What You Need:
- Several sheets from a recent newspaper (without images)
- Large sheet of white construction paper (12' × 18”)
- Watercolor paint
- Black markers
- Tempera paint
- Brushes
- Water
What You Do:
- In this collage art project, your child will take a famous American symbol, the Statue of Liberty, and transform it into something relevant and personally meaningful to them.
- To begin, cut out an 8" × 10" piece of newsprint from a recent newspaper. (If you don't have newsprint handy, any type of thicker paper will do.)
- Have your child use pencil and black markers to draw a picture of their own head and shoulders, topped with a Statue of Liberty crown.
- Invite your child to color their portrait using tempera paints, mixed to match their own coloring. Don’t worry if some of the print shows through—that’s part of the charm!
- Lay the portrait aside to dry.
- As the portrait dries, consider reading the famous poem that Emma Lazarus wrote (see below), which is inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty. You can also read Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous "Four Freedoms," summarized and linked below.
- Allow the portrait to dry, and then have your child cut around it with scissors. Place the portrait in the center of the white sheet of construction paper.
- Divide the background into four quadrants. Your child will use the four corners to draw four pictures that represent freedom and liberty to them. This could be places, words, people, or symbols of things they cherish about America. If they wish, they can take inspiration from Lazarus's poem, or Roosevelt's Four Freedoms, but they can also include images from their own personal history. What is most important is that what they draw is personally meaningful to them.
- Once your child has sketched their pictures, have them paint them with watercolors.
Give your child plenty of time for this fun, engaging art project. This is also a great way for the entire family to explore togethe the complex ideas and dreams that are part of the fabric of our nation.
The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Franklin D. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms:
- Freedom of Speech and Expression
- Freedom of Religion
- Freedom from Want
- Freedom from Fear
These "Four Freedoms" are from a famous address to Congress given by President Roosevelt on January 6, 1941 in a speech called "The Four Freedoms." (A transcript of the entire speech can be found here.)
