For full list of programs and events, please click here

Education

Paul Klee (1879-1940) Land of Lemons, 1929 Watercolor and gouache on paper, mounted on cardboard Acquired 1938

The Education Department offers gallery tours and other programs for the general public, as well as for specific audiences, such as school children, teachers, families, and museum members. Tours are available for both the permanent collection and special exhibitions by reservation; this includes walk-in tours for individual visitors and special group tours. Programs are offered in conjunction with special exhibitions, including teacher workshops, family tours, public lectures, gallery talks, and video presentations.

Educational programs at The Phillips Collection support the museum's mission to present and interpret the permanent collection of modern art and its sources, as well as special exhibitions related to the modern tradition that underlies the collection, to diverse local, national, and international audiences. Programs are designed to provide a welcoming introduction to the general background of the museum and to enhance understanding and enjoyment of the works of art on view.

Gallery Talks

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Gallery Talks are presented by members of the museum's education, curatorial, and research staff, as well as guest lecturers. Please note: Gallery talks may require a ticket for the special exhibition for that day or a separate admission fee.

• Artful Evenings Gallery Talks
  
  
• Introduction to The Phillips Collection
  Introductory tours of the museum are offered every Saturday at 11 a.m. Unreserved; included in the price of museum admission. Parlour, Main House.
  
  
• Introduction to the Exhibition
  Introductory tours of the current exhibition are offered every Friday at 11 a.m. Unreserved; included in the price of admission.

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Family Programs

Jacob Lawrence Family Festival
June 7 –8, 2008

presented by

 

Festival and Museum Admission Free

Celebrating The Great American Epic: Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series

And featuring performances of:
	Jazz of the 1940s Shadow puppetry by DC public school students Original play based on The Migration Series, written and acted by Greenville Renaissance Scholars from Greenville, Mississippi Jazz dance by Dance Fusion Original poetry based on The Migration Series by local poets
Plus: To make a reservation, or for further information, please Family art activity StoryCorps interview sign-up
For more information: 202-387-2151 Support provide by The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Foundation, Inc. and the Harman Family Foundation

Group Visits

Guided Tours—Adult & University
Currently, The Phillips Collection offers one-hour guided tours of special exhibitions. Tours are given by museum staff that are professionally trained in the visual arts and art history. Tours are presented in the spirit of the museum's tradition described by Duncan Phillips as a "joy-giving, life-enhancing influence, assisting people to see beautifully as true artists see."

It is suggested that groups allot two hours for their visit to The Phillips Collection so that visitors may view works of art that are not included on the one-hour tour and may visit the Museum Shop.

Guided Tours—School
Please see our School Tours section.

Self-Guided Visits—Adult and University
Arrangements may also be made for groups of up to 50 to visit the museum without a guide. Because most of the galleries are small, access may be limited. Groups with more than 25 people should disperse for individual viewing.

It is suggested that groups allot two hours for their visit to The Phillips Collection so that visitors may view works of art that are not included on the one-hour tour and may visit the Museum Shop.

Scheduling a School Tour

Art of the Story • A New School Program

Jacob Lawrence, The Migration Series (1940-41) Panel no. 3 “From every southern town migrants left by the hundreds to travel north.” Casein tempera on hardboard, 12 x 18 in., The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., acquired 1942

Bring your class to our newest school program! Art of the Story is a three-part tour and workshop that focuses on Jacob Lawrence’s TheMigration Series and emphasizes curriculum connections between visual and language arts.

Explore: Surrounded by all 60 panels of The Migration Series, students discuss Lawrence’s use of color, pattern, and shape to tell the story of the Great Migration.

Connect: Reading Bryan Collier’s Uptown in a gallery of color-field paintings gives students another model for using words and images to tell a story.

Create: In the art workshop, students interpret a caption from The Migration Series through collage, making their own artistic choices to transform colored shapes into patterns, people, places, and things.

Art of the City School Tours (Grades 1–8)

Paul Klee, The Way to the Citadel, 1937, Oil and gouache on cloth mounted on cardboard. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.

