Official behind-the-scenes blog of the Dallas Museum of Art
Travel to the French coastline through the new Lens of Impressionism: Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850–1874 teaching materials . These resources include artwork information, images, and much more! Bon voyage!
Until next time….
Jenny Marvel
Manager of Learning Partnerships with Schools
If you were to wander through the African galleries today or tomorrow, you might encounter a studious group of 5th graders and their teachers from Harry C. Withers elementary. Clustered around works of art, the students will be sketching and talking about what they see, think, and feel in response to the art. When looking at the Stool supported by kneeling female figure from the Luba peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the discussion may range in topic from the geometry and patterns they see to ideas about beauty and the significant role of women in the Luba culture to the king who sat on this stool.
Math teacher Debbie Hurley will likely be leading this discussion. With a team of teachers, Debbie and the Withers 5th grade students have visited the DMA every year for the last 15 years! I’ve seen her teach with the Stool many times in the galleries and learned much from her passionate approach to teaching and her ability to help students make connections between the art and their lives. In 1995, Debbie was among a group of Dallas ISD teachers and DMA education staff who collaborated to create a teacher-led curriculum called “African Traditions” for the Museum’s Art of Looking school partnership program. The Art of Looking partnership program is 17 years old this year. A program for 4th – 6th grade students and teachers, the Art of Looking champions interdisciplinary approaches to works of art, guides students through deep looking experiences with art that help build creative and critical thinking skills, and fosters a connection between Dallas ISD schools and their hometown Museum.
The Art of Looking partnership program, more so the “African Traditions” experience, is so embedded in the Withers school culture that it defines what it means to be a 5th grader at Withers, and what it means to be a parent of a 5th grader (who come often as chaperones on Museum visits).
This week the Withers Wildcats make their 15th annual visit to the Museum and it will be an extra special one. Following their Friday session in the galleries looking at art, students will join African drummer Leo Hassan for a hands-on experience with African drums. I’ll be sure to post pictures late Friday – so come back for a look!
Nicole Stutzman
Director of Learning Partnerships with Schools and the Community
Last weekend teachers attended the second half of a two-part teacher workshop about contemporary art offered by the Dallas Museum of Art and The Rachofsky House. During the first session, held at the DMA on January 9th, teachers interacted with works of art in the special exhibitions All the World’s a Stage and Performance/Art, as well as in the newest installation in the Hoffman galleries.
Teacher Workshop in the Hoffman Galleries
During our three and a half hours together that day, Molly Kysar and I led interactive experiences, discussion and writing while looking at a variety of works of art. This past Saturday, January 23rd, we met at The Rachofsky House where Thomas Feulmer introduced teachers to the current installation, Presence.
Thomas began our morning together by offering teachers the opportunity to experience works by artists they had seen during our first session at the Museum, including Glenn Ligon, David Altmejd, Thomas Struth, and Gregory Crewdson. In each case the work on view at the DMA and that at The Rachofsky House were quite different in scale and their subject matter was approached through different means. The Altmejd sculpture on view at the Museum, for instance, is titled “The Eye” and fills one of the quadrant galleries in Performance/Art with its energetically rising mirrored staircases, obelisks, and punctured surfaces in a spectacular reference to the creation of the atom bomb. At The Rachofsky House, on the other hand, Altmejd’s “The Quail,” though still constructed with mirrors and towering above the viewer, includes a number of quail eggs encased in glass and is more evocative of Stonehenge than it is of explosions.
Wood and mirrors
Overall: 129 1/2 x 216 1/2 x 144 1/2 in. (3 m 28.931 cm x 5 m 49.911 cm x 3 m 67.031 cm)
The Rachofsky Collection and the Dallas Museum of Art through The Rachofsky Collection Fund and the DMA/amfAR Benefit Auction Fund
© David Altmejd, courtesy the artist and Andrea Rosen Gallery
The workshop provided a great chance to explore a few works by Gregory Crewdson, who will be speaking at the DMA this Wednesday, February 3rd, as part of a lecture series hosted by The University of Texas at Dallas’ new Center for Values in Medicine, Science and Technology. We will host a teacher workshop that evening, including two hours discussing Crewdson’s work and contemporary photography before attending the public lecture.
The DMA and The Rachofsky House will again join, along with the Nasher Sculpture Center, the Fort Worth Modern, and the Kimbell Art Museum, for this year’s Museum Forum for Teachers, taking place July 19-23. Applications are now being accepted.
