Erie Art Museum

The Erie Art Museum will partner with three different middle school populations (one suburban, one rural, and one inner-city), and a regional arts council to lead a large-scale local initiative, Erie Together. The initiative will train and support teachers and resident artists to institute creative, cross-disciplinary projects with their students, connecting real-life experiences to their formal curricula. The program shows educators how to apply the museum curatorial process - selecting, evaluating, interpreting, and presenting objects in exhibitions - to engage students in the concepts of their curriculum. The educators also assist students in creating an exhibition that draws from the students' collections. Students take tours of the museum, paying special attention to how exhibits are constructed and lighted, and how objects are sequenced and placed. Schools then determine an exhibition theme, assemble and curate their collections, and design and construct their exhibitions. After being on display at each participating school, the exhibitions will be installed professionally at the museum.