Lynn McNulty

The Ugly Sweater Project
by Lucie-Knight Santos

I first heard about Lynn McNulty’s Ugly Christmas French Revolution/Napoleon sweater project last year, and I immediately thought that it would be a perfect subject for The Blue Sky Project blog. Well, actually that’s a little bit of a lie. My first reaction was to be really jealous of all the students who would get to take part in this awesome quest for tackiness involving two of my favorite subjects. I mean, who can resist a revolution that lead to the groundbreaking concept of “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité,” or a man who crowned himself Emperor?

The goal of the project, according to Ms. McNulty, was for her AP European History students to think about these events in a totally different way and create a three-dimensional experience of their own vision. They were given the task of carefully selecting at least 8 props to put on their sweater with the understanding that, in the world of ugly sweaters, more is almost always better. They were also given the option of choosing a theme, such as the evolution of Jacques-Louis David’s paintings or feminist issues throughout the revolutionary period. Students brave enough to wear their sweaters all day on the due date and get pictures with Mr. Hews, Dr. Gillin, and Mr. Brougham were given extra credit. They were then responsible for explaining their choice of props to the class. The result, as you can see below, was amazing!