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I. Intro / Overview of Responsibilities
II. Classes and Camps
a. China Camp and Japan Camp
b. From Painting to Performance Camp
III. Installed Educational Spaces
IV. Create-Play-Date
V. Create and Takes
VI. Independent Design Projects (t-shirts, signage, birthday party
program)
VII. Reflection
I. Intro / Overviewof Responsibilities
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This past summer (2014) I was an intern at the Denver Art Museum in their Family
and Community Programming Department, under Education. I worked from June
3rd – August 8th. My hours while teaching were generally 9 AM – 5 PM. On weeks
that I was not teaching, I worked from 10 AM – 5 PM, and did not have to come in
on Monday, as the museum is not open. On weeks that I was teaching, I came in
on Mondays to go over lesson plans with the lead teacher, and to prep the
classroom for that week’s activities. I worked two Saturdays over the summer from
10 AM – 5 PM. Those were weeks when I did not have to come in on Monday.
My time at the Denver Art Museum (DAM)far exceeded my expectations for the
summer. The first day of intern orientation was extremely structured. Lindsay
Genshaft and Jodie Gorchow, the coordinators of Family and Community
Programming at the DAM, were armed with binders full of detailed information
regarding our upcoming summer as interns in their department. Lindsay was
responsible for live programming (camps, classes, and museum theatre
performances), while Jodie was responsible for installed programming (self-led and
facilitated educational spaces in the galleries, as well as the backpack cart).
My responsibilities included: assistant teaching camps and classes, lesson planning,
create-play-date planning and prep, independent design projects (t-shirts and
signage), designing and creating birthday party activities, lunch bunch facilitating,
create-and-take facilitating, and maintaining and stocking installed educational
spaces throughout the museum. My main boss, Lindsay, served as my main
mentor throughout the summer, but each activity had a leader or facilitator and
that person would generally explain to me how to run the activity (create-and-
takes for example). When teaching classes, I was working with the head instructor
to implement her lesson plans and prep art making activities for that week (i.e.
cutting felt for capes to decorate for trash to treasure, etc.).
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II. Campsand Classes
I was one of Lindsay’s interns, meaning that I taught more weeks than I spent
working on independent projects (t-shirt designs, create-play-date
prototyping/conceptualizing, signage design, playwriting for Lindsay’s Museum
Theatre Camp, Painting to Performance) and doing rounds. Rounds included
walking through every educational space in the museum and cleaning any
messes, restocking supplies, re-inking stamps, sharpening pencils, refilling journal
paper, organizing dress up spaces, and throwing away any trash/abandoned
projects. I usually started in the North building on the top (seventh)floor and
worked my way down to the second floor, where I crossed to the Hamilton
building, and then back to finish the bottom two floors of North. I also got to
interact with museum guests while doing rounds, sometimes stopping to help
explain an activity or just ask about what they were creating.
The first week of the internship was orientation, then I taught 8 weeks of classes,
and spent 5 weeks working with Jodie in installed programming. I taught classes for
ages ranging from 4-5 year olds to 14 year olds. Most weeks I worked with 4-5 and
6-8 year olds. I only taught 9-11 year olds once. The weeks that I was teaching, I
would come in on Monday mornings and meet the teacher I was assisting that
week. She and I would go over the lesson plans for the week (no teacher had
written lesson plans that I saw, just notes that they would go over verbally with us)
and then prep the classrooms and the activities for the whole week (the museum is
closed on Mondays). Then once our week started I would check in and out all of
the kids with their parents or nannies and made sure each child had a release form
filled out (for emergencies). Check in entailed the parents initialing in the check in
box on a chart, and I would always remind them that they’d need a photo ID for
pick up. On the first day of camp, I would quickly go over allergies, who else was
approved to pick up the child, and verified their contact information. After check
in was completed and the teacher told me that it was time to start our day, I’d
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help round the kids up if they weren’t all in the class room – there was a play area
outside the classrooms where many kids opted to play until class started. We’d
usually start with explaining the rules of a museum and sometimes we’d play a
game (name game, etc.) or do an art-making activity involving what we were
learning that week (decorated toilet paper roll binoculars for Safari of the Senses
for example), before heading up into the galleries with our class to look at art that
related to our theme (ex: trash to treasure, safari of the senses, stop-look-play,
China and Japan camps).
