Museum Visits to Your School

ARTFUL ENGAGEMENT enriches many areas of school curriculum. During the 2022–2023 school year, you may arrange for Joslyn educators to visit your elementary classroom (available for the Omaha metro area). Students will engage the four STEAM Career Readiness Skills–critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication. Let's LOOK, LEARN, and CREATE together!

LOOK & LEARN: We will bring teaching posters and slide decks of selected artworks in Joslyn's collections to set up a gallery-like experience in your classroom. Depending on the topic you select (below), students will learn about art, artists, museums, and more. A key component of this program is to spend time looking at art, and we will use a variety of engaging strategies.
(45-60 minutes).

CREATE: As part of this experience, you may choose the optional art-making activity paired with each topic (below). Students will have the opportunity to explore the theme deeper by employing their imagination and creativity or by processing their feelings while developing confidence. Joslyn will provide some materials and a list of suggested items (to be on hand at school) for each project.
(45-60 minutes).

This program is offered for FREE; class size is 10 students minimum to 25 students maximum per request; this program is designed for elementary students; Museum to the Classroom program requests should be requested online four weeks in advance. Do you have an inquiry? Call (402) 661-3871 or click here to e-mail Joslyn's School Programs Coordinator.



2022–2023 Museum to the Classroom Topics

Parts of Art

Kindergarten to Grade 3

LOOK & LEARN. Discover the visual language of art: line, color, value, shape, form, space, and texture. Engage in simple activities designed to explore how artists use these basic elements of art to convey information and ideas.    

CREATE (optional). Explore all of the parts of art and bring lines to life! Taking inspiration from Frank Stella’s Nogaro, students will create paintings and transform them into 3D sculptures that burst off the page! Check out project examples here. 




Many Moods of Me
Grades 2 to 6

LOOK & LEARN. Build emotional intelligence through a mindful exploration of moods in art. Identify emotions artists depict and evoke in their work. Using a mood meter, students will connect to what they are currently feeling and see how art has the ability to convey and even alter emotions.

CREATE (optional). Express emotions and creativity in a safe place! Students will look inward to visually express themselves. Creating their own accordion journals, they will use various media to draw, write, and collage the moods they experience or encounter all in one place. Check out project examples here. 


Art of the American West
Grades 3 to 6

LOOK & LEARN. Study North American Indigenous peoples, as well as the explorers and artists who connected with them starting in the early 1800s, to Native American artists today. Make connections to the Lewis & Clark Expedition and compare past and present artworks, and discover how Indigenous artists continually adapt to change while celebrating tradition.

CREATE (optional). Become an artist-explorer and scientist to record discoveries! Students will create instant book journals and travel through artworks, sketching and documenting the critters they find along the way, just like Karl Bodmer and                                                            Prince Maximillian. Check out project examples here. 





What's pictured (top to bottom): Frank Stella (American b. 1936), Nogaro, 1982, mixed media on aluminum, 115 x 120 x 24 in., Gift of the Phillip Schrager Collection of Contemporary Art from Terri, Harley and Beth Schrager, 2014.2; Mickalene Thomas (American, born 1971), Din, une très belle négresse 1, 2012, rhinestones, acrylic, oil, and enamel on wood panel, 102 x 84 x 2 in., Museum purchase, gift of The Sherwood Foundation, 2019.6; Seth Eastman (American, 1808-1875), Sioux Indians, 1850, canvas; oil, 32 7/8 x 44 7/8 in; 83.5 x 114 cm, Purchased from the Old Print Shop, 1946.27