Connecting Collections: Integrating Modern and Contemporary Art into the Classroom
Aug 2, 2010

After a fun and busy week, Connecting Collections 2010 came to a close—though we hope what the participants took away will last much longer!  A collaboration between the Whitney, the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, this annual weeklong program helps third to twelfth grade teachers develop techniques for integrating art into their classroom curricula. Forty teachers came to visit New York City from all over the world (some from as close as Brooklyn and others from as far as Shanghai!) to explore the museums and take new teaching skills back to their students.

A focus of 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. Museum educators and teachers engaged in group discussions, questioning strategies, and activities that helped us to further engage with the works of art that we were viewing.  

Each day, we met at one of the four museums and jumped right into a thematic, inquiry-based tour, and then divided into groups by grade level and worked to develop a lesson plan using a selection of artwork from all four museums. This small group time was one of my favorite parts of the week—we were able to experiment with different lesson plans, develop new themes, and discuss any challenges. Even though we work with students and teachers all the time, as museum educators we are removed from the classroom—including all of its joys and challenges. This week reminded me not only of how amazing teachers are, but also the things that we can do at the Whitney to make learning more transferable to the classroom.

We had an amazing week and we think the teachers did too. Check out some highlights from the week on the Met's Flickr page.

By Liz Gillroy, Assistant to School Programs