Artist talk with Aram Han Sifuentes

Artist Aram Han Sifuentes will present her work and touring art project, U.S. Citizenship Test Samplers within the context of the Archives of American Art’s current exhibition, Artist Teacher Organizer: Yasuo Kuniyoshi in the Archives of American Art.

Sifuentes will present an overview of the needlework samplers in her project, U.S. Citizenship Test Sampler. Sewn samplers were used in Colonial America to teach young children needlework and the alphabet. Sifuentes is currently hand-sewing the 100 civic study questions and answers of the U.S. Naturalization Test. As a group, Sifuentes will lead a discussion about the U.S. Naturalization test and consider what it means to be an American by crafting an alternative set of U.S. Citizenship test questions. The group will decide which questions are most meaningful, which are irrelevant to their experience, and what new questions should be added to better define the groups’ understanding of what is and should be American.

The MacMillan Education Center is located on the first floor of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for American Art and Portraiture. For detailed directions or for more information on the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art, contact Mary Savig at savigm@si.edu or 202-633-7959.