GRAND RAPIDS ART MUSEUM

The School Tours and Workshops program provides K-12 and college students with docent-guided tours and hands-on studio workshops. Students explore works of art from exhibitions and the Museum’s collection, learn about art techniques in the GRAM Studio, and create art of their own. The tours and workshops support art-integrated learning that strengthens student engagement with core subject areas. Students unleash their creativity and imagination, while also building competencies like critical thinking, analytical skills, and communication. Tour and workshop themes include art and history, formal qualities and elements of art, and the relationship between nature, sustainability, and creativity. A majority of students served through the program are from low-income or geographically underserved school districts.

Language Artists: Weather Wonders integrates literacy, science, and the visual arts, through a year-long unit of study that promotes academic and cultural achievement among third grade students. The Museum and Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) co-created the program in 2010 to strengthen student writing skills. GRPS and GRAM recently updated the award-winning program during the 2020-21 school year. Language Artists retained its primary focus on literacy, while modifying the program curriculum to align with the district’s update English language arts unit of study. GRPS and GRAM also incorporated a new, secondary focus on the study of weather and climate into the program, as part of the district’s third-grade science course. Language Artists centers on artworks from the Museum’s permanent collection that depict the intersection of weather and climate with other subject matter.

Language Artists: Global Perspectives serves seventh grade students through a year-long unit of study that combines social studies and the visual arts. The program promotes empathy, respect, and cultural awareness through a focus on diverse works of art representative of the five major world religions. The program was co-created by Grand Rapids Public Schools (GRPS) and GRAM, after the district approached the Museum about partnering on a program that would deepen student engagement with the social studies curriculum, in which students learn about Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, as required by the State of Michigan Department of Education.

Students visit GRAM and participate in docent led-tours, engaging in constructive dialogue and completing a series of exercises for each artwork studied. After their Museum visit and over the course of the school year, students complete classroom activities incorporating the artworks and cultures studied.

The Drop-in Studio is a weekly art making program for people of all ages. Through instruction from GRAM staff and volunteers, participants engage in hands-on art projects in the GRAM Studio, drawing inspiration from the artists, subject matter, and works of art on view at GRAM. The program promotes self-expressive art making and exposes participants to a variety of artistic techniques and art mediums. The Drop-in Studio is offered every Saturday year-round, in addition to extended days and hours during school spring and winter breaks.

GRAM Early Learners promotes kindergarten readiness in children up to the age of five. Through art-integrated learning, children build cognitive, social, and fine and gross motor skills. GRAM partners with several early learning centers, including a longstanding partnership with the downtown Grand Rapids YMCA, and a newer partnership with Head Start for Kent County as part of the Michigan Department of Education’s Great Start Readiness Program for underserved children. GRAM creates art-integrated, hands-on early childhood lesson plans that museum education staff use to teach children during outreach visits and onsite visits at the Museum. All children served by Early Learners are from low- to moderate-income households, and their participation is helping to promote equal access, and prevent disparities in education before they take root.

GRAM Summer Art Camps are immersive, week-long cultural and skill-building experiences for children ages 4 to 15. Instructors use the Museum Collection to introduce children to a diverse range of artists, mediums, and art movements. Campers view and discuss works of art on view at GRAM, learn art techniques from trained instructors, and participate in artmaking projects and problem-solving activities. During each week of camp, children learn from visiting artists, designers, and arts professionals from the community. They teach the children art techniques, discuss their work and the inspiration behind it, and have a dialogue with about how art, creativity, and design play an important role in their careers. At the conclusion of each camp, participants produce an exhibition of the work they created during the week, which is available for families to view on the final day of camp.

Gazing at GRAM is a therapeutic arts program for people affected by memory loss, such as Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and traumatic brain injury, in addition to serving cancer patients. The program connects participants to opportunities for intellectual and creative stimulation, through guided tours, discussion, and engagement with exhibitions and select artworks on view. GRAM partners with residential care centers and assisted-living facilities, including Spectrum Health, Clark Retirement Community, and Hope Network, among others.

Through Gazing at GRAM, participants…
• Explore and exchanged ideas about art and artists
• Activate the imagination and think creativity
• Experience intellectual stimulation
• Make connections between personal stories and the world at large