Every year, I ask mentees to contribute blog posts as a part of their year-long mentorship with me. Tania Said, director of education, David Owsley Museum of
Art Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana and I have had some great conversations. In this guest post, she shares her lessons learned from launching a school-museum partnership.
After 12 years of trying to launch a full-scale
museum-school partnership with my city school district, we have finally begun!
It’s a goal I’ve had since I started my position and one I know many other
museum educators have too.
There is no step-by-step guide for launching such a
partnership, but here are some thoughts to guide others wanting to develop something
similar with your community schools.
Be patient
Don’t be afraid to start out small, but always keep in mind
what you want to develop. A typical school tour program when teachers call or
email to schedule a visit is fine. Our group visit program grew over the years
from 1 in 6 of our visitors to 1 in 4 now. For three years, we had a single
school partnership, and now we are serving all public city elementary schools.
(Eventually I would like to include other local schools, including others in the
county.) While we patiently grew our school programs, we also built our
volunteer docent corps of students and community members, and with it our
reputation.
Meet everyone in the school district you possibly can,
especially administrators and teachers
While I have been the director of education, I made sure to
meet superintendents and many of their fellow school administrators. Competing
demands made it especially challenging when the state focused on evaluating
teacher and grading schools. It was very high stress for all of them. The
situation is no less complicated now since our local school district is struggling
financially. However the superintendent knew that despite the school district’s
difficulties more community partnerships were needed to bolster student
learning and opportunities, so our offer came at the right time.
Learn about other museum-school partnerships in your area,
especially offered by similar museums
My university employer encourages faculty and professional
staff to apply for special leave i.e. a sabbatical. I chose to study school
visits to Indiana art museums last summer. It afforded me a chance to visit
every art museum in the state, meet my counterpart, learn about their school
programs, and read about museum-school partnerships around the country. Knowing
which art museums offer free tours and reimbursement for substitute teachers,
and which school districts offer scheduling support and bus transportation,
etc. provided valuable models and ideas for a strong, local museum-school
partnership.
Think what themes you can best support and offer options to
the school district to choose
Another benefit of learning about other art museums’ school
visit programs was gaining new ideas for tour programs. As a result, my
education colleague and I were able to develop a list of tour themes for school
administrators to review for the proposed grade-wide visit program. They
selected 4th graders for Indiana art because Indiana history is taught the same
year and some of the testing pressures lessen after 3rd grade.
Develop a primary point of contact in central school
administration
Having a school administration colleague appointed by the
superintendent made developing a sound program model much easier. In our
partnership, the director of elementary education has been my go-to person
advising on program development, and scheduling principal and teacher
trainings. Later she will also help coordinate 4th grade teachers’ visits and
approve their bus needs. She has been indispensable helping me figure out local
school culture.
Offer as much as you can
For the new School Museum Art Readiness Tours (SMART), we
decided we would offer the following, which we were able to do through a $5,000
local foundation grant.
- an art museum program with a standards-based and curriculum-related tour for every 4th grade MCS student emphasizing language arts, social studies, and visual art
- pay 50% of substitute teacher costs for art teachers
- provide a program preview for principals and administrators
- offer a professional development for teachers with visual literacy and museum object-based learning
- ensure a special event for Muncie 4th graders and their
families with teachers and administrators to celebrate their participation and success
Ask for as much as you can
We were pleasantly surprised to request and receive the
superintendent’s support for the following for SMARTours:
- bus transportation
- lunches for students visiting the museum
- scheduling support for teachers
- survey distribution
- test results
- the remaining 50% for substitute teachers costs so art teachers can accompany the 4th grade teachers and students
Give teachers the inside scoop
Not only did separate SMART training sessions for principals
and teachers provide an overview of the program, but it gave them a chance to
learn where their students will visit and gave them a chance to see the art and
museum first thereby ensuring their buy-in. When asked what the teachers will
tell their 4th grade students, they said:
“How important an art museum it is.” “How art is an important aspect of life and connects to all areas of study.” “They will see things they have never seen before and may never see again. An experience to remember.”
Several of our docents are former teachers and one was a school curriculum director. Their feedback was invaluable and gave credibility to the resulting materials developed by my colleague. In addition, we provided the docents a training about the SMART program to encourage them to participate and lead tours, but also persuade them to be ambassadors for the program. The docents applauded upon hearing the presentation as it was as exciting for them to know the local school partnership had launched!
Build in fun!
Yes, there are pre-visit and post-visit activities to make
it different from other school visits to the David Owsley Museum of Art, but
they are learning by doing. And we will make time to celebrate with the
end-of-year event and ensure everyone knows they’re SMART!
Later this month, we will lead the 4th grade Indiana art tours.
Check back about another blog post about our further progress.
Top to Bottom:
Learning at the Owsley Museum;
Children learn about contemporary art with Tania Said, director of education, David Owsley Museum of Art;
Muncie Community Schools elementary art and 4th grade teachers participated in School Museum Art Readiness Tours (SMART) training at the David Owsley Museum of Art on September 11. The training is in preparation for 4th grade students' visits in late September and early October to learn about Indiana art and visit the Ball State University campus.
Cathy Bretz, education program director (bottom row, left), and Tania Said, director of education (top row, right), led the training. The program is funded by the Ball Brothers Foundation; Cathy Bretz, education program coordinator at the David Owsley Museum of Art, trains docents who will provide tours to Muncie Community Schools 4th graders about Indiana art with cross-curricular connections between art, language arts, and social studies. The special initiative is part of the School Museum Art Readiness Tour (SMART) program, funded by the Ball Brothers Foundation;
"Hearts and Flowers" Merle Temkin
All photos courtesy the David Owsley Museum of Art.
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