Today AAA fourth grade classes traveled to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art for the partnership program, My School My Museum (MSMM). This is the 6th year that the Academy and Crystal Bridges have collaborated on this program. Through arts integration the MSMM program offers elementary students the opportunity to make meaningful connections between the core disciplines (English-Language Arts, History-Social Studies, Math, & Science) and the visual & performing arts. MSMM provides an immersive experience where the students and teachers use the Museum is an extension of their classroom.
AAA’s Director of Arts Integration, fourth grade teachers and Museum Educators collaborated during the summer Professional Development to plan four visits to the Museum that align subject-area standards with arts standards and use works of art in the museum's collection as the point of connection.
Mrs. Harding’s Social Studies class was the subject of this visit. Students have been learning about American government and asked to consider how different individuals and groups help shape rules, laws, and the governmental system today. Museum educators gave the students an extraordinary tour focusing on artworks from the collection that helped students to see these connections. Works included: George Washington by Gilbert Stuart, Portrait of John Ridge by Charles Bird King, We the People by Nari Ward, War News From Mexico by Richard Caton Woodville and Minutes Are Painful by Mark Bradford.
The day ended in the studios at the Museum with an Arts Integration experience! Using their Social Studies knowledge and visual art skills, students read the Bill of Rights and selected one of the amendments to illustrate. Each class will assemble their illustrations to simulate a quilt, symbolizing the Constitutional fabric of America.
Thank you to the amazing Museum Educators that made this experience possible (Paramita, Melena, Matthew and Sigrid)!
To learn more about Crystal Bridges visit https://crystalbridges.org/