Education

Family Days take place on select Sundays from 12 - 4 PM. On these days families visiting the museum enjoy live entertainment, create hands-on projects and explore exhibitions with a gallery hunt. Upcoming 2009 Family Days include: January 18, March 22 and May 17. Visit the calendar page of our website for additional information.

If you would like to learn about Teacher programs through the Nasher's Educators listserve, please send an e-mail message to sympa@duke.edu and include "Subscribe Nasher-Ed" (without the quotes) in the subject or body of your e-mail. To be added to our snail mail list send your name and address to NasherEd@duke.edu.

Free K-12 Teacher Workshop (space limited, advance registration required) Thursday, January 22, 2009 4 - 6 PM (Register by January 16, 2009).

This workshop will focus on the exhibitions A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections and Escultura Social: A New Generation of Art from Mexico City. Pedro Lasch, Assistant Professor of the Practice of Visual Arts at Duke will give a talk about Escultura Social and education staff will talk about the Bloomsbury exhibition. Participants receive partial CEU credit and interdisciplinary curriculum-based materials to use in the classroom. Network with peers, explore and learn about the exhibitions, enjoy refreshments and learn about field trip opportunities.

Register online, via email to NasherEd@duke.edu, or call 919.684.8816 and provide your full name, school name, grade, subject you teach, phone number, and email address where you can be reached. This program is free. Space is limited so early registration is encouraged. You will receive a confirmation by email closer to the date of the workshop.

This fall our free, guided school tours are full. We have been taking reservations since May. Our free, guided school tours take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10 AM and 11 AM and Fridays at 10 AM. Regular school tours for grades K-12 at the Nasher Museum of Art will resume in January 2009.

Self-Guided School Groups

Special Exhibitions Tour:

Individuals and Community, Art and Life: A Room of Their Own: The Bloomsbury Artists in American Collections, Escultura Social: A New Generation of Art from Mexico City and Sacred Beauty: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts from the Collection of Robert J. Parsons Recommended for grades K-12.

(Tour with Bloomsbury available January 27 - April 4, 2009)
(Tour with Escultura Social available January 27 - June 5, 2009)

In one 45- to 60-minute conversation-based tour, students will discuss 5-7 artworks in these special exhibitions, exploring the themes of individuals and community and art and life. The Bloomsbury portion of the tour will make English Language Arts connections. The Escultura Social portion of the tour will make cultural connections to Latin America. The illuminated manuscripts relate to European history.

Guided tours engage students in discussions about the artwork on view, while encouraging critical thinking and the development of higher-order processing skills. An optional 30-minute hands-on art activity that relates to a theme or artwork from the tour is available with advance notice.

Year-Round School Tour
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Recommended for grades K-4.
Storytelling is central to young children's learning process. This tour focuses on story and narrative in artwork to heighten observational and interpretive skills while having fun.

Scheduling Your Visit

• Please call to schedule guided tours and selfguided groups at least 4 weeks in advance. All scheduling depends on availability.
• Guided tours are available Tuesday - Friday at 10 AM, 11:45 AM, 12 PM, or between 1 and 4 PM.
• Guided tours last approximately 1 hour. An optional 30-minute hands-on activity is available with advance notice.
• Guided tours are led by museum education staff and/or highly-trained volunteer docents.
• Self-guided groups can visit during museum hours when no other group is scheduled.

Bus scholarships are available for a limited number of K-12 guided field trips to the museum. Please contact NasherEd@duke.edu, or call 919-684-8816, to find out if your school qualifies.

To schedule a tour, contact Julie Thomson, Associate Curator of Education, at 919.684.8816, or NasherEd@duke.edu, and provide the following information:

• Your name/School name
• School address/School phone number
• Alternate phone number/Email
• Preferred date and time for your visit
• Two alternate dates and times for your visit
• Grade level/Age of students
• Total number of students you would like to bring
• Requested tour (Special Exhibitions or A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words)
• Special needs, if any
• Connections you hope to make between your visit and your teaching Preparing for Your School Tour
• Special Needs: Help us create an inclusive program. Please inform us in advance of any students with cognitive, emotional or physical disabilities in your group. We will do our best to adapt the program to best meet everyone's needs.
• Class Size: Classes will tour the museum in groups of 10 -15 students. Usually we can accommodate a maximum of 60 students per tour. However, from April 7 through June 5, 2009 we can accommodate a maximum of 45 students per tour.
• Chaperones for guided tours:
  --Grades K-5: 1 chaperone for every 5 students.
  --Grades 6-8: 2 chaperones for every 15 students.
  --Grades 9-12: 1 chaperone for every 15 students.
  
• Chaperones for self-guided groups: We require 1 chaperone for every 5 students.
• Lunch: K-12 school groups may eat lunch or snacks in the Community Classroom only if this space is reserved in advance. The Community Classroom seats a maximum of 32 people. Weather permitting, school groups may picnic on museum grounds in designated areas only. Outside food and drink are not permitted anywhere else in the museum or on museum grounds.

Self-Guided Groups
Self-guided groups or teacher-led school tours are permitted in all of our galleries. We highly recommend that educators preview exhibitions prior to the student visit to assure the content in each gallery is age appropriate. Please call to schedule self-guided groups at least 4 weeks in advance following the process outlined above. All scheduling is based on availability.

Questions About School Tours

Contact Julie Thomson,
Associate Curator of Education
nashered@duke.edu / 919.684.8816.