Typically, a wax museum allures its visitors with its incredibly lifelike figures — creations that are nearly indiscernible from the real thing.
And that’s exactly what six Bryan Elementary School students hoped visitors to their display thought they were viewing last week when they walked into the school’s media center.
But, the students’ show featured an even greater twist — the wax figures talked.
Rather than perusing lifelike wax figures, attendees at Bryan’s Talking Wax Museum were treated to students dressed as wax figures of famous artists. The museum was the culmination of an art history project gifted teacher Karen Beck organized for her students.
Each participating student chose a famous artist, wrote a report and created a piece of art based on his or her chosen artist’s work. Then, they set the library up like a museum, and they became the artist, dressed head to toe in costume.
One student wore a long, white beard to symbolize Leonardo da Vinci. Another student dressed in blue with a wide-brimmed straw hat like Vincent van Gogh.
Visiting classes entered the media center and “toured” the different displays, complete with makeshift buttons. Once the button was pushed, the student posing as an artist wax sculpture would recite their report on their artist to their audience.
“As teachers, we like to find different ways for students to present their information and learn,” Beck said.
The idea for a talking museum first came up when a student expressed interest in art.
“I like to select projects based on the interest of students,” Beck said.
Beck assigned the students to pick an artist and create a presentation. Then she got the idea to have the students present their projects in the form of a wax museum. She remembered viewing a video about another class that had used the same idea with United States presidents.
In addition to da Vinci and van Gogh, other artists portrayed include M.C. Escher, René Magritte, Claude Monet, and Mary Cassatt.
“They’ve learned not only about their artist but also about the other students,” Beck said.
“I didn’t want to do a boy, and I wanted to have an interesting character,” Rebecca Pereria said about picking Cassatt, the only female artist chosen for the project.
Pereria picked Cassatt’s painting, “Girl in the Blue Chair,” to draw and display with her. She used a picture of her younger sister, Marissa, 3.
Mackenzie Edwards chose Monet for her project and displayed her rendition of his “Water Lilies.”
“I picked Claude Monet, because I saw this painting of ‘Water Lilies,’ and I really liked it,” Edwards said.
“Culture is life,” Beck said about the topic of art. “It’s what makes life happy. With this project, we were trying to develop their love of life.”
Check out a photo gallery of the rest of the students.
Contact Amber Jurgensen at ajurgensen@plantcityobserver.com.