The Art Museum at West Virginia University has received a grant of $24,640 from the West Virginia Humanities Council to help fund a Teacher Institute at WVU during June 2010 for middle and high school teachers who teach art and the humanities.

Titled “Art: Objects, Meanings, and the Humanities,” the five-day institute will present an integrated approach to the teaching of art history across the humanities—including literature, history, religion and anthropology.

“We’re pleased that the first educational program organized by the Art Museum at WVU will be offered to West Virginia teachers,” said Director Joyce Ice. “The museum collection offers a great resource to teachers and their students, who can explore a wide range of subjects through the visual arts. As we learn more about how cultures communicate artistically, we gain a greater appreciation and understanding of ourselves, our communities and our world.”

Using original works of art from the WVU Art Collection, teachers and humanities faculty will explore the art from literary, historical, religious and cultural perspectives to examine questions of meaning, identity, values and problem-solving to gain a more in-depth understanding of the connections across cultures and time periods.

Following these discussions, teachers will work in teams to develop lesson plans designed to encourage critical thinking in keeping with the West Virginia Department of Education’s Content, Standards and Objectives for the subject matter and grade levels represented in the institute. The format will include presentations, panel discussions, small group work and field trips to provide a varied and stimulating program.

As a result of the institute, teachers will be able to use this framework to enrich their teaching when they return to their middle and high school classrooms.

Many activities will take place in the museum’s education center, next door to the WVU Creative Arts Center. Located in the former Erickson Alumni Center, the education center is being renovated now and will be open by the spring of 2010.

Participants will also visit the museum’s collection storage on the downtown campus. In addition, they will visit CAC studios to see demonstrations by WVU Division of Art and Design faculty in ceramics, sculpture, painting and printmaking. They will also visit other art studios in the local community and take field trips to the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Carnegie Museum of National History and the Frick Collection in Pittsburgh for behind-the-scenes tours.

WVU faculty members participating in the institute include: Ron Aman, art education; Melissa Bingmann, history; Bob Bridges, art museum; Jane Donovan, religious studies; Rosemary Hathaway, English; Bernie Schultz, art history; and Cookie Schultz, humanities.

The West Virginia Humanities Council is a state affiliate of the national Endowment for the Humanities. The grant for the Teacher Institute is being made through the WVU Research Corporation.

Design of the new Art Museum building at WVU is currently underway. It will be located adjacent to the WVU Creative Arts Center, and will be an addition to the former Erickson Alumni Center.

More information about the Teacher Institute, as well as applications, will be available in January on the Art Museum Web site: www.ccarts.wvu.edu/art_museum.

-WVU-

cl/12/17/09

CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4841 ext. 3108, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu