Family Totems

Family Totems was created by groups of students at The Urban Assembly School of Music and Art and their parents. The parents and children studied animal symbolism and imagery at the Brooklyn Museum of Art and then created an animal symbol, or totem,to represent their families. During the museum tour, the young people and their parents were encouraged to focus on the similarities between different cultures of the world. The theme of animal symbols is universal. Through this lens, participants were able to see that seemingly disparate cultures have many things in common, not just in terms of visual art, but also in terms of societal values. Participants formed family teams to design their personal family totem symbol, created from at least two different animals. The designs were then turned into stencils and printed with acrylic paint onto two-foot square canvases. The process of parents and children with little artistic experience coming together to create a large-scale work of art was very rewarding for everyone involved.