This week I learned that the Epic of King Gesar is said to be over 15 million words long. This has been one epic week for Education, but I promise to keep my review to under 2 million words or so…
On Saturday and Sunday we held our first University Open House, free to all university students, faculty and staff. It was a tremendous day of activity, and I have to say that I was overjoyed at seeing the galleries alive with learning. A number of students from John Jay College (one of our partners) were in the museum looking for works of art that expressed the idea of justice for a writing contest.
Our second Teaching Artist training to complete the process of making a hybrid animal was held on Monday. It’s important for Teaching Artists to go through the process and flow of working with new materials before entering the classroom, and I love seeing what their imaginations come up with. I’ll be excited to see how these projects manifest with our classes at Liberty High School for Newcomers which will begin in a few weeks. We’re entering into our 11th year with Liberty a high school designed for students new to the United States. On top of sculpting these unusual creatures, students will also be able to experiment with paint (and chances are we’ll see a few hybrid animals sporting a national flag motif).
We also had a great collaborative team meeting between Educational Resources, Visitor Experience and School Programs to RE-Think our current system for Educator Guides, a resource for teachers that gives them the ability to prepare before coming to visit a particular exhibition. A major museum goal has been to showcase the work that Education does on the web, and we’ve made a huge breakthrough in providing all of our interactive materials each individual exhibition web page. While the web is a great resource, this past Spring our team conducted a major survey and focus group for teachers to see how educators were using our paper resources in the classroom. Based on their feedback, we’re slimming down our packet, providing large, high quality images that can be projected or printed out, and providing questions that go beyond: what’s going on in this picture. Look for this new resource to come out in the next month for the Once Upon Many Times exhibition.
On Wednesday we saw the return of the High School for Language & Diplomacy as they participated in a Talismans of Three Faiths Workshop (in conjunction with our Pilgrimage and Faith exhibition). This school had a great summer residency through our Thinking Through Art Program (our first in the Education Center) where they worked on Journey Scrolls, so it was great to see them back working with clay.
Andrew and I and a great opportunity to sit down and plan the Audio Tour for our upcoming exhibition Modernist Art from India: The Body Unbound with Curator, Beth Citron. We’re planning to pick a representative painting from each section of the exhibition and focus on two biographies of artists Akbar Padamsee and Sudhir Patwardhan. This will be a great first step for many folks visiting the exhibition. Andrew and Beth have also been working on an interactive timeline for this exhibition that will launch in November using Tiki-Toki, a web-based timeline application
In the afternoon our Teen Guide Council (TGC) started sessions for the year. Fourteen returning students from both RMA Teens and Teen Art Labs (plus one new addition from Hudson Guild) are joining us this year to deepen their knowledge of the museum and arts professions, as well as facilitate Teen for Teen tours. This semester we’re working on a new Teen Website and Teen Blog, so there will be some extraordinary Teen activity coming soon!
It always seems that we work with preschoolers and college students on the same days, and this past Thursday proved to be no different. We had a filled Yak Packers class, and our new Educational Social Media intern, Kayley, was able to follow along and post her first blog about the class. In the afternoon, we worked with a group of SEEK Baruch Peer Mentors to learn how to facilitate great group visits (We’re expecting an avalanche of Baruch students in November – Bernard would be proud). In the evening we held a session for Guides and Docents on giving exhibition specific tours for the Once Upon Many Times exhibition (Thanks for the great training Lyndsey!). This exhibition brings together some of our old favorites and some spectacular visiting pieces to the museum that you won’t want to miss. I’m especially enamoured with the painting, The Eight Great Events of the Buddha’s Life. This 13th century painting opens the show and can be explored further with a new online interactive brochure.
Picture of the week goes out to our friend Veronique Lerebours who spent Sunday following our University Open House . This is a picture of newly minted Museum Guide, Michael O. giving one of his first tours to a group. Good thing the Buddha was there to evaluate his work!
