Art as a Catalyst for Storytelling, Drama, and Writing

3rd grade students at Heritage experienced the Westmoreland Museum of American Art in an incredible and unique way.  Through a direct partnership with Writers of Westmoreland, Joan McGarry, the Director of Education at the newly renovated Westmoreland Museum of American Art awarded Heritage a grant for the second year in a row.  This grant afforded all 3rd grade students at Heritage the opportunity to visit the museum and interact with the art in extraordinary ways.  The museum docents, art and writing curriculum, museum access, and transportation was awarded to these students at no cost to the district.

Students engaged in “Miner Inquiry” in which they dramatized characters in a portrait, analyzed portrait subjects utilizing vocabulary strategies and portrait clues, explored landscape paintings with their five senses, and strategized which thematic music played for them represented varied artwork in the Color and Geometry gallery.

“I like the way this artist thinks…,” offered one student while trying to interpret a sculpture’s purpose and presence in the gallery!  Opportunities such as this that foster creativity, discussion, inquiry, culture, and perspective are a treasure. We are thrilled to be able to engage students in experiences that promote authentic life-long learning habits.

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