Program Chair Darrell Downs introduced
Hope
Torrents
Museums
Magnet and VTS Outreach Coordinator
(305) 284-8049 htorrents@miami.edu
Lowe
Art Museum,
University of
Miami
1301 Stanford Drive
Coral Gables,
Florida
33124-6310
Phone: (305) 284-3535
Fax: (305) 284-2024
Hope has worked for the
Lowe
Art Museum
since 2002 when she first started as a guide.
The
Lowe
Art Museum often uses
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a method of inquiry, for K-12 and college
tours due to its student-centered approach, its emphasis on constructivist
theory, skill building and aesthetic development.
The schools system partners with the museum as a resource. Visual
Thinking Strategies uses art for visual literacy, critical thinking skills,
and art literacy.
Art programs in the school system are cut back terribly in this atmosphere of economic
budget cuts. The Lowe’s collection expands
5,000 a year encyclopedic collection.
Members were shown a
slide show, and we each took a moment to comment on art. Ideas for the first
picture: Excavation in
Egypt
vs
battle scene, construction project with robes meaning middle east. Collaboration on a mission not focusing on
the task but the teamwork involved.
Answer: 300 BC in
Persia
The basic question is asked:
What more
can you find…opening up differing opinions with no right or wrong to
facilitate.
She pointed out visual cues about verbal
ideas. The room became open to sharing by switching to different observers while
always staying neutral. Each person was asked to bring back evidence to the image and keep
possibilities open for all different interpretations. Really look at artwork.
Art allows exposure to various cultures while accepting
differences in spite or because of their differences.
The program doesn’t use abstract images as this is more difficult for the student. The curator of MOMA in NYC wanted to give
students the tools to go into another museum or gallery to understand art to
dig into analyzing what they are seeing – derive meaning from it. This type of program is 30 years old all
over the
U.S.
and
Europe.
It uses your eyes which from early childhood are able to differentiate between mommy and a photo of
mommy.
This program makes the student sit 10 – 15
minutes to discuss with peers a work of art. Students are used to seeing
images so rapidly at less than 10 seconds at a time – the media makes us
dumbed down to not able to make discriminatory choices.
Younger children are visual learners – or
absorbers - rather than process the information.
Each day how many people get listened to? The philosophy in public
school is to drill and kill for FCAT. Kids get pounded with material with little
opportunity to be heard…
If more children were heard, we’d have less
crime, suicides, school shootings
Museum Magnet Program – Lowes is one of five
partners (Wolfsonian another partner, trained 65 teachers in this strategy
thru a US Federal Grant)
This type of learning transfers to science,
social studies, and students don’t think they are
learning.
All art except for religious art is open for
interpretation. Process
strategy with teachable moments to bring in facts.
It’s not about art appreciation. It’s about the students and engaging and
empowering them.
Museums Magnet Program
The
Lowe
Art Museum has been a partner with
two
Miami-Dade
County
Public Schools, Southside Elementary
and
Shenandoah
Middle School, since the launch of the
Museums Magnet Program in 2005. The program was partially
funded through a three-year, multi-million dollar project awarded by
the U.S. Department of Education Magnet Schools Assistance Program.
The museum provides a culturally diverse
learning environment spanning 5,000 years of world history.
Lowe
Art Museum
educators work side by side with classroom teachers, interfacing the
standards-driven curriculum with the museum’s objects and artifacts. The
program strives to use instructional methodologies; the Visual Thinking Strategies, Inquiry and Object-Based learning, to develop
critical and rigorous thinking skills.
Both Southside Elementary and Shenandoah
Middle School’s humanities-based curriculums, infused with museum resources
and expeditions, provides hands-on, minds-on authentic learning experiences
that take students beyond the walls of the classroom.
Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), is an
elementary school curriculum that
*
Uses a learner-centered method to examine and find meaning in visual art
*
Uses art to teach thinking, communication skills and visual literacy
*
Measurably increases observation skills, evidential reasoning, and
speculative abilities, and the ability to find multiple solutions to complex
problems
*
Uses facilitated discussion to practice respectful, democratic collaborative
problem solving among students that transfers to other classroom
interactions, and beyond
*
Uses eager, thoughtful participation to nurture verbal language skills, and
writing assignments to assist transfer from oral to written ability
*
Uses the Web to develop independence and computer skills as well as to assist
teacher preparation
*
Produces growth, including visual literacy and greatly enhanced verbal and
thinking skills, in all students, from challenged and non-English language
learners to high achievers
*
Encourages art museum visits to underscore connections to art and to
integrate a community resource into students’ lives
*
Meets state standards in art, language and social studies; improves test
scores in reading and writing
University of
Miami Campus |
