Negotiating historical interpretation and White privilege in histories of art education

Frances Euphemia Thompson (c. 1896–1992) taught art education at what is now Tennessee State University in Nashville, from summer 1922 until her retirement in 1969. She was appointed Professor in 1944 and Professor Emerita in 1974. The Tennessee Department of Education published Art in the Elementary Schools: A Manual for Teachers, based on her bachelor’s thesis from Massachusetts School of Art, to help classroom teachers, chiefly in rural African American communities, carry out a functional art programme. I am a White art educator, working in the twenty-first century, carrying the ‘invisible knapsack’ of White privilege. The contents of that knapsack shape my interpretation of Thompson’s art learning and teaching. As an art educator doing historical research, I carry other invisible knapsacks: assumptions about art education, what history is and can be. These values and beliefs contribute to the paradox of historical interpretation. How and under what circumstances did Thompson’s identity as an African American art educator matter in her professional contributions? In order to answer this question and interpret the life experience of African American art educator from the last century, I must unpack my invisible knapsacks. I will compare my White privilege with Thompson’s experiences in the segregated south, and discuss challenges of using culturally and historically appropriate language.