Depending on the class and our goals, once in the galleries we’d look at a piece
of art or explore a gallery together. Many times the class was broken up into teams
or groups led by myself and the other teachers in order to do more involved
activities (ex: bracelet making in the Native American bead gallery). These
activities were meant to help the students really understand the cultural
significance of an item and tie the art making process back to our permanent
collection. By allowing them to explore and ask questions, they learned things that
made the art seem more interesting to them. For example, in the Native American
gallery we were looking at different types of ornamentation on cloaks from the
American Western tribes (since the kids were making their own cloaks inspired by
Button blankets in the American North West) and they all loved hearing that Elk
teeth were what they thought were shells. It deepened their appreciation for t he
intricate details and inherent value of the object. We taught them that Elk only
have 4 teeth, so it took a lot of Elk to create that cloak. This helped them
understand how valuable and sacred that cloak would have been to the tribe.
Once we returned downstairs to the classroom area, we’d either have snack time
(goldfish and juice boxes were provided by the DAM) or we would start our art
making activities. I found that younger classes needed the break for snack more
than older classes. As we went through our art making activities, I would come
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around and sit at the tables with kids asking if they had any questions or asking
what they were making.
Below I’ve included a few photos with kids from a few of my classes.
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China Camp / JapanCamp
One of the best talks I had about how to praise, interact, and talk to the children
about art was with Patterson (Patty)Williams, the Master Teacher of Asian art at
the Denver Art Museum. Patty was the director of Education at the DAM for years
before stepping back and becoming the Master Teacher of Asian art. Patty taught
two camps every summer – China camp and Japan camp – both of which filled
up almost years in advance. The camps were immersive and concentrated. They
were meant to teach students the value of working long term on a project and the
cultural values of China and Japan, with relation with fine visual arts.
Patty sat down everyone – including my bosses – who helped teach her classes.
We were each in charge of a team within the class and were the person the kids in
our teams were closest to. Our teams were made up of 4-5 kids from the class. We
would sit together, share supplies, stay together in the gallery during explorative
activities, and we named ourselves. My team was The Dragons of China. As such,
Patty wanted to ensure that we were upholding her classroom standards. She told
us to never give false praise. If we were going to tell a child that we thought
something was good, we had to have a legitimate reason for praising their work:
i.e. “The colors you’re using here are interesting!I love how bright and animated
they are. Why did you choose these colors?” We also weren’t supposed to impose
our opinions or perceptions on their work. If we wanted to know what something
they drew was, we were supposed to say things like, “What have you drawn
here?” or “Oh, this is interesting. Can you tell me more about what I’m seeing?”
Beyond intellectual and creative support and freedom, Patty wanted to ensure
that each child was emotionally supported and favorites were not played. As
such, Patty asked us to not hold hands or let kids sit on our laps. As she said, “You
only have two hands, and you only have one lap.” This was definitely important
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because if one kid asked to hold my hand, another would immediately call out
that they wanted to, etc. I had to say, “I can’t hold your hand because that
wouldn’t be fair, right? I don’t have enough hands for everyone!” The kids usually
understood. If they pouted, we were not to indulge their pouting. Patty made it
clear that no child would be pampered or catered to if they were disruptive or
had a tantrum. If a child were being overly disruptive or badly behaved, she would
remove them from the class and talk to them privately or have them sit with her
outside until they said they felt better.
