Today many teachers are working harder than ever to increase students' cultural understanding. One of the best ways to understand a culture, in my opinion, is by immersing one's self in the artwork of that culture. Through the following museum websites, all of which can be accessed by simply clicking on the museum's name, teachers can easily incorporate art and its cultural significance into their everyday curriculum!
Franklin G. Burroughs- Simeon B. Chapin Museum of Art
Tools and resources: The museum provides weekend workshops that can be used by educators to help encourage out-of-the-classroom experience with art. There are collections that are a permanent part of the museum that focus on local art and ideals. These “Southern” pieces can easily be implemented by elementary school teachers into lessons covering the evolving lifestyles here in the Carolinas over the past few centuries.
Ability to be connected to other subjects: The Bishops Maps and Prints, as well as the permanent collection of Art can easily be applied to both Social Studies and Science curriculums as a way to bring the text to life with artistic accounts of life in the past and present of South Carolina.
Ability to be connected to other subjects: The Bishops Maps and Prints, as well as the permanent collection of Art can easily be applied to both Social Studies and Science curriculums as a way to bring the text to life with artistic accounts of life in the past and present of South Carolina.
Seattle Art Museum
Tools and resources: The Seattle Art Museum provides educators with a large array of resources. Online videos on subjects such as the Spanish Exploration of the new world can be found. Some works by artists have entire lesson plans and transparencies that can be downloaded and implemented in classrooms around the globe.
Ability to be connected to other subjects: With a variety of prepared lessons by the Seattle Art Museum, much of the work of connecting the art to a variety of standardized school subjects has already been done. The resources for certain artists could easily be incorporated into a language arts course. Elementary educators could share about the artists and their lives and ask students to write narratives about what the artist could have been feeling when they created the pieces under study.
Ability to be connected to other subjects: With a variety of prepared lessons by the Seattle Art Museum, much of the work of connecting the art to a variety of standardized school subjects has already been done. The resources for certain artists could easily be incorporated into a language arts course. Elementary educators could share about the artists and their lives and ask students to write narratives about what the artist could have been feeling when they created the pieces under study.
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Tools and resources: The Philadelphia Museum of Art offers a wide range of resources to educators. Teacher workshops are plentiful and range in content from art history to the nature of Hindu art within the museum. Lesson plans are available from the museum’s website, free of charge. The lesson plans provided by the museum provide educators with standards covered, the piece of art involved in the lesson, as well as background information that teachers will need in order to execute the plan. Posters are also available, as well as teaching kits.
Ability to be connected to other subjects: The museum has selected several pieces of art to connect the lesson with the four basic subjects, math, English, social studies, and science. Their larger network of resources has allowed for this resource.
Ability to be connected to other subjects: The museum has selected several pieces of art to connect the lesson with the four basic subjects, math, English, social studies, and science. Their larger network of resources has allowed for this resource.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Tools and resources: Much like the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Metropolitan provides a very diverse and vast set of resources to educators. Educators can take part in teacher workshops, as well as open-houses held exclusively for educators. Lessons, including pre-visit activities, can be found for all three levels of public education (elementary, middle, and high school). Art lessons on both domestic and foreign art can be found.
Ability to be connected to other subjects: With so many areas of the globe covered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and it’s collections, it would be hard to not be able to implement their collections into a wide variety of curriculum and standards. Pieces from China, Africa, and India can provide a global perspective while art from the Americas can create a sense of development and change over the past few centuries. Stories can be written by students as well.
Ability to be connected to other subjects: With so many areas of the globe covered by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and it’s collections, it would be hard to not be able to implement their collections into a wide variety of curriculum and standards. Pieces from China, Africa, and India can provide a global perspective while art from the Americas can create a sense of development and change over the past few centuries. Stories can be written by students as well.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Tools and resources: Resources available by the Hirshhorn are significantly more limited than larger museums such as the Metropolitan. Changes in mediums over the years and the world of shape and color are available to elementary school educators. Lesson plans are not available online for these without joining the museum’s website.
Ability to be connected to other subjects: Sculptures on display in the gardens could easily be implemented into Social studies curriculum to discuss events such as the gifting of the Statue of Liberty (how art can unite).
Ability to be connected to other subjects: Sculptures on display in the gardens could easily be implemented into Social studies curriculum to discuss events such as the gifting of the Statue of Liberty (how art can unite).