Support Organizations
25 Works of Art You Must See
Community Partnerships
The Museum is proud to partner with individuals and foundations to bring the arts to underserved audiences. By removing the financial barriers and taking the arts to the audiences, Museum educators provide programs that are tailored to the needs of underserved audiences. If you would like more information about these programs, please contact us at outreach@sdmart.org.
The San Diego Museum of Art Teen Art Program at ALBA
ALBA (Alternative Learning for Behavior and Attitude) is an interdisciplinary educational program for middle school students who have been expelled from the San Diego Unified School District. Using art as a vehicle, the program is designed to promote an artistic outlet, social growth, critical thinking, and to make students aware of career opportunities in the arts.
The San Diego Museum of Art Teen Art Program at La Mesa Teen Center
The Museum offers classes to middle school students at the La Mesa Teen Center, an extension of the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of East County. The La Mesa Teen Center clubhouse is open to teens for a variety of afterschool activities. The Museum offers classes in which students explore a variety of different art materials, including clay, paint, chalk pastel, and charcoal. Emphasis is placed on the process, not the product, so students feel free to express themselves and experiment with different styles and media.
Students are also invited to take a tour of the Museum with their Museum art educator to further their cultural and artistic experience.
The San Diego Museum of Art Teen Art Outreach at Monarch
The San Diego Museum of Art’s afterschool art instruction has a powerful impact on students of the Monarch School, a school for homeless and at-risk children. The art classes provide a fun and educational atmosphere during the critical hours after the end of the school day. Students learn social skills, self-esteem, and gain an outlet for self-expression. The program also bridges the gap between the end of the school day and the opening of shelters. Without these programs, some students would not have a safe place to go.
The San Diego Museum of Art Teen Art Program at Kearny Mesa Juvenile Detention Facility
Teens in this program have been sentenced to 60 days incarceration which can be reduced to 21 days for excellent behavior. This program rewards those students who are demonstrating excellent behavior by bringing art to their facility. These artists are given art history, artist techniques, and a means to express themselves that could reflect their past decisions and hopefully bring a new vision.
The San Diego Museum of Art Teen Art Program at Juvenile Court and Community Schools
This program allows teens to earn needed art credits to graduate from high school. It is an outlet for self-expression that is not available within their normal school setting.
Artist-in-Residence
The Museum School is the partner site for the Museum’s Artist-in-Residence program, funded by a California Arts Council Artist-in-Schools grant. Through the Artist-in-Residence program, Museum art educators serve as artists in residence in the sixth grade at the Museum School [Link to school website, with permission given by principal: www.museumschool.org], a tuition-free, public charter elementary school in which project-based learning focuses on integrating the arts whenever appropriate.
The Artist-in-Residence program is divided into three parts: drawing with chalk pastels; printmaking; and clay sculpture. In each, students explore artists in the Museum collection and their artistic media. Classes incorporate the State of California’s Visual & Performing Arts (VAPA) Content Standards. Students tour the Museum’s galleries, and participate in classes that culminate in a final exhibition curated and interpreted by the students.
In addition to free art classes, participating students are given passes to the Museum so they may return with family members and share what they are learning about art. Student artwork is also featured in an art exhibition in the Museum’s Boardroom and displayed at their school. Students also share what they are creating in this program with their families and the entire student body at various school meetings and assemblies.
Artist-in-Residence by the Museum’s East County Support Council
The Museum’s East County Support Council funds an annual artist residency at elementary schools in East County. Each year, three East County area elementary schools are visited by the Museum-appointed Artist-in-Residence, with new school assignments arranged each year in an effort to maximize the program’s impact and outreach.
The Artist-in-Residence develops art lessons centered on Museum exhibition content, and presents art processes and methods to classroom teachers so that they may continue implementing art curriculum after the end of the residency. The program includes a visit to the Museum and an exhibition of student work shown in the Museum’s Boardroom.
The Balboa Park Program is a collaboration between San Diego City Schools and the many cultural institutions in Balboa Park. The Program is designed to allow fifth-grade students to connect their own personal identity to the cultural diversity of San Diego and its residents. At The San Diego Museum of Art, docents lead small group discussions and use art as a vehicle to talk about such issues as identity, culture, diversity, prejudice, discrimination, and conflict resolution.
The one-week Balboa Park Program supports school integration by teaching fifth grade students about their distinctive historical, biological, and cultural background and surroundings in a program that models and encourages respect, understanding and appreciation for individual and cultural diversity. The program is one part of a three-year curriculum focused on diversity and integration.