Logan Acton
McDermott Graduate Teaching Programs Intern
We are looking forward to two exciting programs for teachers this month!
The Rachofsky House (photo by Michael Bodycomb)
In collaboration with The Rachofsky House, we are offering a teacher workshop on contemporary art that will include the current installation of the DMA’s Hoffman Galleries and a morning at The Rachofsky House led by Thomas Feulmer. The workshop stretches over two Saturdays: January 9 and January 23. Complete details, including registration, are available on our Web site.
Teacher and DMA staff in the Tech Lab
Teachers will also have the opportunity to merge art and technology during our January Thursday Evening Program for Teachers. The featured program this month will be Tech Lab: Open Lab on January 14 at 6:30 p.m. Teachers are invited to experiment with Photoshop collages during this drop-in, hands-on program led by artist Kevin Todora.
Molly Kysar
Head of Teaching Programs
Every once in a while, a teacher will take advantage of our Go van Gogh programs and schedule everything that is possible for his/her students. This is the case with the fourth grade teachers at Esperanza “Hope” Medrano Elementary, a Dallas ISD school.
Over a three month period, we visited Medrano Elementary fourth graders four times with four different Go van Gogh programs. As a result, Go van Gogh volunteers and staff established a unique relationship with a mixture of people at Medrano Elementary. Their front staff recognized us and welcomed us warmly when we arrived at the school. We looked forward to our visits, because the students are bright, engaged, and enthusiastic. The teachers are always prepared and helpful as well. Because of our familiarity with the school, we piloted a new program with one of the fourth grade classrooms, during which we received great feedback from both the teacher and the students.
Our final visit to the Medrano Elementary fourth graders was in mid-November. Last week, we were surprised and delighted by an envelope full of thank-you letters written and illustrated by the students. Below are a few highlights.
Melissa Nelson
Manager of Learning Partnerships with the Community
We are gearing up for two exciting programs for teachers this month:
Our first program will be on Saturday, November 7 at 9:00 a.m. My colleague Logan Acton and I will be leading a teacher workshop on our special exhibitions that take a fresh look at the Museum’s collections through the theme of performance: All the World’s a Stage and Performance/Art. This workshop starts before the Museum opens to the public, giving teachers the opportunity to explore these exhibitions before other visitors arrive. Complete details, including registration, can be found on the Web site.
Portrait of Isabelle Lemonnier, Edouard Manet, c. 1879, Dallas Museum of Art
For our Thursday Evening Program for Teachers this month, we will be joining the public lecture Manet, Models, Portraits, and “La Vie Moderne,” given by Dr. Nancy Locke, Associate Professor of Art History, Penn State University, on November 12 at 7:00 p.m. Admission to this lecture is free for teachers, upon presentation of faculty ID. Advance registration is not required and seating is limited. Teachers are welcome to arrive early and join education staff in the “Teachers Lounge” in the Atrium Café.
Information about these and other upcoming programs for teachers can be found at www.DallasMuseumofArt.org/teachers. We hope to welcome you to the Museum soon for one of these programs!
Molly Kysar
Head of Teaching Programs
Dancers of Tlaxcala (Danzantes de Tlaxcala), Carlos Mérida, 1951
It’s an exciting time in the Arts District with the grand opening of the AT&T Performing Arts Center. In honor of our new neighbor, we’ve developed a new Go van Gogh school outreach program called Creative Connections: Lights, Camera, Action! that focuses on three diverse works of art in the Museum collection and invites students to respond creatively through movement and drama. Creative Connections programs are 90-minutes long, during which students participate in what we call “experiments” that involve collaborating with others, applying multiple approaches to solving problems, and producing a creative expression. These programs can be messy, loud, and challenging – and they are definitely a lot of fun.
If you’re a 3-6th grade teacher and don’t mind a little bit of noise in the classroom, I hope you’ll consider this program for your students. I promise you’ll be amazed and impressed by the creativity, thought, and enthusiasm they put into their performances. Requesting a program is easy with our online form.
With a background in art history and a bit of studio art, the task of writing a program about performance intimidated me. However, I have the great fortune of working with talented people, and I interviewed some of them during my initial research. I spoke with Lanita Sene, who I know through our partnership with the South Dallas Cultural Center. Lanita leads African dance and culture classes during Summer Arts at the Center. I also spoke with Blanca Reyna and Calvin Rollins, who I met through our partnership with the Ice House Cultural Center summer camp. Blanca specializes in Aztec culture, and Calvin is a dance student at Southern Methodist University (he also attended Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts). Last, I spoke with my colleague Amy Copeland who studied dance at Booker T. Washington and other studios in the Dallas area.
