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High School Day: Students Connect with Filmmakers and Art

Published April 19, 2012 Art & Teaching , Community Connection , Museum Insight , People , Teaching for Creativity , Technology 2 Comments
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Students arrive at the Dallas Museum of Art for High School Day

Last Friday, we had nearly 400 students visit the Dallas Museum of Art  for High School Day, a free educational event that was held in the Dallas Arts District.  This event was presented by the Dallas International Film Festival, and the students attended discussions and workshops at the DMA, the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Crow Asian Collection, and the Annette Strauss Square at the AT&T Performing Arts Center. 

High School Day was a day chock-full of workshops and discussion panels from 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m., during which the students had the opportunity to work with local and regional filmmakers and professionals. 

Digital Cinematography with Paul "Bear" Brown

One of the three sessions held at the Museum was Digital Cinematography, which was held in our outdoor sculpture garden.  This workshop was led by Paul “Bear” Brown, a professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD).  Students in this session learned what type of digital cameras are commonly used in filmmaking,  such as the Canon 5D MKII. Other topics included popular production tools such as Sliders.

Students experiencing "Cinematic Response" in the galleries at the Dallas Museum of Art.

While half of the students interacted with Mr. Brown, the other half were making connections between art and film in the Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties exhibition.  Cinematic Response, a DMA staff-led experience, allowed the students to be the film “critic” of works of art that are featured in the exhibition.  Each student was given an award title, such as “Best Cinematography,” and they selected the work of art that best fit this description.  This was a great way to get the students discussing the art of the Roaring Twenties in the context of film.

Another workshop featured at the DMA was The Nuts and Bolts of Screenwriting with Carolyn Hodge, the president of the Dallas Screenwriters Association.  Ms. Hodge broke down the fundamental basics of a script and gave some pointers for the students.  Then she discussed loglines, and had the students create their own logline based on the movie The Hunger Games.  A logline is basically a summary of the film in one or two sentences. This is what one group came up with:

“A young, impoverished girl who struggles to survive a totalitarian government is forced to fight to the death in a competitive feudal match. ”

The Nuts and Bolts of Screenwriting with Carolyn Hodge.

Lighting as Storyteller session with Michael Hofstein

The third and final workshop held at the DMA was Lighting as a Storyteller with SCAD professor Michael Hofstein.  Students learned to match specific lighting techniques with the story being told.  Holfstein used examples of cinematic lighting rendered in paintings and popular films, and then discussed the importance of lighting within a specific story.

Overall, High School Day was fun and educational for all.  The event provided many opportunities for local students to connect with professionals in the filmmaking world.  I can’t wait to see what the future of filmmaking holds!

Cheers,

Loryn Leonard
Coordinator of Museum Visits

Wanted: Teen Docents

Published April 12, 2012 Art & Teaching 4 Comments
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Each summer, we recruit and train a group of dedicated volunteers known as Teen Docents.  Initiated in the summer of 2001, the DMA Teen Docent program provides opportunities for high school students to deepen their relationship with the Museum.  Our Teen Docents not only lead tours for young visitors, but also volunteer to help with First Tuesdays and Late Nights.  They really are an integral part of summer programming at the DMA.

Teen Docents Leah and Abby lead a tour during last year's BooksmART Festival

One of the perks of being a Teen Docent is learning more about the DMA’s collection and our summer exhibitions.  Teen Docent training will occur in early June, and shortly after that the teens will begin leading tours in our galleries.  Our tours this summer include Animal Safari, which allows students to search for animals in works of art, and Summer Vacation, which asks students to make connections between their favorite summer activities and those they see in works of art.

The 2011 DMA Teen Docents

We will begin accepting applications for the Teen Docent program next week.  If you have any students who love art, teaching, or might even be thinking about a career in a Museum, have them email me at SKarol@DallasMuseumofArt.org.  We would love to have them spend their summer with us as a Teen Docent at the DMA!

