BROOKINGS A couple times per week, the South Dakota Art Museum quietly transforms from staid gallery to spirited classroom as part of a free field trip program for schools.
How it works is that if I book a school depending on their location they can get reimbursed (for mileage) up to $1-5 per child, Abigail Ramsbottom-Cuevas Panza, education curator at the museum, said. The exhibitions are always changing, the art activity is always going to be different and well have teachers who book field trips with us every year because they know its going to be a unique experience.
The museum offers three different options.
We have a short form field trip thats about 30 minutes, she said. That would be if someone wanted their students to visit the South Dakota Agricultural Heritage Museum, McCrory Gardens and the South Dakota Art Museum. Schools could rotate their students between those institutions.
Theres also a 60-minute tour focused on just the art gallery and a 90-minute tour that culminates in a hands-on activity.
Ive found that the 60 and 90 tours are the most popular, she said. With K-6, typically they want to do an art activity. The middle and high school students, more often than not theyll request the gallery experience rather than adding on the art activity.
She said all the tours employ a methodology called visual thinking strategies.
I dont necessarily go up to artworks and provide lecture-based information, Ramsbottom-Cuevas Panza said. Students are asked to look at an artwork as a community, as a class. And I as a facilitator ask them, whats going on here? Students will raise their hands and start noticing details in the artwork, noticing figures or whatever. The whole concept of VTS is about helping students develop their communication skills, visual analysis skills and reasoning skills.
She said everyone sees things uniquely.
I can go to the same artwork, but if Im with a different group of students the conversation is totally different, she said. For example, The Prairie is My Garden is one of the quintessential works in our collection Groups will really look at the figures and it seems to be a mother and two children. Theyll say, I think the mom is scared about something. Or sometimes they focus on funny things like theres an animal in the image and students will disagree on whether its a dog or a cat.
She said viewing art in a group promotes communication skills.
Every time you go to a piece of art, youre having a personal experience, she said. However, when you go in community or with a group and you have that ability to converse and discuss I think it is very likely youre going to come away with a deeper personal understanding. Youre going to have the opportunity to share how you feel and to hear how someone else might perceive it.
She said art is an important pillar of education.
Art matters for me because it helped me understand the world better, Ramsbottom-Cuevas Panza said. When I was in school, I didnt like history. But I had a teacher who started using different artworks to talk about history, and it just kind of came alive for me. That was one of my really early experiences with art was that it was a tool to understand the world better.
The field trips are open to students of all ages.
We do (kindergarten) through university actually, she said. I try to find studies and email professors on-campus to show them the value of visual thinking strategies. Weve booked for this semester about 20 (university) field trips.
The museum also offers online, virtual field trips.
We send art kits across the state, and I zoom with public and private schools doing step-by-step art activities with students and this is all at no cost to the school, she said. We are the South Dakota Art Museum. That means we serve the whole state. But you know there are schools that are 7 hours away from us, so theyll never be able to take a field trip here.
Teachers interested in booking a free field trip can call the South Dakota Art Museum at 605-688-5423 or send an email to [email protected].
Contact Jay Roe at [email protected].
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