China and Japan camps were especially immersive and really challenging for
many kids. In China camp we created an imperial Chinese robe and accessories
to accompany the robe. The camp was called “The Empress of China and the
Three Mice”. Patty started class off with show and tell, general conversation, and
questions. Then she did the teaching in the galleries and told the stories about the
Empress and the three mice with mouse puppets. My boss, Lindsay Genshaft, led
the art making activities in the classroom and occasionally told stories in the
galleries as well. At the end of the week, the parents and families of the children
were invited to a special presentation/fashion show of sorts (they wore their robes)
where the children talked about everything they had learned in China camp.
Japan camp was the same way, though the children were more disciplined and
were supposed to be quiet and focused to give them an idea of what it would
have been like to grow up in a castle in eighteenth century Japan. They were
given a designated playtime at the end of the day to dress up in Japanese
costumes and play traditional Japanese games. Over the course of the week they
made a Japanese sword and other small crafts. The parents were not allowed into
the classroom during Japan camp until the very last day when they were shown
everything the kids had worked on all week and were given gallery tours by their
children.
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Above is a photo of the girls on my team, “The Dragons of China” in their robes
they worked on all week.
From Painting to Performance Camp
My boss, Lindsay, studied Theatre during her undergraduate time at NYU, and then
went on to get her MA in Museum Theatre and Museum Education. She taught a
camp called From Painting to Performance toward the end of the summer for
teens (ages 12-15). The camp was designed to take the kids through the entire
process of creating a play. We helped the girls create the costumes, set design,
scripts, and characters which culminated in a unique play called “Welcome to
Bronzeville” – the play was a series of sketches that all connected and led the
audience through the DAM’s current exhibition “Western Bronze” during the adult
program called Unt itled, which took place on the last Friday of the month. The
museum would stay open late (5 PM – 10PM) for this program. Unt itled was free
with general admission or for members, and included cool activities like DJ/Musical
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Performances in the galleries, food, drinks, artist talks, expert talks, special art
making activities led by local artists, and theatre performances by Buntport
Theatre.
At the beginning of the summer Lindsay had asked me to begin working on a few
prototype scripts for the girls to run through during the first two days of class. This
would allow them to practice reading lines and getting into character without
having to write a script themselves yet. We wanted a no pressure practice zone
and solid examples of playwriting for them to look to later while writing their own
mini-plays.
We were lucky enough to have two actors from Buntport Theatre, Mitch and Jess,
helping lead acting games and writing exercises for the kids. The girls had four
bronze sculptures from the current “American Bronze” exhibit to choose to write
their plays about. These four works were the only bronzes that featured women or
were made by a female artist. Some of the sculptures also included men, and a
few of the girls really wanted to play male characters.
We began every day with acting exercises and group bonding (ex: “This is not a
roll of tape” – where you take a roll of tape and pretend it is something else. You
use your body language and acting skills to convey the tape’s new identity). We
would visit the gallery where American Bronze was being shown to brainstorm and
really examine the sculptures the girls were choosing from. The Master Teacher of
American Art at the DAM, Molly Madacovic, met with us in the gallery to answer
any questions the girls had about the art and to give some background on the
artists and history of the pieces.
After they’d selected pieces, we began brainstorming their storylines. Jess, from
Buntport came in every afternoon to help Lindsay lead playwriting workshops and
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acting games/rehearsals. As the girls wrote and worked through their scripts, it
became clear that all of the scripts could be connected in some way. The girls
liked the idea of a continuous show and plot, so “Welcome to Bronzeville” was
born. Jordan, a fellow intern, was a very talented seamstress and created all of the
costumes for the show. While another intern Emily and I created all of the props
and facilitated writing and rehearsals with the girls.
There was a narrator, an old man character who was also a part of another sketch
along the way; he explained to the audience what was going to happen (how
they should follow the actors from scene to scene through the gallery, etc.). On
the night of the show we passed out programs and encouraged visitors throughout
the museum to attend our show. The girls were in costume while passing out
programs, which greatly amused many visitors. When people began to show up in
the gallery for the show, we told them where to stand and then gave the narrator
the cue to begin the show. The show ran twice that night with a 15-minute break
between shows. After that, the girls and their families were free to roam the
museum and enjoy Unt itled on their own.
