kristietcpsarts-blog

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CPSA Capstone Final Advising

Name: Kristie Advisor: Kenna Meeting: May 8th at 7pm At my meeting today my and I discussed my final project and anything that I may have changed if I had the opportunity to redo it. We talked about my goals and whether they were accomplished. My main goal was to educate myself and my peers, and I believe that I had the opportunity to do so. Lastly, we discussed taking my project further and being able to relate it to one of my majors. Next I plan to really sit down and think about all of the ways I can take my project further. If I do so I plan to narrow my project down even further than what I have now

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This semester I had the opportunity to work on and see the UMoves Dance performance at the Clarice. It was a great experience for me and I learned so much. I met a lot of the dancers and truly formed a relationship with them. Getting to see the process of the choreographers and then being able to watch the show was great. Each piece had a different message that was true to who they are

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This semester I had the opportunity to got to the African Art Smithsonian Museum in DC. I was there to find components for my Capstone project, but while doing that I came across this piece that reminded me of the tales my grand mother would tell me while growing up. Although this piece had nothing to do with my Capstone, I still decided I take a picture because it reminded me of growing up and Nigeria so much. This is the Mami Water Figure that this known To be a mermaid like figure. Overall, I had a great time at the museum. I was able to see pieces of art that strengthened my Capstone and unrelated pieces that simply interested me

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I had the opportunity to attend the filmmaker's club last lecture/ elections. I have had the opportunity to attend the meetings and watch How these students have led, written, directed, and filmed their own films during the school year. I really enjoyed myself because it was so great to see many individuals expressing their love for the club and the things they wanted to help improve.

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My inspiration: I chose to do this project based on my cultural background. I am Nigerian from the Yoruba Tribe. Our culture is very rich and I would love to share my culture with others. This project will serve as a learning experience for me and my peers as I do not know everything there is to know about my culture. I chose to compare Nigeria with Ghana because both countries are very similar in some aspects. There is always a friendly rivalry between the two countries and I thought it would be interesting to learn more about Ghana as well.

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Final Reflection

I have successfully completed my capstone project and I am very proud about that. I wanted to be able to teach my peers a little bit about Nigeria and Ghana and I think I did that successfully. My goal was to also further my knowledge, as their are some things that I don't know about the Yoruba Tribe. My culture is massive and I am still learning so much. This project definitely taught me a lot. I decided to present my research using a PowerPoint because I felt that it would be more substantial when it came to being concise. I wanted to share all the research I found but I didn't want to bore people with a lecture. At arts fest people were able to look & read the bullet points, watch the videos and click through the slides at their own pace.

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Peer Review Feedback #2

After my second look showing, I received some feedback from my classmates about the Visual Art pieces I planned to showcase. They advised me to incorporate captions/descriptions about each piece. If it was possible, translating the words into English so that everyone would be able to read and better understand. They also mentioned that videos of the dances would be very helpful to better understand instead of steps of how the dance is done. I completely agreed and I was able to find some YouTube clips of the two dances from the Akan and Yoruba Tribe.

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Kete Dance of Akan People 🇬🇭

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff7zvV2C54I

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Video of the Bata Dance (Yoruba People🇳🇬)

•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akJJkOr6EKM&t=74s

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Midterm Reflection

So far, my project Is going well. I am trying to incorporate the feedback my classmates gave me into the project. The only thing I am really concerned about is the format on which I plan to present this. I'm a bit skeptical about making an blog for it due to the fact that at ArtsFest people may not have the time or patience to click through and ready a heavy blog. My goal is for my project to be concise but at the same time very informative.

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Peer Review Feedback #1

After my first look presentation, my peers gave me some useful advice. They said that they wanted me to inform people of my inspiration, and explain my personal connection to the country. They also suggested that include some fun facts about both countries that people may not be aware of.

