Museum educators are well versed in employing multiple techniques for engaging museum visitors. Many use these skills and approaches to support marginalized and vulnerable populations, such as families with an incarcerated adult, families with food insecurity, or unhoused families. Determining how to carry out these beneficial intentions, however,…

This paper explores the development of Civic Wellness programs at the Art Institute of Chicago, with an emphasis on how Civic Wellness teaching, partnerships, and strategy are informed by social justice-oriented values. These include equity practice, antiracism, strength in community, and democratic justice-oriented andragogy. The paper lays out…

Eliza West and Emily Toettcher explain how a partnership between school and museum has evolved into a four-year enquiry into local history. The article focuses on the successful introduction of an oral history element in the GCSE syllabus and how the investigation into 'remembered' history helps students to appreciate the complexities of truth and…

Critical museological perspectives have in recent years opened up new conceptual spaces for emerging forms of art museum practice. This article addresses the theme of changing ideologies and methodologies in art museums by offering an anecdote shaped by art museum practices, then theorizing potential responses from object-based, visitor-centered,…

When working with immigrant and refugee audiences, art museums can be unique sites of engagement, healing, and language acquisition through art-making experiences and in-gallery activities. Furthermore, museums can close the gap between service provider and cultural institution by building sustaining relationships rooted in long-term collaboration…

Eighth-grade students from three school districts in three small towns in Crosby County, Texas, received academic credit for working together with the biannual Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum summer travel education program. Each of the three districts radiate from a small town. They were within one county, and the museum was located in the…

This article describes Children's Museum of Pittsburgh's multi-phase approach to developing professional development (PD) for its maker educators. Researchers engaged maker educator staff in research-practice partnerships at each stage of the process, with the intention of supporting maker educators in developing their practice. Grounded in…

Museum educators and instructors of English as a Second Language (ESOL) at a community college in New York reflect on their experiences facilitating a program designed to enrich the language, cultural, and visual literacy skills of adult immigrant students. The CALTA21 program brought together three stakeholders, immigrant ESOL students, language…

Prompted by the passage of Alabama House Bill 56, I organized the museum studies course I taught for Auburn University at Montgomery in the 2013 spring semester around an exhibition on immigration. The course offered the opportunity to engage students, faculty, and the community in discussion of an important, timely, and controversial topic.…

The Young Artists at Work Program at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) recently shifted its model from an afterschool arts program to a young artists' residency. This decision arose from a desire to reposition the youth program as a priority within the larger organization, coupled with a commitment to deepening the pedagogical values of…

The Natural History Museum's new Darwin Centre fulfils three main roles. It is a state-of-the-art scientific research and collections facility, but it is also an awe-inspiring new public space that allows visitors to explore the natural world in an exciting and innovative way. With its opening, students can experience the relevance of the science…

This article describes the evolution of a partnership between Brooklyn College (BC) of the City University of New York (CUNY) and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) that ultimately resulted in the formal incorporation of the museum's online Seminars on Science (SoS) courses into master's degree programs at Brooklyn College for teachers…

In this study, we introduce the digital backpack as a means for creating a rich learning experience for students of multiple ages. Development, design, and refinement of the digital backpack are grounded in the theoretical framework of Universal Design for Learning using a Design-Based Research (DBR) model. This article presents the design and…

The authors observe that: (1) arts education is in trouble; (2) for a variety of reasons, museums are a rational choice of institution to work towards reversing that trend; and (3) museums are generally willing to undertake such a role, but are in need of assistance to do so. The authors advocate that targeted philanthropy can provide such…

Co-author of the popular titles "Booktalking Bonanza" and "The Early Literacy Kit", Betsy Diamant-Cohen brings together 18 examples of successful outreach partnerships that children's librarians and administrators can adapt to their own situations. Contributors from the U.S and Canada explain how they partnered with schools,…