Walter Anderson Traveling Trunks

Walter Anderson is one of Mississippi's most renowned artists. The Old Capitol Museum offers two trunks focusing on his work: one for elementary schools and one for high schools.

Walter Anderson Trunk

This trunk, incorporating many art activities, is most appropriate for students in fourth through eighth grades.

In the first lesson a video, An American Master: Walter Anderson of Mississippi, provides an overview of Walter Anderson's life. Students are introduced to the "seven motifs of creative design" and, with inspiration from nature and music, use the motifs to create drawings.

The second lesson incorporates a magnetic compass, a map of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and Walter Anderson's "three islands map" to teach map reading skills. Students learn how to produce maps of their own.

The video Walter Anderson and Printmaking and a projected, full-color overhead transparency of Anderson's Three Billy Goats Gruff are used to introduce printmaking. Brayers, inking plates, and ink are provided for creating block prints; students press designs into Styrofoam meat trays and "pull" prints from this surface.

Walter Anderson Trunk

This trunk is most appropriate for students in the ninth through twelfth grades.

A video, An American Master: Walter Anderson of Mississippi, provides an overview of Walter Anderson's life. Students are introduced to the "seven motifs of creative design" and, inspired by nature and music, create a drawing using these motifs.

The second lesson shows how prehistoric cave painting influenced Walter Anderson's work. Students learn about famous cave paintings and the people who painted them and then create their own caves and cave paintings using crumpled butcher paper, dried soil, and oil.

The book Walls of Light: The Murals of Walter Anderson, along with full-color overhead transparencies of three Anderson murals, introduces mural painting. Students then discuss and evaluate the three murals.

Map-reading skills are taught using a magnetic compass, a map of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and Walter Anderson's "three island map." Students learn to produce maps of their own in the style of Walter Anderson.

The video Walter Anderson and Printmaking and a series of full-color overhead transparencies of several of the artist's prints are used to introduce printmaking. Brayers, inking plates, and ink are provided for creating block prints; students press designs into Styrofoam meat trays and "pull" prints from this surface.

The bookbinding lesson is initiated with the reading of Walter Anderson's illustrated children's story Robinson: The Pleasant History of an Unusual Cat. Students brainstorm and are helped to develop stories of their own; then they select parts of the stories for illustration. Following step-by-step illustrated instructions, they produce bound books.

The Traveling Trunk Program was developed for use with fourth– through twelfth–grade classes. Trunks are available September through November and January through May. The trunks are designed to be used as a one- to two-week unit and will be shipped the week before they are to be used in the classroom to allow the teacher to become familiar with the contents. The trunks should be returned to the Museum on the Monday following the completion of the teaching unit. Trunks must be shipped FedEx, USPS, or UPS and insured for $500. Teachers may choose to transport the trunks to the Museum themselves. The Traveling Trunk Program was developed with funding from the Phil Hardin Foundation of Meridian. Additional funding was provided by BellSouth and BellSouth Pioneers.

For more information or to book this trunk call 601-576-6800.

• Built for Comfort: The Manship House
• European Explorers
• Mississippi River
• Native Americans
• Prehistoric Archaeology and Mississippi
• Walter Anderson–Elementary
• Walter Anderson–High School
• West Africans in Colonial Mississippi

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