Publicart

Museums and the public school curriculum

Each year museums throughout the United States commit hundreds of millions of dollars to K-12 educational programs. Over the past five years, the number of students, teacher and schools served by local museum education programs has dramatically increased. This is good news for the students and their communities and a positive example of how institutions outside of the public schools are stepping up to the challenge of supporting curriculum-based education at a time when public school budgets for art and social studies are shrinking.

The commitment to education is powerful and apparent. More than 70% of the museums in the U.S. employ at least one full-time staff member focused on education. These staffers commonly provide the central point of cohesion between the school curriculum standards, local school districts, teachers and the museum's own curators.

Traditionally relegated to a support role within most museums, today, progressive educators are shaping the museum's role in public education and exercising appropriate influence in exhibition content and format. In California, where Native American studies are required within the fourth grade state curriculum guidelines, a leading museum re-examined how it displayed its collection of Native American baskets, considering how a typical fourth-grader might experience the exhibit.

Many museums, such as the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) are developing curriculum guides and classroom materials that leverage their world-class collection and extend their presence to the public classrooms of California. My support of the FAMSF program in particular is the result of their enthusiastic leader, Harry Parker and his zeal for integrating the museum's wealth in artifacts and art with the educational process to encourage children to embark upon a lifetime of cultural, social and contextual learning.

Museums are custodians of our cultural history. They preserve the context and meaning of different cultures and individuals. Through their handmade objects - artifacts, inventions, art works, and historical documents - past cultures come to life in ways only the artifacts themselves can express.

Harry and his colleagues in museums across the nation understand this and, fortunately for us and our children, are leading the charge to bring the public school curriculum to life through their collections and educational programs.