Shannon Karol
Manager of Docent Programs and Gallery Teaching

Community Connection: Ekphrastic Poetry

Published April 5, 2012 Art & Teaching Closed
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In honor of National Poetry Month, April’s Community Connection is Kolby Kerr.  Kolby is an English teacher at New Tech High at Coppell who incorporates a DMA visit into his creative writing curriculum.

Tell us a little about yourself.

I teach AP English IV, regular English IV, and creative writing at New Tech High. It’s a unique school and school environment.  This is my fourth year teaching, and I teach all seniors.  I graduated from Wheaton College with a degree in English and got a Master of Fine Arts degree in Poetry from Seattle Pacific University.  I am interested in literature and creative writing and the intersection aesthetics and academics.

What drew you to New Tech High?

We are a public choice high school; students come here based on a lottery or a first-come, first-serve sign-up within Coppell ISD. We have a one-to-one technology pairing, so students have access to their own laptops and to the internet at all times.  Our curriculum is project-based; everything has to be invested in real-world, directly applicable projects.  Hopefully, that will increase students’ investment in their own intellectual curiosity.  They tell us what they need to know to complete their projects.  I have, more or less, autonomy to create my instruction around concepts and ways of life I’ve found helpful in engaging the world with the mind.

Tell us about your relationship with the DMA.

In my undergraduate degree program, a creative writing professor took us to The Art Institute.  He set us loose, told us to engage and interact with single work of art, and write an ekphrastic poem based on it.  I found the activity liberating and interesting; I don’t know much about art, but I really felt like I had an engagement with the artwork on a deeper level than I had experienced before.

When I knew I would teach creative writing, that was the first project I wanted to do.  I grew up going to the DMA with my grandmother, who was a big art-lover and always took us down there.  I came last year and this year with my students.  We started with an hour-long guided tour of highlights in the DMA collection, then I set them free.

How do you set up the assignment at the DMA?

It is fairly open-ended.  After the highlights tour, I suggest that students take an hour to narrow down four to five different works, take notes, snap a photo and journal.  Then, they spend a full hour with one piece, which forces their attention in one direction.  With constant distraction and consumer overload, writing forces you to produce something from yourself.  You can get at ekphrastic poetry from two angles – either read into the moment of the painting, which provides narrative or a character you see in painting, or take something from the painting and let it project into your own life and become a more lyrical expression.  Some poems are almost all image-driven, while some are story poems.  Either type of poem drives you back to the art and makes you want to see the art and compare the experience of the poem to the experience of the piece.

This partnership gives a sense of relevancy and authority to a field – creative writing – that sometimes feels too abstract.  Creative writing exists way off the beaten path and this assignment gives a kind of legitimacy to a culture that creative writing is not only hoping to sustain but helping to thrive and flourish into the 21st century.

How do you combine poetry and art in your assignments?

Melissa Nelson
Manager of Teaching in the Community

Staff Highlights from the 2012 NAEA Conference

Published April 3, 2012 Art & Teaching , Resources 1 Comment
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Over 6,500 arts educators from museums, classrooms, and universities across the United States and around the world converged on New York City from March 1 – 4, 2012 for the annual National Art Education Association Conference.  Museum educators spent an extra day together on February 29 for a Pre-conference focused on exploring the implications of the digital age on our work in art museums.  The Museum Educator Pre-conference also includes time spent in art museums.  This year, the day took us to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, the Guggenheim, and the Museum of Arts and Design.  Many of us stole time later in the conference week and scurried back to these museums as well as others.

The DMA was well represented at the NAEA conference with eight educators attending and presenting.  We are fortunate to send so many staff — conferences are a great place to recharge and be inspired. We do our best to “divide and conquer,” splitting up to participate in as many diverse discussions, demonstrations, and presentations as possible.  During the 2012 conference, there were over 1,000 presentations and workshops!  I asked my colleagues to share a few highlights from their NAEA conference experiences.   What follows is a compilation of voices, notes, ideas, and resources.  Add your voice in a comment, and help us to expand this record of ideas.

