Phillis Wheatley Elementary

MDCPS Museum Education Program

Tour by:

Marlon Zuniga, Art Teacher, Museum Educator, MDCPS marlonzuniga@dadeschools.net

Over thirty years ago the administrators of the Art Education Program developed the Museum Education Program, a collaborative effort between Miami-Dade County Public Schools, local museums, and galleries. This program is designed to provide all students attending art classes, kindergarten through senior high school, an opportunity to view and discuss original works of art and architecture in a museum, historic site, or gallery setting.

Our Museum Educators, who are Miami-Dade County art teachers, guide students through interdisciplinary tours of modern, classical, contemporary, and student produced art. Specially designed educational resource guides emphasize the connection between art, language arts, math, science, social studies, and career awareness. On-site and follow-up art, reading, and writing activities reinforce the concepts explored through the museum tour. These multi-curricular experiences serve to foster student awareness of the link between themselves and artists who express personal thoughts, feelings and experiences through works of art. The art reflects the cultural, historical, social, and economic climate of the times in which it is created.

The Museum Education Program represents over twenty museums, galleries, and outreach programs. The museum educators are art teachers who have been chosen for their ability to plan tours, develop educational resource guides, and create relevant and interesting tours of permanent collections and traveling exhibitions. This unique program has become a national model recognized by the National School Boards Association as one of the outstanding curriculum ideas in the United States.

The Miami-Dade County Public Schools Museum Education Program was also recognized for excellence in Gaining the Arts Advantage, a report released by the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and the Arts Education Partnership.

To learn more please click, here.