EDUCATION & OUTREACH

Throughout the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 academic years, the JSMA continued to offer educational and outreach programs for youth and families despite the challenges of the pandemic. Prior to spring 2020, the JSMA offered a robust menu of in-person educational programs such as Pre-K and K-12 tours during the school year, Art Camps, Family Days, and a variety of arts and healthcare programs, highschool and collegiate-level programs, and professional development for teachers.

Following school closures and the shift to remote learning in spring 2020, the JSMA adapted its programs to a virtual format and offered new online artmaking activities to be enjoyed at home by launching Art Teaches, an online portal for K-12 distance learning, and JSMA Creates, a video series featuring hands-on projects based on works in the collection or in the Shared Visions program.

Despite the learning curve and challenges of shifting programs to an online format, the response was tremendous. Programs such as Madres Club garnered double and triple the average attendance when held virtually, and participants logged on from across the state.

Education & Outreach Highlights

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Art Teaches

The Art Teaches page on the JSMA’s website is the launching page for remote learning opportunities for teachers and schools. The latest JSMA opportunity for students in the classroom or at home is the Art Teaches –Myriad Treasures curriculum: a collection of three learning videos, lesson plans and art and writing activities that culminates with STEAMbased artmaking activities. Art Teaches – Myriad Treasures was created by a team of educators and staff, Exhibition Interpreters, and graduate students. The full curriculum, video access, book lists, resources and activity pages are all available in one place.

Our Teacher Resource Center contains links to many past professional development materials and information about Outreach Kits which are loaned free to classrooms for three weeks. Here, educators can find Teacher Resource Sheets for new and upcoming exhibitions which offer information about artists, links for further resources, ideas for activities and vocabulary for in-classroom support before and after visiting the museum.

JSMA Creates

A free online resource for art lovers of all ages and skill levels, JSMA Creates offers object-based art lessons to enjoy at home. Each project highlights artwork from the JSMA collection or Shared Visions. The projects have been designed to utilize simple materials that should be easy to find around your home. JSMA Creates currently offers projects inspired by the artists Roy Lichtenstein, KAWS, and Alexander Calder.

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STELLAR Online

The STELLAR Online Project (Strategies for Technology Enhanced Learning and Literacy Through Art), a partnership between the JSMA and the UO College of Education, completed the creation of an online professional development website for rural teachers from around Oregon and actually across the country in 2021! The project was funded by a U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences (USDEd IES) grant. The collaborative focus was to give educators in rural districts the experience and tools necessary to use art to teach argument writing in the classroom through the adoption of Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) with their students. The research showed increased critical thinking skills, writing competencies, art literacy and engagement in students grades 4-8. Fifty-one teachers and over one thousand students participated in the second phase of the STELLAR Project. The JSMA received national recognition as a result of two journal chapters that were published in 2020 that highlighted the impact of STELLAR on students’ growth in writing.

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School Tours and Exhibition Interpreters

More than 1,700 K-12 students toured the JSMA in academic year 2019-2020 before the museum’s closure in March 2020, thanks to the volunteer efforts of the JSMA’s 41 active and provisional Exhibition Interpreters (EIs). From July 2019 - March 2020, EIs volunteered approximately 3,413 hours to support K-12 learning at the JSMA.

In the 2020-2021 academic year, EIs led the way in hosting hybrid meetings at the museum to continue their training in support of K-12 tours. Their adaptability and hands-on approach to mastering hybrid learning enabled the JSMA to offer responsive tours to K-12 teachers during an academic year that saw limited in-person tours and a continued need for remote learning. Thank you, EIs!

Art Heals

The JSMA has seen tremendous growth in arts and healthcare programs over the past few years. In 2019, the JSMA’s Art Heals program served 700 individuals through a variety of programs, from established offerings like VSA/Art Access Art Workshops for children with special needs to newer classes like Reflections and Connections

Thanks to the museum’s adaptability in rapidly shifting these programs to remote formats in 2020, that audience doubled in the 18 months that followed. Almost 1400 patients, medical care providers, Latina mothers, children with disabilities, and adults with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease attended one of JSMA’s 45 virtual workshops.

As the audience grew, so did the geographic reach of Art Heals. The remote access allowed the JSMA to reach more rural and underserved audiences, including postpartum Latina mothers and oncology patients living in remote areas of Lane and Benton Counties.

The Art Heals program includes workshops for cancer patients, care providers, postpartum mothers, and hospice care partners through a partnership with Good Samaritan Health Services and Stahlbush Island Farms. Participants receive free packets of art materials to use while creating alongside their peers in live painting workshops offered over Zoom. The workshops provide connection, relaxation, and a creative outlet for participants.

Reflections and Connections, a program for individuals living with young-onset or early to mid-stage dementia and their care partners, shifted from in-person discussions in the museum’s galleries to virtual creative conversations on Zoom in 2020. Each week of the five-week series centers around a different theme. Despite the change in format, Reflections and Connections serves as a platform for social connection with other individuals who are having similar experiences.

Art Inspires World of Work

The World of Work (WoW) program was established at the JSMA in 2014 as a threemonth paid internship program for high school students from underrepresented backgrounds interested in pursuing careers in art museums. The goals of the WoW program include

(1) teaching 21st century professional skills;

(2) familiarizing interns with higher education to promote post-high school opportunities; and (3) increasing the diversity of those working in our cultural institutions to better reflect the diverse communities being served.

The Spring 2020 WoW programming began as usual with online application submissions in Fall 2019. Twentyone local high school students submitted applications, letters of recommendation, and essay submissions. Four interns were chosen in winter term to participate in the spring cohort for workshops that were re-structured for a virtual format. WoW interns journaled throughout the term and participated in workshops on ArtAccess and Art Heals, resumé building, Visual Thinking Strategies and a WoW Mentorship workshop with former WoW graduates.