A few provocations from the Museum Educator Pre-Conference:

  • What is the role of physical space in digital learning?
  • Museums are intermediary spaces for informal and participatory learning, primed for blended and cross-generational learning experiences
  • Museums should actively support “do-it-together” learning
  • We need social instigators rather than authoritative professionals to lead communities in the co-creation of museum experiences
  • We need to turn online spaces into nodes, not end points — making sure they are part of a well-conceived network
  • Institutions don’t have “openness” in their DNA.  How can we (art museum educators) be a part of changing this?
  • Be careful how you use technology — don’t think of it as a means to keep the status quo in the galleries.  Use technology to enter into dialogue with visitors on site and online.
  • In his closing keynote, Peter Samis from SFMOMA emphasized the importance of listening, and he referenced Design Thinking (Empathize, Design, Ideate, Prototype, and Test). Refine the problem, not just the solution.

Notable ideas and highlight from the Conference:

  • The BMW Guggenheim Lab is very cool and low tech.  The emphasis is on people discussing urban life face-to-face.
  • Amy Kirschke from the Milwaukee Art Museum said something to provoke thinking about docents in a new way.  “Not only are docents a Museum’s best advocates, but they’re also our largest multi-visit program.”  Since they’re here every Monday, how can we structure their training to make it fresh and exciting from one year to the next?
  • The importance of listening was stressed in several sessions.  How can we all be better listeners in our work with museum visitors of all ages?  How can we help docents and volunteers become better listeners?
  • Professor Olga Hubard from Teacher’s College at Columbia University led a session, To Theme or Not To Theme, which left me questioning some of the themes we use to promote our K-12 docent-guided tours.  I have observed several 4th grade tours recently where a docent will say “Our tour is called A Looking Journey,” but never says what that means.  I wonder: what does A Looking Journey mean to me?  What does it mean to teachers?  And most importantly, what does it mean to the 4th graders taking an A Looking Journey tour?
  • John Maeda, President of Rhode Island School of Design, presented about STEAM initiatives at RISD, such as a $20M NSF project focused on climate change.  Throughout his talk, Maeda emphasized the significance of an arts education and the importance of designers and artists in society.  Artists and designers have what the world needs: “visioning, understanding, clarity, and agility.”  Maeda also referenced an article by Fareed Zakaria in his talk.
  • Educators from the National Gallery of Art shared their experience in creating family programs focused on curiosity. Using the Artful Thinking strategies from Harvard’s Project Zero, they designed Artful Conversations, a program that is all about wonder. Families share what questions a work of art sparks for them and these questions shape the ensuing discussion.
  • Art teacher Kristen Kowalski discussed the sensory needs of children with autism and shared research about minimizing the symptoms of the disorder by integrating iPads into the art curriculum. For children with autism, art apps on the iPad help them to deal with sensory overload and allow them to create artwork that they previously hadn’t been able to do. Check out Doodle Kids, Faces I Make and BrainPOP apps.
  • Two educators from the Portland Museum of Art shared about new opportunities they created for families to explore the PMA. They designed a rubric and observed the interactions of sixty families in their galleries throughout one summer, and used the data from these observations to transform and create program offerings, including a cell phone tours for kids, family gallery labels, and a new family brochure.
  • Colleagues from the The Brooklyn Museum shared information about their Teaching Lab.  The Lab is a bi-monthly professional development gathering of education staff that serves to (1) define and extend their teaching practice, and (2) encourage “reflective and reflexive practice”.  Lab sessions focus on Object Observations (investigation of a museum object while experimenting with ways of seeing, visual analysis, critical thinking, and the nature of responding to a work of art), Roundtables (discussions about issues related to teaching), Workshops (exploring issues in-depth, occurring in galleries when possible), and Fieldtrips (to explore educational content and process).  The focus is on teaching, not programming.
  • The conference proved to be a huge success for early career professionals. The Student Chapter population ranges from undergraduate to doctoral students who attend conference sessions to aid them in their educational path. There were over 900 students in attendance this year! The conference is the culminating annual event where students come together to share their passion for arts education and grow in their experiences as a collective group.

