Engaging the Arts and Museums with the World in Mind

Examining how a deliberate global engagement with artworks and objects in museums and classrooms might contribute to nurturing global competence among museum visitors—especially students and educators

IN: Assessment, Evaluation & Documentation - Civic Engagement - Cognition, Thinking & Understanding - Disciplinary & Interdisciplinary Studies - Global & Cultural Understanding - Learning Environments - Science Learning - Primary / Elementary School - Secondary / High School

Overview

This Project is a collaboration between Project Zero and the Professional Development Collaborative at Washington International School. We examine how a deliberate global engagement with artworks and objects in museums and classrooms might contribute to nurturing global competence among museum visitors—especially students and educators.

We ask: How can museums create powerful interdisciplinary experiences to prepare a more globally competent public? How can teachers and students in formal educational settings nurture global competence through deliberate engagement with art and museums and with contemporary global issues in mind? What can a teacher and a museum educator accomplish together that they would be unlikely to accomplish on their own?

Our project gathers leading museum educators working at National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, and the Smithsonian’s Freer | Sackler Galleries, American Art Museum, and National Portrait Gallery and experienced public and private school teachers in the DC metropolitan area. Through this collaboration, we seek to develop capacity, create and disseminate exemplary units and advance our understanding of the power of quality engagement with art and museums to nurture a globally competent public and youth.

Co-leading this project is Jim Reese, Director of the Professional Development Collaborative at Washington International School.