III. Installed Educational Spaces
The installed educational spaces in the museum were an integral part of the DAM
experience and there was one on every floor. The spaces included: exploration
libraries (all ages), a transparency landscape room (all ages), journals with guided
activities (adult program), fiber studio embroidery tables (child and adult
program), Chinese shell game (child program), Chinese embroidery activity (child
and adult program), Native American bead studio (child program), Spanish
colonial treasure chest decorating (child program), a Los Santos doll dress up
activity (young child program), contemporary activist poster making (adult
program), Old Western postcard making (adult-teen program), African community
installed art activity (adult program), the Kids Corner (with traditional costumes for
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dress up and a Victorian collar making activity –aimed at children ages 3-10), and
the Just For Fun Center (with large blocks which resembled the North building’s
exterior and many other activities for kids ages 0-10). While there were age groups
in mind when designing these spaces, the activities certainly weren’t limited to
only those audiences. Many children partook in the adult activities, and vice versa.
Jodie technically supervised all of these spaces, though the museum security
guards most often were the ones monitoring the spaces, while interns were
responsible for the upkeep.
During weeks that I worked under Jodie, the Co-Coordinator of Family and
Community Programming, I would be responsible for maintaining these spaces
twice a day. Whoever the other interns were on a Jodie week would also help with
rounds. We would usually split up the museum into floors and each take half to
speed the process up. We would re-sharpen pencils, re-fill journal paper and
remove inappropriate entries, generally clean up and re-stock the spaces, re-ink
stamps where necessary, and talk to visitors about their experience or answer any
questions they might have.
It was really incredible that the museum was so supportive by providing
educational spaces for each of the galleries. Most museums consider education
something to be sequestered into a “studio” or “classroom” space – both of which
the DAM also has – but this space in the galleries made the museum more
approachable to those outside of the art world and visitors with children. These
spaces provided extensive information for parents so that they didn’t feel
unknowledgeable because they didn’t know how to talk to their kid about the art
or the activity. We provided questions for them to ask their children or conversation
topics that they could explore as a family to help facilitate the learning
experience.
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IV. Create-Play-Date
Create-Play-Date also fell under Jodie week responsibilities. I was given the
opportunity twice to create and prototype, and then prep Create-Play-Date for
Jodie. Create-Play-Date happened once a month and was for toddlers (ages 3-5)
and their parents. We would have a word that inspired the play date – i.e. “Giddy
Up!” or “Wiggle” etc. – and then from there we would choose something in a
gallery that inspired an art making activity that the toddler could make with their
parent to take home. Each Create-Play-Date happened in the Just For Fun Center,
but would have a gallery visit to the item in our collection that inspired the craft.
Once in the gallery, we would sit and read a storybook that related to the art or
subject matter.
My first Create-Play-Date was for “Giddy Up!” and was panoramas of a Western
Landscape with a Crayola Model Magic horse figure on a Popsicle stick. There was
a small, long hole along the bottom of the box and the horse could “ride” through
the landscape like a small puppet. The kids were given markers, sticky-back felt
pieces, glue sticks and glitter, etc. to decorate their landscapes and horses. Many
kids got really creative and made curtains for their boxes, as if the panorama was
a stage.
My second Create-Play-Date was for “Wiggle” and was a Chinese New Year
dragon puppet of sorts. We made the dragon out of small red cups (for the head),
pom poms and googly eyes, folded paper, popsicle sticks, and pipecleaners. The
kids got to decorate their dragons, but we put them together with hot glue
beforehand. Then they went up into the China gallery and read a book on the
Chinese New Year and the traditions of dragons in China.
Below I’ve included a few photos from Create-Play-Date that my boss took during
the first one.
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Above: Nicole Laurin interacting with a little boy and his mother in the Just For Fun
Center during Play Date. Below: Story time during “Giddy Up!”