This talented group provided many helpful ideas, like warm-up exercises that capture the students’ attention and focus. Another great suggestion was empowering students by giving them specialized roles in their performances and encouraging them to lead peer critiques.
I tested the program with 4th graders and 6th graders who created dances, music, masks, and skits inspired by artworks in our exhibition All the World’s a Stage: Performance in the Visual Arts. The shyest students contributed by helping to plan, write, and direct the performances. The boldest students reveled in the opportunity to show off in front of their peers. Afterward, one teacher remarked that it was fun seeing her students in a new light, and the other felt it was a great program for bilingual students.
This past Friday, I trained our volunteers and gave them the same challenges students experience during the program. I watched as they worked together in groups, sometimes giggling, at times with their brows furrowed. They all agreed that they can’t wait to bring the program to Dallas classrooms.
It’s showtime!
Melissa Nelson
Manager of Learning Partnerships with the Community
I invite you to make your way soon to the Tech Lab in the Center for Creative Connections at the Dallas Museum of Art for a new experience with art and technology. On most days laptops await you and your students in an open lab setting. You can research one of the many artworks and artists viewed in the Museum galleries.
Workshops and special programs for all ages enliven the Tech Lab space on Thursday nights, Late Nights, and weekends. This past Saturday, the Booker T. Washington 
High School video club met with local painter and filmmaker, Trayc Claybrook. The task at hand? Make a one- minute movie using the theme “chairs”. Inspired by the design and film work of Charles and Ray Eames, the students ventured into the galleries for filming and initiated the editing process in the Lab. Other workshop topics for families, kids, teens, and adults include stop-motion animation, podcasting, graphic design with Photoshop Elements, mini-documentary, and photography. Workshops include time in the galleries connecting with works of art and time in the Tech Lab working creatively with technology tools to produce original work. Check the Web site for workshop listings — a new calendar will be posted soon!
Drop by the Lab on the second Thursday of every month and every Late Night for hands-on Open Lab sessions with Technology experts. Coming up at the November Late Night: University of North Texas art students present interactive art you can touch!
Nicole Stutzman
Director of Learning Partnerships with Schools and the Community
Apollo and Diana Attacking the Children of Niobe by Jacques-Louis David
The Abduction of Europa by Jean Baptiste Marie Pierre
Do you have plans for tomorrow night, Thursday, October 8? If not, I hope you will join me for a gallery conversation at 7:00 p.m. All educators are welcome, and the program is free.
This will be our second Thursday Evening Program for Teachers, which is a new series of monthly programs for educators. We’ll be discussing two paintings in our collection of 18th century French art: The Abduction of Europa by Jean Baptiste Marie Pierre and a new acquisition by Jacques-Louis David, Apollo and Diana Attacking the Children of Niobe.
The program starts at 7:00 p.m., and we will meet in the Atrium Café. Arrive early and listen to live Jazz in the Atrium. Tables will be reserved starting at 6:30 for a “Teachers Lounge.” Food and drink are available for purchase in the Café…bring a friend and make an evening of it.
Hope to see you there!
Molly Kysar
Head of Teaching Programs
On September 10 at 7:00 p.m., all educators are invited to participate in our first Thursday Evening Program for Teachers. Artist Lesli Robertson will join us to share her creative process and to involve teachers in a community response project. Participation is free and advance registration is not required.
Lesli is a textile artist by training, but in her creative process she often combines materials that are a sharp contrast to the usual fibers. She will create a piece incorporating elements created by DMA visitors and other community members. Check out photos of other programs Lesli has led for Museum visitors lately.
Get here a little early and enjoy the “Teachers Lounge” in the Atrium Cafe, starting at 6:30. Look for the reserved tables and relax while listening to the live Jazz in the Atrium. Food and drinks will be available for purchase. We’ll depart from the Atrium at 7:00 to meet with Lesli.
This year a different Thursday evening program will be highlighted for teachers each month, including gallery conversations, lectures, and art-making opportunities. Visit our website for information about upcoming programs.
I am looking forward to this opportunity for educators to come together in a community for a monthly experience that explores creativity and makes connections to our collection. Gather up your teacher friends and join me on September 10 for this first program.
Molly Kysar
Head of Teaching Programs
