Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science

Attract more visitors by taking your museum to the community. This interactive presentation
showcases portable tour activities designed to entice future visitors of all ages. Demonstrations
cover a variety of subjects and will inspire you to take your museum on the road.

Presenters: Nan Benedict, Peg Ehlen, Madeline Harris

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Engage students in close looking by utilizing museum objects and characters familiar from video
games, film, television and books, that combine attributes of humans and non-humans. Learn the
new theory of categorizing composite figures according to the essence of their being and focus on
techniques for using this information on tours to enrich understanding of other cultures and time
periods.

Presenter: Tracy Rubin

The Walters Art Museum

Giving very young children a fun, comfortable museum experience is an important step in
encouraging them to return as they grow. Lern how to develop and deliver tours for the pre-K set
and their adults, have fun as you experience activities employed in touring with this audience. We
provide a model for creating new tours as well as outlines for existing pre-K tours.

Presenters:  Carol Doctrow, Theresa Varipatis, Sharon Edlow

The Walters Art Museum   

Touching objects in the museum is a vital learning opportunity for audiences of all ages. Discover
how our docents developed a hands-on collection for touring—and how docents in other institutions
can do the same as we show you how to give your visitors a kinesthetic experience to engage,
excite and delight.

Presenters: Jill Reynolds and Sharon Edlow

Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science

Experience the Museum’s art collections through hands-on and collaborative activities, including: re-creating and re-imagining a work of art, exploring history using the five senses, and examining portraiture. This non-traditional tour can be customized to accommodate special needs visitors,specific interests, or grade-level academic standards.

Presenters: Cheryl Marshall, Kathleen O'Connor

Woodmere Art Museum

Enhance student learning experience and comfort in the museum with an in-depth program.
Students looking, writing and presenting addresses multiple curriculum objectives. This program can
be adapted to 4th-12th grade.

Presenters: Bonnie Brown, Paula Suss

San Antonio Museum of Art

How do hands-on gallery activities and shared stories support school learning objectives? Examine the transformative power of learning in the museum, supported by the results of a five-year longitudinal study of a museum-school partnership program, including the impact on docent practice. Three interactive gallery techniques are demonstrated.

Presenters: Mary Hogan, Bella Merriam

McNay Art Museum

An annual program invites students to respond creatively to a specific artwork in the museum collection. Teachers attend a workshop, bring students for a docent-led tour including the Spotlight work, schedule a school visit with a museum educator, register to participate in an event for students to showcase and discuss their finished product in the museum. Additionally, students visiting the museum on a docent-led tour receive a Spotlight postcard, with information about the Spotlight work of art in English and Spanish, for free family admission.

Presenters: Kate Carey, Linda Smith,  Mary Hogan, Carol Anderson

Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens

Docents and museum education staff participated in a collaborative process to create two new school tours meeting the needs or area teachers and students. This process of working side-by-side to research, assess, write, pilot and train other docents helped prepare them for a very different method of touring with students.

Presenters: Tricia Rosencranz, Mitra Mujica-Margolis, Merritt Peele

Columbus Museum of Art

Brainstorm ways your museum can create its own path to fostering visitor-centered experiences and establishing lifelong museum visitors, all starting with a classroom visit. Join a participatory demonstration of our program using visual representation and specialized thinking routines to show respect for students’ ideas.

Presenters: Connie Dwyer, Robert Bernard