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MUSEUM EDUCATION

The  Museum Education Program in the University Galleries at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) trains FAU students in interactive educational theories and techniques related to teaching/learning in museum environments.

Exhibition-specific training is included and put into practice when middle and high school-aged children in Palm Beach County come to FAU for student-led tours. Outreach and related hands-on art activities are also a part of the program.  The Museum Education Program is recognized and approved by the School District of Palm Beach County for public school field trips. All programs relate to Palm Beach County for public school field trips.  Each academic year, the program produces two “Field Experience Guides for Teachers” that contain a variety of approaches and cross-disciplinary content suggestions.  The Museum Education Program also benefits from collaboration with the Palm Beach county Cultural Council’s Cultural Educators Committee, an alliance of educators that meet monthly.  Through FAU’s School of the Arts, the Galleries are part of a national partnership with the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education that includes the School District of Palm Beach County and the Education Program at the Kravis Center.  Arts integration and teacher/artist training is the focus of this partnership.

Each semester, one of the University Galleries’ exhibition is selected as a focus of the Museum Education Program. In addition to high-quality exhibitions like “Weavings of War” (2007) and “ A Dog’s Life, Color Polaroid  Photographs by William Wegman,” these educational programs have included special Visiting Artist programs such as the Lucy Orta Intervention during Art Basel Miami Beach in 2003 and the 2005/06 Picturing Florida project with artists-in-residence Mark Dean Veca and Ellen Harvey.  Outreach and touring programs are related to school curriculum and are structured, in part, around Florida Sunshine State Standards.  The Museum Education Program is committed to building strong ties with public schools as well as after-school programs to encourage children to experience and learn from the visual arts.  Service to at-risk and undeserved children is prioritized.

The University Galleries have received a grant from the Community Foundation of Palm Beach and Martin Counties to continue and expand service to underprivileged children through after-school programs. The project involves other museums collaborating to train FAU art students to deliver art education services to children in after-school settings such as the Wayne Barton Study Center, where the Galleries provide a two-day per week studio art program.  Other collaborations in this project are the Norton Museum’s Department of Education; the S.D. Spady Museum in Delray Beach and Boca Raton Museum.  Students intern at these organizations while also serving the Galleries as student employees.

During the past few years, the Museum Education Program at FAU has served the following schools and organizations, among others: A.D. Henderson University School, Boca Raton; Children’s Coalition, Inc., West Palm Beach; Bak Middle School of the Arts, West Palm Beach; Maritime Academy Charter School, Lake Worth; Wayne Barton Study Center, Boca Raton; Toussaint L’Ouverture Charter High School and S.D. Spady Museum Children’s culture Club, both in Delray Beach; and Jim and Jan Moran Boys and Girls Club, Deerfield Beach.