The creative music workshop involving professional players was intended to give direct support to school teachers and to enhance music in the classroom. However, today's large-scale, high-profile projects mounted by orchestras and opera companies appear to be developing into a full-scale industry on their own, their role in partnership with…

Building relationships and community collaborations--especially on an institutional level--is a slow and long-term process. These types of innovative, experimental, and long-term collaborations with community organizations and groups often lead art institutions to reflect on the value and place of their institutional structures when engaging in…

The main purpose of this mixed methods research was to explore and analyze visitors' overall experience while they attended a museum exhibition, and examine how this experience was affected by previously using a virtual 3dimensional representation of the museum itself. The research measured knowledge acquisition in a virtual museum, and compared…

Studying images of families in works of art and in snapshots is compelling, and the author wondered if looking at both types of images side by side might help students understand both kinds of images more fully. Snapshots often prompt detailed and vivid stories among family members and friends. Therefore, she wondered if dialogue about snapshots…

When the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina in 2005, eighty percent of New Orleans flooded, and the citizens who returned to the evacuated city had to rebuild their homes, cultural institutions, and school system. This article records how The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, University of New Orleans, was able to collaborate with a charter school…

This article addresses how older people understand and engage with contemporary art in the gallery context--whether there is something unique to the art, the format of the visits, the pedagogical approaches used by gallery educators, the social contact, or a combination of all these factors. It also addresses the psychosocial barriers to…

While the arts struggle for a place in mainstream education, they are at the center of numerous educational programs in the community. Looking to what schools can learn from community example, this paper identifies three objections to prioritizing the arts in schools (value, measurement, and autonomy) and finds responses to each in community arts…

Considering all areas of development in education is a key to fulfill the needs of gifted students. This study which was based on qualitative methods aimed to find out the emotional and social needs of the adolescents who attended the Antalya Science and Arts Center (Bilim ve Sanat Egitim Merkezi-BILSEM) to develop new ways to help these students.…

Cynthia Harnisch shares her unique perspective on the revered place that museums and community arts organizations occupy in the lives of the people they serve. She relates how, as vice president of the Autry National Center in 1994, she came to be introduced to Inner-City Arts and through that introduction discovered a new respect and recognition…

Two big milestones marked 2014 for the Smithsonian Institution. First, Dr. David Skorton was elected 13th Secretary. Academic leader, cardiologist, and musician, Dr. Skorton and his wife, Professor Robin Davisson, come to the Smithsonian from Cornell University. Dr. Skorton has served as Cornell's president since 2006 and holds academic…

Demonstrating the multiple features of the Cerulean Gallery in Second Life, this research report showcases several exemplar exhibits created by students, artists, and museums. Located in The Educational Media Center, a Second Life teaching and social space, the Cerulean Gallery exhibits functioned as case studies that tested its effectiveness as…

The arts disciplines (visual arts, music, theatre, and dance) merit and require formal study. Policy makers should support studies in the arts as core disciplines, as specified in the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)," the federal legislation that sets policy and appropriations for public education. The arts merit and…

At the Smithsonian, big questions are the common denominators that unite their museums, research centers, and programs. And curiosity is contagious. Today's small child who looks in awe at the big dinosaurs that once roamed the earth and wonders, "What happened?" might just be tomorrow's paleontologist. Among this year's stories is a…

Exhibition is an important part of the artistic process for students as well as professional artists, but finding enough good places to exhibit can be as difficult for student artists as for adult artists. Venues that are accessible, display art attractively, and provide adequate space for many artists are usually in short supply. There is an…

This article examines the strategies that can be used to enhance students' understanding of how subjects link together and whether cross-curricular approaches, through a gallery project, have any real impact on students' understanding of the links between subjects. A substantial part of this article, however, describes the methodological aspect of…