Anti-Racist Art Activities for Kids: 30+ Creative Projects that Celebrate Diversity and Inspire Change

by Anti-Racist Art Teachers, Paula Liz, Abigail Birhanu, Khadesia Latimer, Lori Santos

Overview

Harness the power of creativity to celebrate your community and change the world with Anti-Racist Art Activities for Kids.

Do you think, “I’m just a kid. What can I do to make a difference?” Be an anti-racist artist! Have fun with 38 creative projects that empower you to use your art, actions, and words to create meaningful change.

Start your anti-racist art-making journey by defining ideas like race, racism, and anti-racism. Dive into six sections, beginning with self-reflection before seeking justice and taking action! Each section’s theme includes an array of activity choices, including:
 

• Identity – Who you are and what makes you unique.
  • Explore your identity and create a symbol that represents you.
• Culture – Your way of life and honoring what others value about theirs.
  • Make a textile design inspired by your home and culture.
• Community – Connecting to people and places.
  • Challenge your implicit biases and discover how to draw diverse people.
• Empathy – Understanding others and having compassion.
  • Learn the meaning of equity by solving real-world math problems with art.
• Justice – Making a society that is fair for all.
  • Create a miniature billboard that comments on a social issue.
• Activism – Creating change and transforming our communities.
  • Mail a postcard to a politician that informs them of what you would like to see change.

Other activities include designing a community mural and organizing people to make a positive change. As you work through the pages and explore the many parts of being an anti-racist artist, you will learn various art-making skills and engage with different materials such as paint, clay, textiles, and recycled materials. At the back, a helpful glossary defines terms that come up in anti-racist discussions, from “activism” to “white supremacy.”

This book is just a starting point, and the possibilities are endless. There is no limit to your imagination and your impact!

Contributors include: Abigail Birhanu, Khadesia Latimer, Paula Liz, Lori Santos, Tamara Slade and Anjali Wells.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780760381328
Publisher:	Quarry Books
Publication date:	05/30/2023
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Anti-Racist Art Teachers Anti-Racist Art Teachers is a collective of educators residing across the United States who promote inclusive thinking, celebrate diversity, and inspire transformative action through art education. We seek to provide educators and caregivers resources to explore anti-bias and anti-racist concepts through art-making that engages youth in critical conversations about voice, power, bias, race, equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice. Learn more at antiracistartteachers.org.

Paula Liz is an artist, activist, educator, and author. She was born in Puerto Rico and attended the Maryland Institute of Art, receiving a BFA in Painting and an MAT in Art Education. She has taught K–12 art in New York; Texas; Washington, DC; and Maryland, where she was named Art Educator of the Year in 2022. Her passion for justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion are at the center of her lessons and expand beyond the classroom. Learn more at paulalizart.com.

Abigail Birhanu is an artist and art educator who teaches secondary level. She was born in Ethiopia and grew up with an appreciation not only for her culture but a diversity of cultures and experiences. Abby is a Fulbrighter who taught in England. She loves traveling and has visited 21 countries so far. She is committed to anti-racist, anti-bias, culturally responsive teaching that cultivates understanding and value for our diverse world community.

Khadesia Latimer Khadesia is an art educator and artist from South Carolina. She is passionate about art making that encourages empathy, critical thinking skills, anti-racist, and anti-bias practices. She believes that art education is the perfect outlet for spiking creativity while helping develop culturally responsive children. In the future, Khadesia hopes to expand her creativity by writing and illustrating children’s books. Follow @thebusybrushes on IG.

Dr. Lori Santos has a scholarly focus on Indigenous art and cultures and works directly with Indigenous artists and communities throughout the Americas. She is the founder of the Puzzle Peace Pledge Project (4PEACE), a cross-cultural art initiative for sustainable social and ecological amity. Lori teaches art as social justice and nurtures human stories of awareness, transformation, and empowerment.

Tamara (tuh-mar-uh) Slade is a social justice educator and author from California. She obtained her Masters in Education from UCLA. For the last seven years, Tamara has taught students of color at the elementary school level. In her spare time, she coaches teachers, creates social justice curriculum, and facilitates professional development related to ethnic studies, CGI math, and more. She hopes to one day publish a children’s book of her own.

