Resources and Programs

Children’s Workshop

This program offers students in grades 3 through 6 the opportunity to have practical art experience guided by the Museum’s volunteer docents. The two-hour session combines art education with an interactive gallery tour and creative art project, which fulfills the second standard of the California State Framework for the Visual Arts: Creative Expression.

Five workshops – The Investigative Eye, Stories in Art, Our Place in the World, Portraits/Faces, and Landscapes – for a maximum of 30 students each are offered weekly on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., October through May.  Workshops must be scheduled online at least three weeks in advance. You may schedule or cancel a Children’s Workshop online.

Educators’ Art Fair

This day-long art-making workshop offers K-12 educators who have little or no art training several California-standards-based art projects related to the Museum's permanent collection to assist their teaching in the classroom. The Educators’ Art Fair is especially designed for elementary, middle, and high school educators. During the event, participants rotate through four art project demonstrations designed and led by Museum and school educators, and create their own samples for use in their classrooms. The Educators’ Art Fair is held in the spring and fall on alternating years.

Participants receive a How-To Guide with project descriptions and detailed lesson plans, materials, and applicable resources, so that they can immediately and more easily incorporate art education into their curricula and classrooms.

The Museum holds the Educators’ Art Fair in the fall on the years that are Young Art years to encourage teachers to create student work in their classrooms, under the Young Art theme, which can be submitted for consideration in the Young Art exhibition the following spring. During Young Art years, the lessons presented to teachers are designed to match the Young Art theme. 

NEXT EVENT: SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 2012.  See calendar listing for more information!

Educators’ Open House / K-12 and college

The Educators’ Open House targets area educators and teachers in public and private schools and the homeschooling community, from kindergarten to college level. The annual event invites educators to visit the Museum for free while it is closed to the public, to fully experience new exhibitions, and to learn how to integrate museum content into the classroom.

Tours, lectures, California-standards-based sample lesson plans, and classroom materials are provided, as are light refreshments.  Educators gain ideas for incorporating art education into the required curriculum as well as how art can be used to extend lessons in other subject areas.  For more information contact educators@sdmart.org.

NEXT EVENT: Fall 2012!

One Day Exhibitions

Many of the Museum’s multiple visit programs end the experience with an exhibition created by participants. These exhibitions last one day and families and others are invited to celebrate and view the exhibitions.

This year we will exhibit works created by the sixth-grade students involved with the California Arts Council’s Artist-in-Schools grant program. Students will interpret and curate their own works for display. They will choose from dozens of pieces created, including chalk pastels inspired by Joan Miró and Georgia O’Keeffe, silk-screens and other types of printmaking inspired by Andy Warhol, and clay sculpture inspired by objects in the Asian Art Collection and Sculpture Garden.

In-School PowerPoint Presentations (Grades 1-6)

Presentations in the classroom are available by Museum docents for students in grades 1 through 6 to serve as an introduction to the Museum’s art collection. Programs are designed as an introduction and should be followed by a Museum visit. Each program is designed to fulfill the academic content standards for Visual and Performing Arts. Teachers may choose from the following presentations:

• Little Red Riding Hood: Highlights the basic concepts of color, line, and shape using a well-known fairy tale (recommended for grades 1-3)
• Hey Look!: Increases students' understanding of art by teaching them how to look at a variety of artworks (recommended for grades 2-4)
• Oh, California!: Illustrates the history of California through artworks from the Museum’s collection. (recommended for grade 4)
• Made in America: Traces the history of America through its art (recommended for grade 5)
• Nature in the Art of Asia: Explores animals and plants, as well as Buddhist, Shinto, and Hindu themes in the Museum’s Asian art collection (recommended for grade 6)

Receive more information on In-School PowerPoint Presentations or schedule an on-line request