In the April newsletter, NAEA President F. Robert Sabol shares a few of his reflections about the 2012 conference and looks ahead to next year.  The 2013 NAEA Annual Conference will be in Fort Worth, Texas!

Nicole Stutzman
Director of Teaching Programs and Partnerships

Upcoming Teacher Workshop: The Twenties

Published March 22, 2012 Art & Teaching , Resources 3 Comments
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What comes to mind when you think of America in the twenties?

My first thoughts: jazz music, flappers, The Great Gatsby, the end of WWI, Prohibition, the Harlem Renaissance, Al Capone, and new rights for women. The country was quickly urbanizing and industrializing,  and technology was advancing. The twenties in the U.S. were “roaring” indeed – characterized  by dynamic change and modernization. Visual artists along with authors, poets, and playwrights responded to all this change through their works. The DMA’s upcoming full-day teacher workshop on March 31 will explore the conceptual and thematic threads that connect 1920s visual art, literature, and a rapidly morphing America.

For a little teaser of The Twenties workshop, read “The Red Wheelbarrow”  by William Carlos Williams. Then, view the following four artworks from Youth and Beauty: Art of the American Twenties. How are ideas presented in the poem resonating with one or more of the artworks? Which artwork do you think best associates with the poem?

The Red Wheelbarrow
by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

We would love for you to leave a comment with your thoughts and associations!

Andrea Severin
Coordinator of Teaching Programs

Artworks shown:

  • Elsie Driggs, Queensborough Bridge, 1927, Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, New Jersey, Museum Purchase, Lang Acquisition Fund
  • Lewis Wickes Hine, Power House Mechanic, 1920-1921, Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Walter and Naomi Rosenblum
  • Gerald Murphy, Razor, 1924, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of the artist
  • Joseph Stella, The Amazon, 1925-1926, The Baltimore Museum of Art: Purchase with exchange funds from the Edward Joseph Gallagher II Memorial Collection

First Day of Spring

Published March 20, 2012 Art & Teaching , works of art 5 Comments
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It’s official, today is the first day of spring! Which means I get to do some of my very favorite things.
Like picnics and swimming
Brunch and tennis
Smelling the flowers
And wearing dresses
Playing outside and enjoying nature
Once again, it’s my favorite time of the year.

I guess there’s just something about the sunshine that makes me want to rhyme. In the spirit of the new season, I have paired a few beautiful springtime scenes from the DMA’s collection with poetry. I hope you enjoy!

River Bank in Springtime, Vincent van Gogh

Never Mind, March

Never mind, March, we know
When you blow
You’re not really mad
Or angry, or bad;
You’re only blowing the winter away
To get the world ready for April and May

~ Author Unknown
.

Early Spring in Central Park, Nicolai Cikovsky

I Meant To Do My Work Today

I meant to do my work today,
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land,
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand–
So what could I do but laugh and go?

~ Richard Le Gallienne
.

Bougival, Maurice de Vlaminick

Sunflakes

If sunlight fell like snowflakes
gleaming yellow and so bright
we could build a sunman
we could have a sunball fight.
We could watch the sunflakes
drifting in the sky
We could go sleighing
in the middle of July
through sundrifts and sunbanks
we could ride a sunmobile
and we could touch sunflakes-
I wonder how they’d feel.

~Frank Asch
.

A Host of Golden Daffodils, Charles Webster Hawthorne

Daffy Down Dilly

Daffy Down Dilly
Has come to town
In a yellow petticoat
And a green gown.

~ Mother Goose nursery rhyme
.

Jeanne: Spring, Edouard Manet

March

Dear March, come in!
How glad I am!
I looked for you before.
Put down your hat-
You must have walked-
How out of breath you are!
Dear March, how are you?
And the rest?
Did you leave Nature well?
Oh, March, come right upstairs with me,
I have so much to tell.

