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Behind the Scenes Education

Reflections of an Intern: On Teaching and Mission Statements

The 2015 Spring Satellite Interns. Photo by Front Room Photography
The 2015 Spring Satellite Interns. Photo by Front Room Photography
Reflecting back on my time at the Milwaukee Art Museum interning with the Satellite High School Program brings many valuable memories and thoughts to the surface. I’ve been privileged to have had the opportunity to work with dozens of bright, creative, and enthusiastic students from high schools around Milwaukee. Looking back on those weekly Thursday meetings, there are too many good times to mention. There were not so good times too–students having difficulty with final projects, frustrations with resume editing, and challenges giving tours to younger kids. These are the situations that make a pre-service teacher like me stronger; I was forced to come up with strategies for helping to work through student’s problems along with them in a way that was conducive to their unique learning styles.

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Behind the Scenes Education

Community Collaborations: Art and Music with H2O Milwaukee Music

Four years ago, in 2011, I was introduced to Dwight and Marquis Gilbert—otherwise known as H2O Milwaukee Music—and the teen programs at the Milwaukee Art Museum were forever changed.

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Behind the Scenes Education

Teens on Museums, Relevancy, and Community: Part 4

Group hug. Photo by Front Room Photography

It’s my pleasure to share the work of the teen interns in this semester’s Satellite High School Program. Fifteen students from all around Milwaukee spent a semester exploring and discussing art, touring elementary school students, going behind the scenes, speaking to staff, and learning about career skills. Then, the teens created final projects expressing how art can be made relevant to our lives today and how the Milwaukee Art Museum can be an icon for the city, inside and out. This post, part 4 of 4, showcases the work of these students in their own words.

The final group of students created works out of many different kinds of media for their final projects.

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Behind the Scenes Education

Teens on Museums, Relevancy, and Community: Part 3

A view of the final celebration in progress. Photo by Front Room Photography

It’s my pleasure to share the work of the teen interns in this semester’s Satellite High School Program. Fifteen students from all around Milwaukee spent a semester exploring and discussing art, touring elementary school students, going behind the scenes, speaking to staff, and learning about career skills. Then, the teens created final projects expressing how art can be made relevant to our lives today and how the Milwaukee Art Museum can be an icon for the city, inside and out. This post, part 3 of 4, showcases the work of these students in their own words.

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Behind the Scenes Education

Teens on Museums, Relevancy, and Community: Part 2

A view of the final celebration in progress. Photo by Front Room Photography

It’s my pleasure to share the work of the teen interns in this semesterrsquo;s Satellite High School Program. Fifteen students from all around Milwaukee spent a semester exploring and discussing art, touring elementary school students, going behind the scenes, speaking to staff, and learning about career skills. Then, the teens created final projects expressing how art can be made relevant to our lives today and how the Milwaukee Art Museum can be an icon for the city, inside and out. This post, part 2 of 4, showcases the work of these students in their own words.

Categories
Behind the Scenes Education

Teens on Museums, Relevancy, and Community: Part 1

The Satellite High School Program interns, Fall 2014. Photo by Front Room Photography

It’s my pleasure to share the work of the teen interns in this semester’s Satellite High School Program. Fifteen students from all around Milwaukee spent a semester exploring and discussing art, touring elementary school students, going behind the scenes, speaking to staff, and learning about career skills. Then, the teens created final projects expressing how art can be made relevant to our lives today and how the Milwaukee Art Museum can be an icon for the city, inside and out. This post, part 1 of 4, showcases the work of these students in their own words.

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Behind the Scenes Education

Reflections of an Intern: Teens at the Museum

Jonathan, Jen, and Nhyji consider a painting in Of Heaven and Earth. Photo by Chelsea Emelie Kelly
Jonathan, Jen, and Nhyji consider a painting in Of Heaven and Earth. Photo by Chelsea Emelie Kelly
I’m very grateful to have been a part of the Satellite High School Program here at the Milwaukee Art Museum as a college intern. Under the direction of Chelsea Kelly, Manager of Digital Learning, I participated in object studies, museum tours, and numerous discussions with a diverse and talented group of high school juniors and seniors from schools in the Milwaukee area. Throughout the duration of this weekly program, I’ve shared laughs, exchanged ideas, composed hip hop music, and viewed countless works of art with these capable and intelligent young artists. In the short four months since the beginning of Satellite, I’ve seen each student grow on an individual basis as an artist, each with a unique and distinct creative voice that enriches the museum community, which in turn serves as a reminder of the vital importance of programs such as these.

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Behind the Scenes Education

Reflective Evaluation: How Can Museums Change Teens—and Vice Versa? Part 3

The Satellite High School Program Teens, 2013-14. Photo by Front Room Photography

In my previous two posts in this Reflective Evaluation series, I detailed all the ways we found and evaluated data to show teen participants in the Satellite program became more reflective. So: did the interviews, exit slips, readability tests, and final projects all add up to a full image of the impact that a year’s worth of reflective practice can have on students?

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Behind the Scenes Education

Reflective Evaluation: How Can Museums Change Teens—and Vice Versa? Part 2

Liz and Justine watch the final project videos. Photo by Front Room Photography

In part two of my three posts on this year’s Satellite teen program, I’m sharing the unexpected data that helped me see the bigger picture about my students’ ability to reflect thanks to being in the program.

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Art Behind the Scenes Education

Reflective Evaluation: How Can Museums Change Teens—and Vice Versa? Part 1

Luis and Rosaly show their families the Museum. Photo by Front Room Photography

Over the past four years, I have worked with hundreds of Milwaukee-area teens who love art, and who, over their time in teen programs at the Milwaukee Art Museum, grow to love museums as well.

I have always had a sense that my students grow over their time at the Museum. This year, though, to really study that growth, we designed our longstanding Satellite High School Program as a year-long experience to explore exactly how weekly sessions at an art museum might change the thinking of our teen participants. To that end, our program outcome for students was that they would show an increased ability to reflect upon their own experiences and performance.