Schools + Educators
Educators Open House
After your school day, the New-York Historical Society and El Museo del Barrio invite you to mingle with colleagues during a fun-filled evening of art, food, and friends to celebrate the opening of our groundbreaking new exhibition NUEVA YORK. This exhibition reveals the powerful role Latinos and Spanish-speaking countries have played in shaping New York into the most culturally vibrant city in the world. At the Open House, you will learn about upcoming education programs and resources to be offered this Fall by both museums. The New York Historical Society's museum educators and El Museo's artist educators will lead interactive and inquiry-driven guided tours of NUEVA YORK. El Museo's artist educators will also lead tours of our Permanent Collection exhibition VOCES Y VISIONES and work with teachers on related hands-on art activities. All participants will receive NUEVA YORK and VOCES Y VISIONES classroom materials. El Museo's special membership discounts will be available at the event. Light refreshments will be served. We hope you will be able to attend!
The Education Departments of El Museo del Barrio and the New-York Historical Society offer educational programming and resources to enhance learning for both teachers and students. While the approach to learning about art, history, and culture is distinctive at each institution, we are both committed to offering our diverse audiences a rich and engaging museum experience.
About the New-York Historical Society's Approach
Collaboration is the cornerstone of the New-York Historical Society's relationship with schools. The Society's Education Department encourages the study of diverse perspectives on the past and builds teachers' awareness of how these varied views inform today's culture. Our museum educators utilize inquiry- and object-based learning techniques to provide students with a fully interactive and meaningful gallery experience. They collaborate with teachers to tailor programs to their curriculum so that the Society's resources become an extension of the classroom. Through this work students learn to examine primary sources such as maps, paintings, photographs, and documents; and material culture such as furniture, tools, and other artifacts, and develop the skills needed to think like historians.
About El Museo del Barrio's Approach
Through El Museo's multi-disciplinary approach to inquiry- and object-based learning, teachers and students are offered multiple entry points from which to explore our mission, Permanent Collection, and exhibitions. During this time of budget cuts and limited resources, it is vital that students be exposed to the arts so that they can develop and apply visual literacy, critical thinking, and communication skills needed to excel in the ‘core' subjects. Our job as a museum is to help teachers utilize our resources to teach and foster creativity in their students.
Each age-appropriate and theme-based tour is led by an artist educator who engages visitors in dialogue while looking at selected works of art. By having groups share individual perspectives, artist educators facilitate discussions while encouraging observation and discovery through the analysis and interpretation of artwork. Students build upon prior knowledge and experience to make connections with what they see, and develop a deeper understanding of the objects discussed. Through this creative process, students apply divergent thinking to generate novel ideas, evaluate them through convergent thinking, and ultimately produce the most apt response or solution to a problem or challenge. We begin this progression in the galleries and complete it in El Taller (art studio) with a hands-on activity. Our education programs are relevant to classroom instruction and address important learning standards in subject areas such as English Language Arts, social studies, visual arts, and science.
If you can't make it to our Open House on September 29, 2010, please find more information about our school programs on our education page or by visiting www.nyhistory.org/education.
Please note: RSVP is required