~ Emily Dickinson

What do you love about spring?

Hannah Burney
McDermott Education Intern for Teaching Programs and Partnerships

Artworks shown:

River Bank in Springtime, Vincent van Gogh, 1887, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene McDermott in memory of Arthur Berger

Early Spring in Central Park, Nicolai Cikovsky, date unknown, lithograph, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of Mrs. Alfred L. Bromberg

Bougival, Maurice de Vlaminick, 1905, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Wendy and Emery Reves Collection

A Host of Golden Daffodils, Charles Webster Hawthorne, before 1927, oil on canvas affixed to composition board, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Edna Smith Smrz in memory of Mrs. Ed C. Smith, Sr.

Jeanne: Spring, Edouard Manet, 1882, etching and aquatint, Dallas Museum of Art, Junior League Print Fund

Flat Stanley: In the Galleries

Published March 13, 2012 Art & Teaching 6 Comments

You might have noticed a small, somewhat thin, two dimensional visitor at the DMA recently. Flat Stanley has been all across our galleries, looking at and learning about many different artworks in our collection. Feel free to bring him along on your next tour!

Flat Stanley with the DMA’s Banquete chair with pandas.

Flat Stanley with the DMA’s Bed.

Flat Stanley with the DMA’s Red-figure krater.

Sarah Coffey
Assistant to the Chair of Learning Initiatives

Artworks visited by Flat Stanley:

  • Banquete chair with pandas, Fernando Campana and Humberto Campana, 2006, stuffed animals on steel base, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA/amfAR Benefit Auction Fund, 2009.9
  • Bed, Crawford Riddell, c. 1844, Brazilian rosewood, tulip poplar, and yellow pine; Dallas Museum of Art, gift of three anonymous donors, Friends of the Decorative Arts Fund, General Acquisitions Fund, Discretionary Decorative Arts Fund, and the Boshell Family Foundation, 2000.324
  • Red-figure krater, Metope Group, c. 340-330 B.C., ceramic, pigment; Dallas Museum of Art, the Melba Davis Whatley Fund and Cecil and Ida Green Acquisition Fund, 1996.147

How it's Made: Japanese Lacquer

Published March 8, 2012 Art & Teaching , How It's Made , Museum Insight , works of art 5 Comments
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Next time you visit the Dallas Museum of Art, make sure you stop by our Japanese collection.  You can find the Japanese gallery on the third floor in the Arts of Africa, Asia, and Pacific Island galleries.  In the center of the gallery, you will find three exquisite examples of Japanese lacquer.  In fact, one of my favorite works in our collection is a Japanese lacquered Chest of drawers.

History of Japanese Lacquer

According to Monsieur Gonse, a French connoisseur and art critic, “Japanese lacquered objects are the most perfect works of art that have ever issued from the hands of man.”

The art of lacquer actually came to Japan from China around the 6th century A.D.  Originally connected with Buddhism, early lacquer adorned the walls of Buddhist temples.  As the medium became more popular, lacquer objects became more utilitarian and were primarily used as everyday objects.  Individuals who commissioned such decorative objects had to be patient with the time commitment involved, for it could take months to even years to complete a lacquered object.

What makes Japanese lacquer special?

In order to appreciate the true value of Japanese lacquer, it’s important to understand how lacquer objects are made.

Lacquer comes from the sap of the lacquer tree, Rhus vernicifera,and is known as

Extracting lacquer from the Rhus vernicifera tree

urushi.  Most lacquer forms begin with a wooden foundation, a special wood called Hinoki, a species of Japanese cypress.  Before the layering of the lacquer begins, the lacquer artist wraps the wooden object in a silk or hempen cloth saturated with a mixture of lacquer and rice flour called nori urushi.  Then, a layer of powdered earthenware mixed with lacquer is applied over the cloth and sanded smooth.   This method is applied with finer grades of powder until an even layer is produced.

