From Classroom to Canvas: IB Language and Literature Students Experience Banksy in Tampa
Theresa MacLennan, M.Ed.
English Teacher, Clearwater Central Catholic High School
On September 16, 2026, Clearwater Central Catholic High School’s IB Language and Literature SL students had the opportunity to step outside the traditional classroom and into the world of contemporary art during a visit to The Art of Banksy exhibition at the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa, Florida.
When I learned that this extraordinary collection was coming to Tampa, I immediately recognized an opportunity to bring the IB curriculum to life. The exhibition featured more than 160 original and authenticated works from what was described as the world’s largest authenticated collection of privately owned Banksy art.
I was especially pleased to collaborate with our IB Art teacher, Andrea Obenland, to make this experience possible for our students. Together, we accompanied 34 students to the exhibition, creating an interdisciplinary experience that connected IB English: Language and Literature, visual art, cultural analysis, and global issues.
Our purpose extended far beyond simply viewing artwork.
Learning to Read Visual Texts
In IB Language and Literature, students are asked to examine how creators use language, structure, stylistic choices, and visual elements to communicate ideas, shape audience responses, and reflect or challenge the values of society. Banksy’s work provided an authentic opportunity for students to apply these skills to visual texts.
Before entering the exhibition, students received an Artistic Devices Checklist that encouraged them to look closely at elements such as composition, symbolism, juxtaposition, color and shading, objects, narrative, stylistic choices, and intended audience. Each student selected two works for closer examination and recorded observations that would later support interpretive and analytical discussion.
Rather than simply asking, “What do you see?”, students were encouraged to consider deeper questions:
- What choices did the artist make?
- Why do you think Banksy constructed the image this way?
- How does the placement of objects influence meaning?
- What response does the artist want from the viewer?
- What global issue is being explored?
- How does the location or context of the artwork affect its message?
- What assumptions or values is the artist asking us to question?
In other words, students were learning to become critical readers of visual texts.
An Unusual Opportunity to See Banksy Up Close
The exhibition offered students an especially memorable opportunity to encounter works that are rarely accessible to the public. Among the works featured were Banksy’s original Flower Thrower, created in 1997, and Mona Lisa, a signed work originally purchased directly from Banksy by Brad Pitt. The work was later returned to Banksy and transformed into its present iteration. Its Tampa presentation was its first public display in the United States.
For students who are accustomed to encountering art through reproductions, photographs, or digital images, standing directly in front of the original works created a very different kind of learning experience. Scale, texture, placement, materials, and physical context became part of the analysis. The experience reinforced an important principle of the IB curriculum: learning does not have to remain within the four walls of a classroom.
From Observation to Interpretation
One of the most rewarding aspects of the trip was watching students move beyond literal observation toward interpretation, analysis, and evaluation. Students were engaged, curious, and genuinely intrigued by the exhibition. They stopped to study individual works, discussed their interpretations with classmates, and made connections between Banksy’s artistic choices and the global issues they encounter in the IB English: Language and Literature curriculum.
The experience also reinforced the importance of interdisciplinary learning. Working alongside an IB Art teacher allowed students to see that the skills they develop in English: close observation, questioning, analyzing choices, identifying patterns, considering context, and supporting interpretations with evidence, which are also essential tools for understanding visual art.
Representing CCC with Respect
Perhaps equally rewarding was watching our students represent Clearwater Central Catholic so well throughout the experience. The students were respectful, collegial, curious, and professional as they navigated the exhibition. They demonstrated an appreciation for the opportunity they had been given while interacting thoughtfully with one another, their teachers, and the venue.
As educators, we often hope that field trips will become more than memorable days away from school. We want students to return having seen something differently, questioned something more deeply, or understood something they could not fully experience from a textbook or classroom screen. That is exactly what this experience provided.
Seeing Banksy’s work in person allowed our students to connect the literary and visual worlds and to consider how artists communicate powerful ideas about identity, politics, consumerism, conflict, social responsibility, and the world around them. Most importantly, students discovered that art can be read just as a text can be read and that both can challenge us to think differently.
The opportunity to bring IB English: Language and Literature to an authentic cultural environment was one I was eager to pursue when I discovered the exhibition was coming to Tampa. I knew immediately that our students could gain something meaningful from encountering Banksy’s work firsthand. Watching them engage so thoughtfully with the exhibition confirmed just how valuable it is when classroom learning extends beyond the classroom.
For our students, Banksy was not simply something to look at. He became something to question, interpret, analyze, and discuss—and that is the kind of learning that stays with students long after the field trip ends.