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Tides Institute and Museum of Art Partners with Boston on Innovative Arts Education Project This year–long collaboration will involve hands on training for Washington County, Maine, arts and classroom educators in the nationally recognized aesthetic education program, Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS). This innovative and proven visual arts program is used in museums and schools across the United States, Europe and Russia. An educator from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum would facilitate this training for 11 art teachers and four classroom teachers representing 18 area schools served by the TIMA from Calais to Milbridge. In addition to utilizing this training with students in the classroom, teachers and students will travel to the Tides Institute and the Gardner Museum to be able to use the training in a museum environment. TIMA staff will also attend a professional development institute in VTS at the Harvard Art Museum and program materials would be purchased in order to sustain the program. “This VTS training would build on the collaborative work we have initiated with the artist in residence program, working with visual arts teachers and their schools to increase their capacity for teaching with the arts,” said Hugh French, director of the Tides Institute, “As a model program, the collaborative and community building nature of the VTS training, would demonstrate among students and teachers a new approach to learning and looking that is non-judgmental, builds on cooperative, collective learning, and is transferable to other curriculum and civic activities.” “This VTS training collaboration with the Tides Institute would broaden the integration of visual art into the classrooms in Washington County, it would also create a new form of collaboration between the schools and local and regional cultural institutions,” according to Michelle Grohe, Director of School and Teacher Programs at the Gardner Museum. Visual Thinking Strategies uses art to foster students’ capacities to observe, think, listen and communicate. It is a visual arts program for students and teachers that utilizes visual art to teach thinking, communication skills, and visual literacy. It is founded on the premise that finding meaning in works of visual art involves a rich range of thinking skills. Developed by cognitive psychologist, Abigail Housen and veteran museum educator, Philip Yenawine, and field-tested since 1991 in the US, Russia, and various sites in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, VTS is specifically designed to address the concerns and abilities of beginner viewers. It is easy for teachers to learn, inexpensive, and it efficiently fits into school schedules. The VTS methodology and curriculum has been used in several partnerships between local schools and arts museums across the country, including school districts in Boston, Chicago, New York City, Northern California, the Pacific Northwest and Southern California, integrating museum visits into classroom studies. The Tides Institute is pleased to be able to offer this outstanding program, in partnership with an educator from the Gardner Museum, to the arts educators of our region. The Tides Institute and Museum of Art (TIMA) serves as a cross border - U.S./Canada - cultural institution and museum with broader interests along the northeast Atlantic coast and particular interests on the greater international Passamaquoddy region. TIMA investigates a wider view of the cultural ties between Maine, New England and the Atlantic Provinces, crossing disciplinary boundaries as well as geographical borders. With a focus on art, history, photography and architecture, TIMA fosters the creation of new works and in collecting existing works, developing printmaking, letterpress and digital arts facilities as part of this effort. TIMA is the only cultural institution in existence that is actively building a cross border (U.S./Canada) collection of art. For more information and to receive notification of news and events: visit the Tides Institute website: Tides Institute & Museum of Art, phone: 207.853.4047 or email: tides [at] tidesinstitute [dot] org Contact: Jude Valentine, Program Director Tides Institute and Museum of Art P.O. Box 161 Eastport, Maine 04631 Phone: 207.853.4047 Email: jvalentine [at] tidesinstitute [dot] org Website: Tides Institute & Museum of Art |
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