created by students in grades 8-12 as a part of the Creating Portraits of Community project. Students selected their own subjects to feature and the content reflects their perspectives. Some interviews address sensitive topics including gun violence and human trafficking.
Year One
Submission Guidelines
Teachers of students ages 13 and up are encouraged to submit work created as a part of the Creating Portraits of Community curriculum to be exhibited in the digital gallery above. Student work may take the form of photography, audio recordings, documentary video, written artist statements, or transcribed interviews.
- Work may be submitted in the following formats: .JPG, .PNG, .MP3, .MP4, .MOV, .DOC.
- Work cannot contain images of children younger than 13.
- All submitted work must be accompanied by a verification form completed by a teacher.
- Verification Form, required with submissions
- Submit student work and verification forms to creatingportraits@si.edu.
- If needed, teachers may use these additional permission forms to obtain consent from parents and guardians, photography models, and oral history interviewees as required by their schools or organizations. These forms should not be included with submissions to SAAM.
Credit
Creating Portraits of Community is funded by a Youth Access Grant from the Smithsonian Institution’s Together We Thrive initiative. The curriculum was created in collaboration with educators from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Museum of American History, with support from Smithsonian Affiliations.
