Whitney Museum of American Art: Blogs: TeacherExchangeBlog

Activity Lab: Ballet Skirt or Electric Light

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 16:10:00 -0500

Categories: EducationBlog, TeacherExchangeBlog

In our tours for student & teacher groups at the Whitney, we usually focus on three to four works of art in the exhibition, taking the time to look and discuss each piece in depth. Lately we’ve been working a lot with the painting above, Georgia O’Keeffe’s Ballet Skirt or Electric Light, 1927.

This painting is fun to work with when talking about abstraction, since it shows how there can be multiple interpretations of one image— even for the artist!

We begin our conversation with students by bringing up the title right away. We ask students questions like “Who sees a ballet skirt? What do you see that reminds you of a ballet skirt?” We then ask similar questions regarding the other part of the title. This usually develops into a lively discussion; students notice the apparent layers of ballet tulle, the texture of the painted fabric, the contrast of the full skirt and the tiny waist, or the light slowly emerging from a small bulb and the warmth of the colors that give the appearance of a soft glow.

Ai Wee Seow and I have done similar “title-extending” activities with this work. After the ballet skirt/electric light conversation, we’ve asked “What else do you see?” Ai Wee asks the students to brainstorm a list, creating the world’s longest painting title! The point is to keep looking and digging at the same image in order to really see every part of it and find new interpretations.

Similarly, I’ve given students the challenge of creating new titles for other works in the gallery. In pairs, students find a work that they are drawn to and create an alternate title based on what they see in the painting or their response to it. When we reconvene as a group, students read their new titles and the other students guess which painting it was based on. This allows students to see other works in a new way.

Both these activities allow students to engage in close looking, either at one work or at many. By using a projector or print-outs of the images, you might want to try it in your classroom too. Find out more about Ballet Skirt or Electric Light and see a full sized version. Find additional images by Georgia O’Keeffe here.

Have fun!

By Liz Gillroy, Assistant to School Programs

Classroom Collaborative: Art-making Workshop

Whitney Museum of American Art — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:14:00 -0500

Categories: TeacherExchangeBlog, EducationBlog

We recently tried out a new approach to the Whitney’s Classroom Collaborative program. During the guided visit, the Museum educator shared information about a painting entitled From the Plains by Georgia O’Keeffe. The painting was inspired by something O’Keeffe often heard while she was in Amarillo, Texas—the loud and sad lowing of cattle.

Exploring a Variation on Classroom Collaboratives

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:43:00 -0500

Categories: TeacherExchangeBlog, EducationBlog

Whitney School Programs offers Classroom Collaboratives for K-12 students. In this three-part program, a Museum educator a Museum educator works with the classroom teacher to design a customized program that includes visits to the classroom before and after a museum visit. The first visit introduces students to themes and topics related to the exhibition; the second visit takes place in the Museum’s galleries; the third visit is intended to deepen the experience through art-making and writing activities.

Museum educators have felt that the third part of the program was often not as successful as they would like it to be. The usual thirty- to forty-minute time slot in the classroom was just not enough for an art-making project. More time was required not only for making, but also for sharing and reflecting.

In response, School Programs recently piloted a variation of Classroom Collaboratives with a group of fourth-grade students from Chelsea Prep PS 33, our partnership school. Instead of holding the third part of the program in the classroom, often days after the museum visit, a ninety-minute art-making session took place at the Museum, immediately following the guided tour in the galleries.

Students had more time to work on their projects and the museum educator had more time to thoughtfully conclude the program. The teachers and parent chaperones were thrilled that the students got to look at, talk about, and create works of art all in half a day. One student exclaimed at the end of the session, “This is the best day ever!”

By Ai Wee Seow

Photographs from Teach with O’Keeffe

Whitney Museum of American Art — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:21:00 -0500

Categories: TeacherExchangeBlog, EducationBlog

The Whitney School Programs team can’t stop looking at all the terrific photographs that were taken during our Teach with O’Keeffe conference last month! We love looking back on all the great conversations that took place in the galleries and remembering the wonderful things that students said about their school and teachers.

