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

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

Huntington Museum of Art, Huntington, WV

This STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) program integrates these subjects while focusing on heat and its effects on various art media, materials and processes.

Presenters: Cynthia Dearborn and Michael Connick 

Theme Category: Successful Tours for School Groups 

Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco: De Young Museum and the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA

Past and Present: Building Museum Literacy is a program designed to stimulate creative thinking while establishing connections between a museum visit and school curriculum. It received the Superintendent's Award for Excellence in Museum Education (2015) and has received 98-100% approval from teachers during recent years. It is a program offered to sixth graders at the Legion of Honor; however, the framework could easily be adapted to serve students from fifth grade through high school. The program addresses multiple intelligences and learning styles, thereby engaging all students. During this session, participants will learn how to adapt this program to their museum setting.

Presenters: Susan Hornaday MacKenzie, Carol Merit and Harriett Michael

Theme Category: Successful Tours for School Groups

Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO

Artful Literacy: Communicating, Writing and Reading About Art is a one-hour experience in which participants look, think, and express their verbal and written ideas to create Art with Words. This visual skills tour, developed for grades three to five, has components adaptable to levels as high as college. During the session attendees will have the opportunity to explore the training manual for this program and participate in some of the narrative and descriptive activities and the integrated art activity.

Presenters: Sharon Rouse and Honey Goldberg

Theme Category: Communication