Abstract

The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art has had a collaborative arts infusion program with Memphis City Schools. Since its inception in 1979, ABC has grown from a program conducted by volunteers who served 120 students to a partnership that currently serves over 1600 fourth – grade students each year. ABC is a sequentially structured classroom and museum program with the goal of integrating art into various aspects of school curriculum, giving both students and teachers diverse opportunities for a variety of learning opportunities through exploratory museum learning and various hands-on-art activities. A variety of learning strategies are incorporated by museum personnel and public school teachers to enhance students’ creative thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, and to improve students’ writing. The ABC program is made up of five sequential steps: an introduction to art concepts in the classroom, three visits to Brooks Museum that focus on various aspects of the permanent collection and special exhibitions, and finally, a follow-up classroom session for review and evaluation. The program will be described and examples of the collections and educational experiences for the student will be shared. Examples of teachers material and student work will be available online. An analysis of the achievement scores of students that participated in the program and a control group were compared. Results demonstrated a modest impact of the program on achievement scores. Teachers that had been involved with the program were surveyed. Teacher’s perceptions of the program were very positive and the teachers demonstrated increased art infusion into the 4th grade curriculum.