Stealing a leaf \u2013 indeed, an entire table \u2013 from artist Judy Chicago, students in Krista Grensavitch\u2019s History of Women in American Society course created their final project, titled \u201cThe Supper Club: A reinterpretation of The Dinner Party, based on local history.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chicago\u2019s famed work celebrated the history of women in Western civilization, and stands as foundational feminist art. In paying homage to the spirit of Chicago\u2019s work, Grensavitch\u2019s students narrowed their focus to women in Wisconsin\u2019s history and displayed it at the end of the 2016 fall semester.<\/p>\n
Like the original Dinner Party, the centerpiece of 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s exhibit was a triangular table with place settings, which represented the stories of female artists and professionals who left a mark on Wisconsin. The student-created settings primarily featured hand-decorated plates and placemats, as well as accompanying research papers.<\/p>\n
Grensavitch, a doctoral candidate in history, said the project and exhibit was intended to present students with a new way of thinking about history. \u201cIn my dissertation, I analyze a teaching technique that was popular in the 1860s in the U.S. called the object lesson \u2013 that\u2019s where the popular term comes from,\u201d Grensavitch said. \u201cInstructors would bring objects into the classroom \u2013 sometimes because they had no texts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe object lesson style of teaching went out of fashion in the early 1900s, but recently, objects have come to be viewed as a valid source material for history scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students not only produced objects, but used them in their research, studying 51ÁÔÆæ\u2019s special collections, archives and growing collection of digitized objects. Though the class project was uncharted territory for many students, they came to embrace it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe course was completely different from every other history course I\u2019d taken,\u201d said Adriana Ramirez, a senior studying journalism. Her subject was Charlotte Partridge, who founded what became the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t just memorizing. You actually retain what you\u2019ve learned,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cI\u2019ll never forget what I learned doing this project.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zoe Whorrall\u2019s subject was Ruth Gruber, who graduated from UW-Madison to become a celebrated journalist and photographer. \u201cI was really nervous at first because I’m not too artistic, but it encouraged me to explore my more creative side,\u201d Whorrall said.<\/p>\n
Grensavitch noted how the projects often became family affairs, with elders sharing artistic techniques and even personal memories of the subjects. For first-generation students in particular, families not only got insight into their student\u2019s academic experience, but some academic validation of their own knowledge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were parents and grandparents who came from as far away as Green Bay to support their children and grandchildren,\u201d Grensavitch said. \u201cThey saw their own knowledge and skills shared in the show, and maybe that\u2019s why so many came.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grensavitch believes that because historical texts generally exclude common artisans and the uneducated, objects can reveal a wider range of humanity and enrich our historical accounts.<\/p>\n
\u201cObjects can be far more representative of whole populations of people than text,\u201d she says. \u201cIf we can use those objects to offer more a more inclusive history, we\u2019ve done our jobs as historians.\u201d<\/p>\n