“How Art Changes Us” Titus Kaphar

Hook: The personal story about him and his kids going to the museum

Inquiring Entry: Is there a way for us to amend our public sculptures not erase them?

Claims: -Confront our past not erase it.    -Art history class and the section on African Americans in painting.    -African Americans are always pushed back and in the shadows.     -Make new monuments next to old ones to create new stories.     -There is more information about dogs in our history rather than the character in the painting- the black boy.    -Everything in paintings are important.  -Wants to make paintings that speak about our past but also speak to the advances to our present.

Evidence: -Look at our history and address it.   -They didn’t go over it because they “didn’t have time”.  -He wants to bring these people out of “hiding”.   -He represents the painting and pulls those hidden figures out.                      -Amendments that’ll show where we are today with new monuments.

Naysayer: Don’t want it to be forgotten that people got away with the things that they did, how did it happen that a monument was made for a confederate where people of color lived. He wants to keep those old monuments but add new monuments to silence those oppressive voices.

Conclusion: Art can be a voice and create a space for conversation about how we are moving towards acknowledging that this is our history but we have grown and we are trying to move forward.