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V. Createand Takes
Create and Takes were mostly run by Lindsay, though I only helped out with these
on Jodie weeks because I would otherwise be teaching in a camp or class. Create
and Takes are like installed educational spaces, except there is a program
facilitator present to explain the art-making activity taking place. The facilitator
greets guests, invites them to join the activity, and then explains it to them. There
were two Create and Takes happening at the DAM over the summer: Molds in
Mot ion and A Wish and a Promise.
Molds in Mot ion was on the seventh floor of the North building in the American
Western gallery. We would put out the signs for the activity, set up the tables,
ready the molds and silicone plastique, and set out the bronze cast process
examples. When a family approached us we’d smile and ask if they wanted to
learn about Bronze Casting and do a mold-making activity with us. They’d say yes
and we’d start by explaining how lost-wax bronze casting worked. After the kids
were taken through the whole process, we’d take them over to one of the statues
in the gallery and ask them questions about what they thought was happening
with the cowboy and his horse, etc. Then we’d show them how to mix the silicone
plastique like play dough and then spread it over the mold to set. Once it set we’d
be able to peel it off and they’d have a mold that they could press model magic
into to make horses to decorate at home.
A Wish and a Promise was in the Contemporary art gallery, “Material World” on the
fourth floor of the Hamilton building. It was in a gallery about African art and
focused on the idea of African sculptures that signified wishes and promises. Each
person in the tribe got a nail and would make a wish on it or a promise, and then
the nail would be driven into the statue, binding it. We had to adapt the concept
a little bit to make it more craft friendly. So after setting up the tables and
materials, we would explain to families the history of the statue in African Art and
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then help them make special necklaces that held wishes or promises. We’d have
them write their wish or promise on a small slip of paper and then roll it up to fit
inside of a cardboard tube (very small). Once it was inside, we’d plug the
necklace and tape the plugs in. Then they could tie ribbons, yarn, etc. onto the
necklace charm to decorate it.
VI. Independent Design Projects (t-shirts, signage,birthday party
program)
Independent projects ranged from translating audio guides, to editing a book my
bosses were working on, to the projects I worked on, described next. I had time to
work on my independent projects during “Jodie weeks” when I wasn’t prepping
for Create-Play-Date or doing rounds. Each intern had their own independent
projects (based on interests or academic strengths/experience) that helped keep
us busy during down time and also allowed us to contribute in other ways to the
education department. One project I was tasked with was creating signage for
the Activist Poster-making space on the second floor of the North building. The
activity had gotten to be a very messy one, and we wanted to somehow
encourage visitors to help pick up after themselves (scraps of paper, uncapped
glue sticks, etc.). So I created the sign below on Photoshop to put out as a sign in
the space. It was supposed to call to mind the aesthetic of the posters displayed in
the gallery next to the poster station.
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I was also asked to create activities for the new Birthday Party program at the DAM
(launching this fall). I worked on designs for this program during my last week of my
internship. I created the idea of a birthday guest book made up of the birthday
boy or girl’s guests’ self-portraits. Each child would receive a template of a blank
head (circle with ears on each side), which they could color in with their features.
In the end, the portraits would be bound together and faced with one of the book
covers I designed. The three covers I created based on works in our permanent
collection are shown below:
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My last week I was also asked to create three t-shirt designs for Jodie to use over
the next three years for the Create and Take facilitators. My designs, based on the
permanent collection, are shown here below (front and back). Initially, Jodie
asked me to create one tshirt design, but after seeing t he first one, she loved it and
asked me to create a few more for her to use over the next few years.
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VII. Reflection
This past summer at the DAM was an amazing experience that really helped me
define what I want to do in the future. Museum education has become a driving
passion of mine, and I am going on to get my Masters Degree in Art Education on
a museum track at the University of North Texas this coming spring (2015).
If anything, this summer really taught me to open up to any and every opportunity
to learn and grow as an educator and as an artist.