Anjali Wells Anjali is an art educator from Maryland who is passionate about teaching others to use art as an outlet. She believes everyone’s voice is powerful, deserves to be heard, and can do so creatively. To share this mission, she created the nonprofit Creative Outlets Arts Center. Learn more about how you can use art as an outlet for wellness at CreativeOutletsAC.com.

Table of Contents

Table of contents:

 

Unit 1: Identity

Introduction  

Activity 1- Identity Puzzle Collage 

Create an identity puzzle map about you.

Activity 2- Identity Symbols 

Create a symbol that shows your unique identity.

Activity 3- Your Name is A Work of Art 

Transform your name into a work of art.

Activity 4- Our Many Shades of Skin 

Learn how to mix various browns to create many skin colors.

Activity 5- Your Unique Colors Collage 

Create a self-portrait collage that explores and embraces what makes you unique.

Activity 6- Silhouette Portrait 

Create a self-concept silhouette portrait.

Activity 7- ME-Shirt 

Design a shirt to represent you.

Activity 8- Affirmation Animals 

Create an animal necklace that represents a positive affirmation about yourself.

 

Unit 2: Culture 

Introduction 

Activity 9- Bookmarking Cultural Appreciation 

Make a bookmark to honor a culture.

Activity 10- Special Family Foods 

Create a recipe for a special food.

Activity 11- The Best Day of the Year 

Draw what the best day of the year looks like to you.

Activity 12- Expressive Landscapes 

Draw a landscape that shows your unique aesthetic.

Activity 13- Transgenerational Objects 

Create a sculpture that features your family’s history, culture, and traditions. 

Activity 14- The Fabric of Me! 

 Create a textile design inspired by your home and culture.

 

Unit 3: Community 

Introduction 

Activity 15 - Mapping the Treasures of My Neighborhood 

Take a mindful journey in your neighborhood and create a treasure map.

Activity 16 - Drawing Diversity 

Practice drawing a diverse group of people in a community setting.

Activity 17 - Career Puppets 

Create a puppet of a community helper that challenges your implicit bias.

Activity 18 - Community Heroes 

Create an artwork that celebrates an important person in your community.

Activity 19 - Finding Joy 

Find joy and celebrate it with art.

Activity 20 - Goal Setting for Growth 

Create an artwork that outlines your current goals within your spheres of influence.

 

Unit 4: Empathy

Introduction  

Activity 21- We Welcome All 

Make a welcoming entrance and explore how to create brave spaces.

Activity 22- Equal Isn’t Always Fair 

Learn the meaning of equity by solving real-world math problems with modeling clay.

Activity 23 - Compassion Critters  

Create a stuffed critter that represents four qualities of compassion.

Activity 24 - Drawing with Magic 

Use magic to draw change into the world.

Activity 25 - Challenges to Triumphs 

Create a comic strip that illustrates a challenge you triumphed.

Activity 26- Powerful Portraits 

Create a portrait that challenges stereotypes. 

 

Unit 5: Justice

Introduction 

Activity 27 - Celebrating Activists 

Create an artwork using various materials that celebrates an activist.

Activity 28 - Using Text in Art 

Use powerful words to create a work of art. 

Activity 29 - Miniature Billboards 

Create a miniature billboard that comments on a social issue.

Activity 30 - Social Activism Mural 

Design a mural that shows what is important to your community.

 

Unit 6: Activism 

Introduction  

Activity 31 - Creating Mindful Spaces 

Create art for a mindful space you re-designed.

Activity 32 - Growing Reciprocity 

Make a native food garden marker. 

Activity 33 - Sustainable Fashion 

Repurpose an old t-shirt into a handbag to help our planet. 

Activity 34 - Flying Flags of Hope 

Create flags that inspire hope.

Activity 35 - Advocacy Weaving 

Create a weaving that advocates for what you believe in.

Activity 36 - Postcards to Politicians 

Create a postcard to send to a politician to tell them about an issue you care about.

Activity 37 - Designing My Own Utopia 

Learn about Afro-Brazilian resistance and create a diorama of a utopia, free of injustice.

Activity 38- Collective Logo 

Begin to organize a collective and design a logo for your cause.

 

• Visual Resources

• Glossary

• About the Authors 

• Acknowledgments