14 / AMAM.OBERLIN.EDU HIGHLIGHT / EDUCATION THE ALLEN PARTNERS WITH LOCAL SCHOOLS “It was a great year of incorporating the Allen’s amazing collection of artwork into the curriculum of regional school districts with discussions on related themes.” —Jill Greenwood, Eric & Jane Nord Family Curator of Education During the 2023–24 academic year, the Allen Memorial Art Museum’s Education Department forgedmeaningful partnerships with local schools, engaging 600 students fromOberlin School District and an additional 360 from the surrounding area in a variety of enriching programs. From interactive tours and in-school sessions to specialized workshops, these collaborations brought art and education together in powerful ways. During the 2023 Summer Reading Program, Langston Middle School students discussed examples of courage, strength, and resilience as reflected in the book Refugee by Alan Grantz and in the painting Flight into Egypt (ca. 1910) by Henry Ossawa Tanner. JVS students in David Rudisill’s masonry class looked closely at the construction of the Frank LloydWright house and Cass Gilbert’s 1917 museum design. Oberlin Elementary School 5th graders visited the museum twice in conjunction with their units on early Western Hemisphere civilizations (Maya, Inca, and Aztec) and the Renaissance. Josie Martin brought her 11th grade high school students to the museum to expand on the themes in Chinua Achebe’s 1958 novel Things Fall Apart. Mr. Russell’s students in Race, Gender, and Oppression met with artist and OC faculty member Michael Roman to hear about his artistic process andmeaning in his artwork. The Education Department and 7th and 8th grade English Language Arts teachers Molly Angney and Margo Fox partnered with poet Lynn Powell for an in-school/inmusuempoetry workshop. Students practiced “reading” a work of art to increase visual literacy skills before a poetry lesson and had the opportunity to express their creativity with the written word as inspired by art. The poems written by 7th and 8th graders duringmuseum visits were published in an anthology and the 8th graders recorded their poems as an audio tour in our Allen App. “Working with K–12 students and building partnerships with their teachers is what I look forward to most in this position,” said Ellis Lane (OC 2022), Curatorial Assistant in the Education Department. “Making art accessible to everyone, across different ages and backgrounds, has inspiredme to go into the field of museum education.” These initiatives not only deepened students’ learning experiences but also emphasized the museum’s commitment to making art accessible to all.
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