Interning at MAD for the Semester: MAD’s partnership with Bank Street College of Education

May 14th, 2010 at 02:18pm ElaynaK

For the past four and a half months I’ve had the privilege of working as an intern in the education department at the Museum of Arts and Design. I had a wonderful learning experience, one that stretched and inspired me as an educator and a professional, as well as a student and lover of the arts.

My responsibilities here this past semester were multi-faceted due to the variety of programs and events the education department is responsible for, which meant for a particularly rich and wide-ranging experience. My assorted responsibilities included developing an understanding of the museum- its mission and history, researching the artists and their work, observing and learning from the educators and the docents, supervising high school interns, planning for the new academic year, developing curriculum for as well as formatting and editing the Teachers’ Resource Packet, helping to lead inquiries in the galleries with school groups, administrative work, and helping to staff special events and programs.

At Bank Street we often talk about the process of how children learn and about the numerous ways we as educators can facilitate this process to inspire and provoke reaction, questioning and critical thinking in our students. I think that for educators it’s often the process of how we learn and create which concerns us and less the result or end product of the thinking. This educational philosophy fits so perfectly in line with the philosophy and mission of the Museum of Arts and Design which “celebrates the creative process”. The museum both in its mission and in its educational programming puts a strong emphasis on process. We’re concerned with the choices artists, and learners, make – and with how projects happen/come about. In this way the museum’s mission very much fell in line with my and Bank Street’s educational philosophy.

In addition, the very structure of MAD’s main educational program, the MADlab, combines seeing and doing to make for a truly whole body, experiential visit. First students get a chance to experiment playing around with ideas, concepts and materials for a few short moments before going into the galleries as a way of whetting their appetite. Then they move on to a guided, inquiry-based tour led by particularly accomplished artist educators, who ask questions in order to get the students to notice, think about and react to the artwork. Following the tour, students return to the classroom for a hands-on workshop which allows to them to do something to express themselves and demonstrate their learning, thinking and creativity.

I had the privilege to observe numerous of such tours and also got the opportunity to lead some of the inquiry myself and often assisted with the workshop. I was deeply impressed with the MADlab program and found it to be a perfect example of how to combine seeing, doing, expressing and understanding, something we at Bank Street seek to do with every opportunity.

Working in a space where the expressions “wo…. cool!”, “oh my god look at this!!” and “incredible…” are common pass phrases was also quite an experience. I don’t know when the next time I’ll be surrounded by so much art and so many creative and interesting artists but the material, experiences, learning and conversations I’ve taken in here over the past few months will certainly stay with me.

What a wonderful semester!

Entry Filed under: teachers' lounge