Black History Month Art: How to Create A Crown inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat

We're going to learn how to create a Basquiat-inspired crown as part of celebrating Black History Month! Plus, we'll get to know a famous expressionist painter, Jean-Michel Basquiat.

This meaningful craft activity will teach your little ones that they should value themselves, be proud of who they are, and be inspired by who they are going to become.

Read on!

Table of Contents

Celebrate the unique “YOU” this Black History Month at Creativity School!


Let’s celebrate and enjoy self-expression with your kids and enhance their creative potential this 2021!

Our award-winning artists give away free LIVE art classes from the Creativity School. 

Create fun and crafts like collages, animations, pop up cards, and much more!

Who is Jean-Michel Basquiat?

Artistic portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled, 1981 by Jean-Michel Basquiat. An abstract representation of a face (side-view)

Image of Jean-Michel Basquiat (left) courtesy of Wiki Art (wikiart.org); Untitled, 1981 (right) by Jean-Michel Basquiat at The Broad Contemporary Art Museum on March 5, 2016 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Jean-Michel Basquiat is an important cultural figure for his famous contributions to modern arts.

A Puerto Rican-Haitian-American self-taught artist, he was considered a pop icon and was known for his unique graffiti, and neo-expressionism style of painting.

His love for the arts was hugely inspired by his mother, and influenced by comics, advertising, children’s drawings, Pop art, hip-hop, politics, and just anything about everyday life.

Despite his short life, he was the subject of many biographies and documentaries, and his influence in arts continues to inspire many of today’s contemporary artists.

Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

Cover photo of the book entitled, Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat

Javaka Steptoe, a renowned collage artist, wrote and illustrated this children’s book, Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

The book received overall positive critics and in 2017, the American Library Association awarded the book the Caldecott Medal, for being the best American Picture book.

In that same year, the book also won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, given to recognize children's books written by African American authors that reflect the African American culture.

Its colorful text and artful collage about the young Jean-Michel Basquiat inspires young readers that arts don’t always have to be perfect or clean to be beautiful.So get ready and let’s make one of Basquiat’s signature motifs, the crown!

Let’s create our Basquiat crown! 

This cool crown is a fun and special craft to make with your kids. It's going to look fantastic when they wear it on their head!

Crown on!

Materials

Instructions

A used paper bag cut to make a long piece of paper.

1. Turn the top portion of a used paper bag into a long piece of paper.


Remove the handles and cut a used paper bag into the top section.

To make a long piece of paper, snip one side of the cut paper bag.

Long brown paper wrapped around the head of a boy to make the base of the crown.

2. Make the base of the crown.


Place the paper behind your head and wrap it around the size of your head. Cut the excess paper.

Broken triangle lines on top of the long brown paper to indicate the portion to cut.

3. Cut triangles on the upper portion of the crown.

Small square colored papers glued on top of the crown.

4. Snip and stick cut papers on your crown to design.

The word "ARTIST" written on top of the designed crown.

5. Add the word “ARTIST” or write any fun word that describes YOU!

Formed crown worn by a happy boy.

6. Form the crown.

We’re done with our beautiful and magical crown!

Wear it with pride and celebrate YOU!

Tips for art-mazing success

  • This meaningful craft uses scissors, so TAKE EXTRA CARE, or seek adult supervision. ✂️❗
  • Express yourself by designing your crown the way you want it.
  • Your crown doesn’t have to look perfect! Just enjoy doing and crafting it.
  • Don’t be afraid to get messy! It’s the joy of learning that’s important!
  • Keep cutouts and paper snips! You can use them in your future collages.

Check out these crowns full of pride made by young artists at the Creativity School!

A happy girl wearing a pink paper crown and showing peace sign.
A close-up photo of a boy wearing a crown with star design
A smiling girl wearing an orange and white crown, and in a "Frozen" costume.

Beautiful crowns made from Creativity School by Maja B. (left), Rishik H. (middle), and Sienna Elise O. (right)

Share your crown-mazing YOU in the comment part below!

No matter which art and craft you and your child choose to create, here at Creativity School we make it easy and fun! 

Happy crafting!

Creative Kids Live

“We can tell that Creativity School is having a positive impact on my son’s motivation for school and his overall well-being. We know art and creativity are always boosts for academics and health! This is proving it!!!"
- Celina G.

On Demand Class

“Arree Chung, your class is fantastic! I am sure other parents would agree that Creativity School is more of a FAMILY DEAL! Because I, as a parent who has no drawing experience, learned too.”
—Miao
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2 thoughts on “Black History Month Art: How to Create A Crown inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat”

  1. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I really feel strongly about it and appreciate finding out additional on this topic. If possible, as you acquire expertise, would you thoughts updating your blog with far more info? It is extremely useful for me.

    1. Thank you for your feedback. We are glad it's useful for you! We are not planning to update this particular blog right now with too much extra info, but we will come up with more similar content in the future. Hope that will help!

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