Artist James Castle at the Heart of Boise State Art Professor’s K-12
Curriculum Project
Albertsons Library Special
Collections
Art educator Kathleen Keys firmly believes that no Boise State art
education student should graduate without an understanding and appreciation for
Idaho self-taught artist James Castle. She’ll be even happier when K-12 students
learn the same lesson.
Castle, who was born in Garden Valley and lived as an adult in Boise,
worked almost solely with found materials salvaged from items such as mail, food
boxes, labels and magazines. He drew using a mix of soot, charcoal and saliva
and fashioned tools from sticks and other objects. During his lifetime, only a
handful of people recognized the brilliance behind his work. Since his death in
1977, his art has been exhibited nationally and internationally.
Keys is so inspired by Castle’s work that she is taking a semester
sabbatical to coordinate with educators across the state to develop curriculum
for K-12 classrooms. The James Castle Curriculum Project is being funded in part
by an $8,465 grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts.
“I believe that critical and creative engagement with the history of
significant artists and artworks that explore what it is to be human is
especially important for inspiring innovative ways of thinking about and being
in the world,” Keys said.
Keys first became familiar with Castle in about 2004,
and her interest was further piqued by a Boise Art Museum exhibition in 2005.
BAM has the largest body of Castle’s work in a public collection. In addition,
representation of the Castle estate is overseen by Boise’s James Castle
Collection & Archive (formerly the J. Crist Gallery).
Keys soon began incorporating Castle’s history and innovative techniques
into her art education courses at Boise State, where students received it with
enthusiasm. But as an art educator, she kept thinking there should be more
resources available.
“Castle’s trajectory — his national and international renown — has really
taken off over the last several years,” she said. The Philadelphia Museum of Art
has a substantial collection, and along with loans from BAM, the James Castle
Collection & Archive and other public and private donors, organized and
toured “James Castle: A Retrospective” in 2008-09. Additionally, the American
Foundation for Self Taught Artists produced a documentary titled “James Castle:
Portrait of an Artist” in 2008.
While museums such as those in Boise and Philadelphia often incorporate
important artists like Castle into their education components, these
high-quality units tend to be limited in their reach after the exhibitions
close. And with most experts on Castle’s life and works living in the Treasure
Valley, it seemed logical to Keys that a far-reaching curriculum should be
developed right here in Idaho.
Keys proposes to create curriculum that will explore Castle’s “life,
creative practice and extremely imaginative, innovative and prolific body of
artwork, and thus the ways that [he] artistically made sense of the world.”
Ideally, the results will then be published in a book or online.
While collaborative methods of developing curriculum are not uncommon, Keys
will widen the scope to include several groups of artists and educators from
across Castle’s home state. She’ll spend the fall 2012 semester organizing
teacher development workshops to explore the major themes in Castle’s work,
including the importance of place and his creative use of materials, and then
facilitate a continuing process of collaborative curriculum development with
interested partners and participants.
Keys hopes this work will eventually lead to in-depth curriculum offerings
on other significant artists. By keeping the appeal broad, she also believes the
final product will be of value to educators in other cities and countries who
are interested in bringing self-taught artists into their teaching and learning
environments.
“Material about James Castle’s work is always well received by university
students,” Keys said. “This is fascinating content to take into their teaching
lives.”
If you are interested in learning more about, or participating in, the
James Castle Curriculum Project, contact Keys at kathleenkeys@boisestate.edu.