Here are some of our favorite photographs from the week. Some are taken in the Whitney’s galleries, and others are taken at West Side Collaborative, the school that we’ve partnered with for the project. Enjoy!

2009-10 Teacher Exchange has begun!

Whitney Museum of American Art — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:52:00 -0500

Categories: TeacherExchangeBlog, EducationBlog

Our 2009-2010 Teacher Exchange program has begun, and it’s off to a great start! This is the second year of this professional development program, where K-12 classroom teachers and Whitney educators work together to learn from one another and exchange ideas about how to use works of art in our teaching.

This year, we have ten teachers from all over New York City—they teach different subject areas in different schools.Through this ongoing exchange with participating teachers, we look forward to learning how best to serve students and teachers at the Museum.

We started out by touring the exhibitions and trying out different types of inquiry-based activities in the galleries. During the yearlong program, participating teachers will develop their own activities and mini-lessons, test them out in their classrooms, and post their best experiences on this blog! By doing this, we’re hoping to create a forum for ideas and exchange, and expand the reach of the program into many classrooms—maybe yours!

Teach with O'Keeffe: New York City

Whitney Museum of American Art — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:45:00 -0500

Categories: EducationBlog, TeacherExchangeBlog

School & Educator Programs just wrapped up the first part of Teach with O’Keeffe–an exciting project that started in September! Teach with O’Keeffe is a collaborative partnership between three schools and three museums: the Whitney in New York, The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in conjunction with the exhibition, Georgia O’Keeffe: Abstraction. The exhibition is on view at the Whitney from September 17, 2009 to January 17, 2010 and will travel to The Phillips Collection and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in 2010.

During the 2009-2010 school year, the program will explore how teachers and Museum educators in different areas of the country work with O’Keeffe’s art, both at the museum and in the classroom. Each museum has partnered with a school in their city, and each museum-school team will travel to the three different exhibition sites to see the O’Keeffe exhibition and present what they have been up to in their classes.

Teach With O'Keeffe: Westside Collaborative

Whitney Museum of American Art — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:12:00 -0400

Categories: TeacherExchangeBlog, EducationBlog

For Teach with O’Keeffe, the Whitney has partnered with the Westside Collaborative School in Manhattan, working the teachers and sixth and seventh grade students in the Art, English, and Science Departments. Before the conference began, we held multi-part programs with Westside Collaborative, both in the classroom at the Museum. We focused on exploring O’Keeffe’s artistic process and on how to decipher abstract art. Stay tuned for more about what went on during our conference!

By Liz Gillroy

Summer Institute 2009

Whitney Museum of American Art — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:32:00 -0400

Categories: EducationBlog, TeacherExchangeBlog

After a whirlwind week, Connecting Collections 2009 came to a close—though we hope what the participants took away will last much longer! A collaborative endeavor organized by the Whitney, the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the week-long program helps third- to tweflth-grade teachers develop techniques for integrating art into their classroom curricula. Forty-three amazing teachers came to visit us in New York City from all over the world (some from as close as Brooklyn and others from as far as Angola!) to explore the museums and take new teaching skills back to their students.

Stressed throughout the week was the idea of thematic-based lessons and the importance of inquiry-based learning—a practice that we as museum educators use in our teaching in the galleries. Each day, we all met at one of the four museums and jumped right into a thematic, inquiry-based tour. An educator from the museum led us through group discussions, questioning strategies, and activities that helped us to further engage with the works of art that we were viewing. The teachers learned new ways to discuss art in their classrooms, and we learned new teaching techniques to bring back to our museums! Every afternoon, we divided into groups by grade level, and worked to develop a thematic lesson plan using a collection of artwork from all four museums. And let me just say, the high school group (led by Whitney educators) totally rocked it! Along with every other group, of course.

We had an amazing week and we think the teachers did too. One wrote, “I am bursting with excitement to incorporate what we learned this week into my classroom!” and another said that she’s “going home with a full bag of ideas.”

Thanks again to all who participated—we can’t wait to meet a whole new group next summer!

By Liz Gillroy