"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."   Anne Frank  

What is it ?

All children need a variety of experiences to assist them in exploring their environment. Through art, children learn to value their own uniqueness and to appreciate the individuality of others.

Art provides an opportunity to augment creative expression, self discovery, self esteem and self concept.

Our program consists of exposing the children to museum quality pieces of art of different kinds in their own classroom, and working with them on curriculum based activities.

With the experience of being face to face with these art pieces, and being able to manipulate them, they go through a productive and unforgettable learning experience.

They research and consult, they interact and communicate and in the end they produce, and on the way the find out about history, art and values.

They also learn the fun and enchantment behind the hobby of collecting.

This project opens doors to some kids, and awakens hidden interests in others, and what is really sure is that this experience touches the lives and hearts of many little ones....... in every school....... and in every classroom.

"those who learn or perceive differently are often the ones who connect with art"

Why take The Museum to School ?

"Exploring artworks through touch can have beneficial outcomes for all of us, and can even help us to understand, and sometimes challenge, the visual judgments and verbal interpretations we rely on so heavily in the Art Museum."

"Making tactile contact with artworks helps to reconnect us with our children's sensitivity to touch in two ways. Firstly it awakens the strong urge to reach out towards certain kinds of desirable objects. Memory and associations are triggered and take hold more readily through the senses, especially those of touch taste and smell, than through sound and sigth alone, allowing abstract experiences to connect with concrete ones. Studies have found that encouraging students to investigate an object through touch increases attention to learning and time spent with it, thereby increasing the chances of understanding and retaining information about the work. Secondly touching certain kinds of objects answers to the need of the curious child to find our what something does or what it is for, perhaps as a basic form of the need to make meaning out of experience."

"Touch is a non illusionistic sense, and helps us to rethink our ways of seeing."

"Allowing touch, as well as increasing our understanding of art, has had the effect of breaking down the barriers that can arise from the distance placed between the viewer and the art. Permission to touch increases respect for the objects and concern for their well being."

Taken from: Paper by Andrew Alvarez, Museum Access Consultant.

Presented at: From Content to Play: Family Oriented Interactive Spaces in Art and History Museums Symposium. 2005.

Sample of our work with the La Joya Independent School District, 2007-2008. Please click here.