Color Walk — Open Studio

Substitute Lesson Plan (~45 minutes) | Middle School Art

Objective

Students will practice observing how color is used in everyday life — symbolically, as warnings, on advertisements, in personal style, and in architecture — following the "Color Walk" activity by artist Amy Sillman. Students will then imagine a simple color-based intervention of their own invention.

Materials

• "Color Walk" resource text (read aloud to class)
• Notebook paper or journals
• Pencils or pens
• (Optional) crayons or colored pencils for the exit ticket

Warm-up (~5 min)

1. Read aloud the opening of the resource: Amy Sillman's idea to spend a day noticing color everywhere except in a museum or gallery.
2. Ask students: "What is the most obvious everyday use of color you can think of?" (Give the traffic light example from the text — red, green, yellow — as a prompt if no one answers.)
3. Take 2–3 quick verbal answers, no writing needed yet.

Main Activity (~25 min)

1. Explain that instead of touring the whole town, the class will do a mini color walk using the school building and what's visible from windows/hallways.
2. Have students take out paper and pencil. Instruct them to look around the classroom, hallway (if allowed to step just outside the door), or out the windows, and take notes using the questions from the resource:
3. What colors do you notice, and where?
4. Are any colors being used as warnings (like signs)?
5. Are any colors used for advertising or branding?
6. Are people wearing or adorning themselves with color? What might it express?
7. Are colors used harmonically (colors that go together) or as shapes?
8. Where is color missing or "censored" — plain white walls, gray floors, etc.?
9. Give students about 10 minutes to walk/observe quietly and jot notes.
10. Bring the group back together for the remaining time. Go around and have each student share one color observation and what they think it means or expresses (symbolic meaning, warning, personal taste, advertisement, etc.).

Wrap-up / Exit Ticket (~10 min)

Have students respond in writing to one of the following, based directly on the resource:

• "Invent a small color intervention: describe one unexpected way you could wear or use a color on your body for a day."
• OR: "Design a colored flag or object you could put in a public place that sends a mysterious 'color message' of your own invention. What would it look like, and what message might it send?"

Students should write 2–4 sentences and, if time/materials allow, add a small colored sketch of their idea.

If Time Remains

Show the class the two images of Amy Sillman's paintings included in the resource (Blue Diagram and Nose). Ask students to compare: "How does Sillman use color in her paintings compared to the colors you noticed on your color walk today? Do you see any similar uses — like bold color, blocks of color, or unexpected color combinations?" Discuss briefly as a class.