Household Arts

Household Arts for Students from Other Lands was a five week class at Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1923. The class’ goals was to teach foreign students about running households in America.

1923 was also when the government commissioned the Better Homes in America campaign, to treat the housing shortage and what was referred to as domestic neglect. The campaign included model homes used to teach household management, a method similar to the practice cottage used in women’s colleges. These environments simulated home conditions as much as possible, sometimes even including real practice babies.

Ziv Schneider, once a foreign student and now building her home in the US, creates an avatar of herself and places it in a reconstruction of the 1923 model home. With each room highlighting one class from the syllabus, she guides the viewer through findings from the curriculum.