Linking Visual Literacy with Interdisciplinary Learning: Critical Thinking Skills for Classrooms and Museums

Abstract

This presentation shares the latest results of my Summer 2009 course, AVT 694 Advanced Studies in Critical Response to Art, PK-12, in which a mix of 23 art and non-art (history, ESOL, English, foreign language, elementary) teachers explored seven DC art museums.à àTo explore the issue of identity in art and life, we used a Form+Theme+Context (FTC) Museum Palette as a research tool to decode every art museumà (see attached).à àMaximizing the use of technology via Mason's Blackboard to complement our expeditionary museum visits, this group became enthusiastic arts ambassadors--and even hosted a special session on Visual Culture and Art Education with a group of Ohio State University graduate students and faculty visiting DC for a week-long class at the National Museum of American Indian.à United as a creative and reflective learning community, they fell in love with the multidisciplinary arts connections and rich offerings of DC cultural institutions, artfully documented their learning process in visual journals, and can't wait to share with their students inspiring learning strategies gained through rich art experience and critical response.à àA number of the students will present their visual journals and findings at the 2009 Virginia Art Education Association Fall Conference in Richmond and the 2010 National Art Education Convention in Baltimore in April.