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CPSA Capstone Agreement

CPSA 250: College Park Arts Scholars Capstone: Solo Project, Spring 2017 Name: Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola Email: kristiemak4197@gmail.com Advisor: Jess Weekly Meeting Time: Wednesdays at 2pm Purpose/Mission Statement: This semester I hope to inform students about African culture. I plan to do a culture comparison of two tribes in Nigeria and Ghana. While comparing the different aspects of their culture I will also discuss their outlook on art and how art is implemented into both countries’ cultures. From this experience I will learn more about Ghanaian and Nigerian culture and I hope to spread some knowledge about these two countries to my fellow classmates. Learning Objectives: I will do research on the Yoruba tribe of Nigeria and the Asante tribe of Ghana. I will discover how both cultures view creativity and how they implement art into their culture/lives. I will gain more knowledge about these two African tribes and spread my knowledge to my fellow peers who may not be familiar with the culture of both countries. Workshop Process: Research on the language spoken in each country is needed, as well as the predominate art forms. I will utilize museums in the DMV area as well as textbooks and online articles. In order to create the finished project, I will do extensive research and post all my findings in a blog/online journal. I plan to document my work in a process binder. I will put captions, photos and my inspirations in my process binder in order to show my audience how I went about completing my final project. Resources: Internet sources---multiple articles, journal posts etc. Books: Customs and Culture of Ghana by Steven J. Salm Museums: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Baltimore Museum of Art Pictures from Pinterest, google images, and photos from my findings at the Museum Project Timeline: -All research will be done by Spring break. The week after spring break I will start to create my blog and post my findings on the website. I will be putting all my research notes/items into a binder.

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CPSA Capstone Advising #2

Name: Kristie Taiwo-Makanjuola Advisor: Kenna Meeting Date & time: April 10th at 2:30pm At my meeting today my advisor and I discussed my progress so far with my project. We discussed more of the type of resources I could utilize to find more research on my project. I informed her that I had went to the National African Art museum already, and I had plans on taking a trip to the Museum in Baltimore that weekend. We also discussed the format that I would be presenting my research. -Next I plan to compile all my research into either a blog or PowerPoint presentation. I will also go to the Art museum in Baltimore to see what I can find, and do further research on the Dance aspect on both culture.

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Capstone Reflection

The connections I saw between my project and those of my small group is that many of us have to conduct extensive research in order to effectively report what we found. One of the members in my group is doing a cultural project like I am. However, he is researching Italy while I’m researching Nigeria and Ghana. The members of my group haven given me feedback so far. They're suggestions are great. They think I should give more information about the artifacts. They also said I should make it clear how the specific artifact will relate to my project. The great thing about feedback is that it helps me move my project along in the right direction. I want to ensure that my project is very clear and understandable for everyone. I will definitely take everyone’s advice into consideration.

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I really like the idea of your project ! I find Italian culture so interesting and even though I don't know much about it. Hope to learn more through your project. Are you planning on bringing in any dishes of the food you are looking at? Or maybe a sample of the type of music involved you discovered/used in your project? Also what inspired you to do this project?

Capstone Process Reflection

For the preliminary research portion of my project, I researched the food and music traditions of Italy. Interestingly, so much of what I found was based on geopolitical trends. For example, the trade of new spices brought new flavors into Italian cooking, and religious importance influenced the styles of music. Also with music, politics plays a heavy influence. Imperialism and and colonization played huge roles in shaping cultural norms and styles. There are aspects of Italian folk music that can be traced back to Spanish/Moorish traditions from occupation in the south. I think that in representing music cultures through food, I can try to dissect the ingredients and flavor combinations of the food I choose, and match those to cultures from around the world from which I can draw musical inspiration. 

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This is a piece from the African Art museum that I plan to add to my collections of pieces from Ghana. These are weights from the Akan tribe of the country Ghana. They were for measuring gold dust, and they were once traded throughout all of present day Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. Some weight forms were selected just for their beauty or to display the owner's status. Many of the weights evoke Akan proverbs, meanings varying with time and place.

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This is another piece I saw at the National African art museum . It will be used in my research and it's called a Epa Helmet Mask. This artist is of the Yoruba Tribe from Ekiti State. The masks are used at dances to honor Yoruba Ancestors and to promote fertility and plentiful harvest . Ekiti State is predominantly a Yoruba State in the country of Nigeria