After the foundation layers are smoothed, the object is ready for the refined lacquer. The refined lacquer is blackened by iron and applied carefully in layers.  Because the lacquer takes a long time to dry and needs high humidity for hardening, the object is placed in a “wet box” for three to four days before the next coat is applied.  After the object is removed from the “wet box”, it is carefully smoothed and polished with magnolia charcoal.  This is repeated about thirty to eighty more times until the final coat is applied.  After the last coat has dried, the object is finger polished with deer’s horn ashes and oil.

Fun Fact: Because the humidity in Japan is so high, the three lacquered objects here at the DMA are placed in humidity controlled cases.

This precise artform requires a huge amount of skill and patience.  If one were to apply thirty coats of lacquer and wait four days in between each layer, it would take up to 120 days to complete the lacquer portion of the object.  This is not including any special techniques such as inlay or other carving methods.  Altogether, it could take half a year to complete a lacquer object!  How long do you think it took to create this Lacquered wood saddle?

Next time you’re at the Museum, come by and see some of the finest hand-made objects in our collection.  Once you see these beautifully-crafted objects in person, they are bound to become your favorites!

Over and out,

Loryn Leonard
Coordinator of Museum Visits

Resources:

  • Mody, N.H.N., “Japanese Lacquer,” Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Jan., 1940), pp. 291-294
  • Weintraub, Steven, Kanya Tsujimoto, and Sadae Y. Walters, “Urushi and Conservation: The Use of Japanese Lacquer in the Restoration of Japanese Art,” Ars Orientalis, Vol. 11 (1979), pp.39-62

Me & My World: Testing in the Galleries

Published March 6, 2012 Art & Teaching , works of art Closed
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As Hannah and I continue our revisions of the Me & My World docent tour guide and Go van Gogh program, I wanted to share a few works of art that I was able to test out on two groups of first-graders during thier Me & My World tour.

Below you will see three of the five works of art that I chose to look at with the students. I have included the clues, some of the questions that led the discussions, as well as other activities that I used.

Stop #1
Clues: We are looking for a painting that shows a little girl wearing a hat who is dressed in all white.

Dorothy, John Singer Sargent, 1900, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of the Leland Fikes Foundation, Inc.

.

This little girl’s name is Dorothy. Let’s look at what Dorothy is wearing. Can you describe her clothes?

Do you have fancy or nice clothes? Where do you wear them?

Do you like dressing up? Why or why not?

Look at Dorothy’s face. Does she look happy or sad?

Why do you think she looks sad?

Stop #2
Clues: We are looking for a painting of another little girl who has very short hair and is wearing a blue and white dress.

Dutch Girl Laughing, Robert Henri, 1907, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Art Association Purchase

.

We don’t know this little girl’s name. What should we call her?

Let’s describe her clothes.

Does she look like Dorothy? Why or why not?

Does she look happy or sad?

Why do you think she looks happy?

Compare/contrast both portraits: Let’s imagine that these girls could talk to us. What would they say? What would they say to each other? What would they say to these other people (the other portraits in the gallery)?
Favorite clothing: Can you tell me what is your favorite thing to wear? Can you describe it (color, print, etc.)? Where do you like to wear it?
Emotions: Let’s looks at some of the other people’s faces in this gallery. Do they look happy? Sad? Angry? Scared? Bored? Sleepy? Why do you think so?

Stop #3
Clues: We are looking for a whole room that is full of shelves holding lots of things that people use to eat dinner.

Examples of objects in the Decorative Arts Study gallery. Left: “Century” shape dinner plate with “Sunglow” pattern decoration, Eva Zeisel, Hall China Company,1956, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of David t. Owsley Right: “Tricorne” shape luncheon plate with “Mandarin” decoration, Donald Schreckengost, Salem China Company,1933, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Kenn Darity and Ed Murchison.

.

