The Georgia Museum of Art’s longstanding 5th-Grade Tours program is giving Clarke County School District (CCSD) students a chance to discover what it means to “Mind the Gap.” The program, which is part of Experience UGA(opens in new tab), helped this year’s 5th-grade students explore the dynamic nature of the museum’s collections. Experience UGA is a partnership between the University of Georgia and CCSD that strives to bring every student in the district to UGA’s campus for an educational field trip every year.
For nearly two decades, the program has made it possible for every 5th-grader in the county to visit the museum’s galleries and engage with art first-hand. The experience gives students a unique introduction to the museum and creative exploration as well as to the UGA campus and higher education.
Each year, the museum’s educational team refines the tour experience to focus on different objects on display in the galleries, whether in an exhibition or in the permanent collection. The most recent theme used the exhibition “Mind the Gap”(opens in new tab) to encourage young visitors to explore abstract art. By engaging with diverse mediums and perspectives, students not only learn about art but also about themselves and the world around them.
The tours began with a presentation that introduced students to the museum, the exhibition’s themes and featured artists. Students then broke into small groups for interactive docent-led tours through the galleries, including “Mind the Gap” and the permanent collection. The combination of abstract and traditional art gave students a well-rounded understanding of both approaches. UGA students help in several ways. Experience UGA Ambassadors and the museum’s education interns support the tours directly. Museum education interns also help develop some of the tour content, researching objects and creating activities designed to engage 5th-graders.
The program encourages students to engage with works independently using an activity guide that’s designed to spark critical thinking and foster close looking and personal interpretation of works on display. “The idea is to have students explore ideas, themes and subjects of contemporary abstract art,” said Kaitlyn Loyd, the museum’s assistant curator of education. Beyond the guided tour, the program features a variety of other activities that help students engage with and learn about art.
After touring “Mind the Gap” and the permanent collection, 5th-graders then created their own abstract art. The highlight of the visit for many students, creating their own art helped the 5th-graders find inspiration and tap into their creativity. Using long strips of paper that they bent, twisted and glued to a cardboard round, they created their own abstract animal sculptures inspired by Nathan Mabry’s sculpture “The Nostalgia of the Infinite (Le Taureau).”(opens in new tab) Mabry’s sculpture was on view in “Mind the Gap” and uses geometric shapes to suggest a bull without actually showing one. The activity provided a hands-on chance to further explore the concepts of shape, structure and movement in a fun and imaginative way.
The program is designed to be inspiring and welcoming for elementary school students. For many, it is their first visit to an art museum. Staff and docents encourage students to return to the museum with their families to continue fostering a connection to the arts beyond the classroom.
“We want students to leave the museum feeling like they’ve not only learned something new about art, but also developed a positive connection to higher education and UGA’s campus,” said Loyd. “[We want them to leave the museum] thinking, ‘I’ve been there. I can see myself going there.’”
After nearly two decades of educating 5th-grade students in Clarke County, the program continues to shape the minds of young learners and inspire the next generation of artists, thinkers and leaders, but it has also grown to help future educators gain valuable experience in the classroom.
The 5th-graders’ art education isn’t confined to the galleries. Following the visit, University of Georgia students Jihee Kang (a doctoral student in art education) and Ella Madden (a second-year undergraduate student, also in art ed) worked with instructor Saja Yim to design a hands-on art activity that reinforced the lessons learned at the museum. In the 2023 – 24 school year, Kang, Madden and Yim visited more than 40 5th-grade classrooms to teach a nearly hour-long lesson that built on what students learned during their museum visit and foster a deeper understanding of abstract art and creativity. Funding for both supplies and to pay Kang and Madden for their work came from an Arts Education Program Grant from Georgia Council for the Arts(opens in new tab). The outreach lessons following the museum visit helped strengthen concepts and ideas introduced on the field trip and provided opportunities for preservice art education students at UGA to gain valuable hands-on experience developing and implementing a museum-focused lesson plan.
“We are proud of the long history of the museum’s public outreach and community engagement work through our K-through-12 school programs. The 5th-grade program in particular is a great example of how the museum fulfills its mission of providing opportunities for authentic, experiential learning for both CCSD kids and UGA students,” said Callan Steinmann, the museum’s head of education and curator of academic and public programs.
Authored by:
Nishat Nayla
