Resources and Programs
The Museum offers a variety of Educator Programs and Resources, from Children’s Workshops, to an annual Educators’ Art Fair and Educators’ Open House, One Day Exhibitions, and In-School PowerPoint Presentations offered by Museum Educators and Museum Docents.
This program offers students, grades 3 - 6, practical art experience guided by the Museum docents. Two-hour sessions combine art education with an interactive gallery tour and creative art project, fulfilling the second standard of the California State Framework for the Visual Arts: Creative Expression.
Five workshops The Investigative Eye, Stories in Art, Portraits/Faces, City to Landscapes – for a maximum of 30 students each are offered weekly on Tuesday and Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., October through May.
This day-long art-making workshop offers K-12 educators who have little or no art training on several California-standards-based art projects related to the Museum's Permanent Collection to assist their teaching in the classroom. The Educators’ Art Fair is especially designed for elementary, middle, and high school educators. During the event, participants rotate through four art project demonstrations designed and led by Museum and school educators, and create their own samples for use in their classrooms. The Educators’ Art Fair is held in the spring and fall on alternating years.
Participants receive a How-To binder with project descriptions and detailed lesson plans, materials, and applicable resources, so that they can immediately and more easily incorporate art education into their curricula and classrooms.
The Museum holds the Educators’ Art Fair in the fall on the years that are Young Art years to encourage teachers to create student work in their classrooms, under the Young Art theme, which can be submitted for consideration in the Young Art exhibition the following spring. During Young Art years, the lessons presented to teachers are designed to match the Young Art theme.
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Registration begins January 4, 2014
The Educators’ Open House targets area educators and teachers in public and private schools and the homeschooling community, from kindergarten to college level. The annual event invites educators to visit the Museum for free while it is closed to the public, to fully experience new exhibitions, and to learn how to integrate museum content into the classroom.
Tours, lectures, California-standards-based sample lesson plans, and classroom materials are provided, as are light refreshments. Educators gain ideas for incorporating art education into the required curriculum as well as how art can be used to extend lessons in other subject areas. Contact us for more information.
NEXT EVENT: Fall 2014
Many of the Museum’s multiple visit programs end the experience with an exhibition created by participants. These exhibitions last one day and families and others are invited to celebrate and view the exhibitions.
This year we will exhibit works created by the seventh-grade students involved with the California Arts Council’s Artist-in-Schools grant program. Students will interpret and curate their own works for display.
Presentations in the classroom are available by Museum docents for students in grades 1 through 6 to serve as an introduction to the Museum’s art collection. Programs are designed as an introduction and should be followed by a Museum visit. Each program is designed to fulfill the academic content standards for Visual and Performing Arts. Teachers may choose from the following presentations:
- Hey Look!: Increases students' understanding of art by teaching them how to look at a variety of artworks (recommended for grades 2-4)
- Oh, California!: Illustrates the history of California through artworks from the Museum’s collection. (recommended for grade 4)
- Made in America: Traces the history of America through its art (recommended for grade 5)
- Nature in the Art of Asia: Explores animals and plants, as well as Buddhist, Shinto, and Hindu themes in the Museum’s Asian art collection (recommended for grade 6)