Can you find something in this room that…

You can eat soup out of?

What about a piece of cake?

What about hot chocolate?

OR

I spy something that is… (red, blue, striped, polka dot, etc.)

I am going to read you a silly poem about someone who is eating dinner:

Mashed Potatoes on the Ceiling
by Kenn Nesbitt

Mashed potatoes on the ceiling.
Green beans on the floor.
Stewed tomatoes in the corner.
Squash upon the door.

Pickled peppers in my pocket.
Spinach up my sleeves.
Mushrooms in my underpants with
leeks and lettuce leaves.

Okra, onions, artichokes,
asparagus and beets;
buried neatly underneath the
cushions of our seats.

All the rest I’ve hidden in my socks
and down my shirt.
I’m done with all my vegetables.
I’m ready for dessert! 

Let’s pretend that we are making a huge dinner for everyone in the Museum to eat tonight. Let’s go around the circle and tell everyone what kind of food you would bring to share. Now, let’s choose a dish from these shelves to serve it in.

Stop #4
Clues: We are looking for an object that is small, brown and white, and looks like a face.

Mouth mask depicting the head of a bird, Leti Island, Indonesia, 19th century, Dallas Musuem of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc.

.

What kind of animal does this look like?

Can you find its beak? Its feathers?

If you could touch this, do you think it would be soft? Hard? Rough? Smooth?

What do you think this is made of?

The person who used this would put it in his mouth and pretend that he was a bird. Have you ever worn a costume?

Can I have a volunteer come up and show us how they would move if they were wearing this bird mask?

What are some other animals that you like to pretend to be? Can you show us how you’d move?

Overall, the students seemed very receptive to the works I chose to explore. Both groups were very talkative, and I was surprised at how comfortable and focused they were with the discussion topics that I brought up. They were very good at comparing and contrasting the two paintings of the young girls, and seemed to enjoy talking about them. The “Mashed Potatoes on the Ceiling” poem was a big hit, and so was the “dinner party” conversation. I soon realized that any time a first-grader is given the opportunity to share ANYTHING about themselves, they will. One of my favorite moments was watching those students move like an animal in front of the group. I am thankful that most first-graders aren’t shy!

Jessica Kennedy
McDermott Intern for Gallery Teaching

Sign Up Now: Museum Forum for Teachers

Published March 1, 2012 Art & Teaching , Resources 2 Comments
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Each summer, the DMA hosts a week-long program called Museum Forum for Teachers: Modern and Contemporary Art.  Over the course of the week, teachers spend a full day at five different art museums: The Rachofsky House (a private contemporary art collection located in Dallas), the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Kimbell Art Museum, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, and the Dallas Museum of Art.   This year, the Forum will be held from July 23-27.

Melissa discusses the Silence and Time exhibition during Museum Forum 2011

As its title suggests, the focus of Museum Forum is modern and contemporary art.   The DMA day this summer will focus on the exhibition Flower of the Prairie: George Grosz’s Impressions of Dallas, 1952, as well as selected works from our contemporary collection.  This will be my fourth year to lead the Museum Forum, and for me the week is always an opportunity to feel refreshed and rejuvenated.  It’s rare that I have an opportunity to spend five consecutive days in the galleries, and I love the conversations and ideas that emerge over the course of the week.  I also feel like I walk away from the Forum learning just as much from the teachers as they do from me.

Teachers examine a painting during Museum Forum

If you want to feel reinvigorated by modern and contemporary art, I encourage you to apply for this year’s Museum Forum for Teachers.  The Forum is open to middle school and high school teachers of all disciplines, and enrollment is limited to twenty-five participants.  We are currently accepting applications, and a 10% discount will be given to all teachers who apply by our early application deadline of March 30.  The regular application deadline is May 25, and all teachers will be notified of their acceptance by June 8.  I hope you’ll consider joining us!

Talking about On Kawara during a past Museum Forum

Shannon Karol
Manager of Docent Programs and Gallery Teaching

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