The Art of the City school tour looks at modern artists’ interpretations of urban life and fosters students' appreciation of their own cities and communities. Students discuss geometry, mapping, and symbols at city-themed works such as Paul Klee’s Way to the Citadel, Honoré Daumier's The Uprising, and Adolph Gottlieb's The Seer, and consider the African-American migration from the South to Northern cities as depicted in Jacob Lawrence's Migration Series.

Curriculum connections:

Gallery activities may include:

• Writing imaginative poems and stories
• Drawing city shapes
• Creating maps

Observation and Imagination School Tours (Grades 1–8)

Elizabeth Murray (1940-2007) The Sun and the Moon , 2004–05. Gift of Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro, and Gifford and Joann Phillips, 2006 © Elizabeth Murray, courtesy PaceWildenstein, New York Photo: Juan García-Rosell IVAM, Valencia, Spain

The Observation and Imagination school tour explores the artist’s process. Students learn how artists observe the world and the way imagination transforms their observationsinto works of art. Exposure to a variety of artists inspires students with confidence in their own ability to understand and interpret the world around them

This tour includes stops at Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series, Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party, and Elizabeth Murray’s The Sun and The Moon.

Curriculum connections:

Visual arts—genre, color, mood, perspective

Gallery activities may include:

• Poetry and letter-writing
• Drawing and creating a narrative series
• Flash-card and "I-spy" game in galleries
  

High School Tours

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High School teachers may request guided tours that focus on topics relevant to their classroom objectives.

The Young Artists Exhibition Program

The Young Artists Exhibition Program displays children’s art resulting from the museum’s educational initiatives. Through this program, The Phillips Collection strives to publicly recognize and celebrate the achievements of students, teachers, and parents who understand the importance of studying and making art.

In the tradition of Duncan Phillips, these student exhibitions encourage the interaction between the museum and young artists in the community, fostering creativity, self-expression, and empowerment.

Museum–School Collaboration
These student exhibitions are the result of a rich collaboration between schools and the museum, including professional development for teachers, in-classroom workshops, and free museum field trips. Additionally, the program strives to reinforce The Phillips Collection as an advocate for visual arts education by encouraging “best practice” teachers—from English as a second language to art—to integrate art with other areas of the curriculum. This successful integration is explored though the student works on display.

Community Celebration
For each exhibition, a Community Celebration enables young artists and their families, friends, and teachers to view their artwork and take part in a range of participatory activities from performances to student-led gallery talks. These openings have made The Phillips Collection more accessible to families who otherwise might not visit the museum due to economic or geographic constraints or unfamiliarity with the museum’s art.

The Art of Healing
A Young Artist Exhibition in partnership with the National Children’s Medical Center
Thirty artworks created by patients at the National Children’s Medical Center are on display at The Phillips Collection. Inspired by artwork from the museum, these young artists participated in a pilot partnership program between the Phillips and Children’s Hospital. Through the Children’s National Medical Center/The Phillips Collection collaborative, children explore and interpret fine art as they come to terms with their own healing process. The program offers patients the opportunity to relate directly to the life of the artist in addition to connecting with the artwork itself on an emotional level.

The Art of Healing Exhibition was featured on WTTG Fox 5 News on December 8, 2007. Please follow this link to watch the segment:

WTTG Fox 5

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Exhibition Schedule

Inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series

Part of the Phillips Mentor Teacher Program
Exhibition: January 23–March 4, 2007
Community Celebration:
Sunday, February 11, 2007

Oyster Bilingual Elementary School,
District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS)
Classroom to Museum
Student Artwork
DVD clip of Imani Gonzalez (jazz vocalist)

Shepherd Elementary School, DCPS
Classroom to Museum
Student Artwork

Inspired by Paul Klee
Part of the Phillips Mentor Teacher Program
Exhibition: April 3–May 27, 2007
Community Celebration: Saturday, April 28, 2007

Center for Early Education, Los Angeles, CA
City Collegiate Public Charter School, Washington, DC
Stafford Elementary School, Stafford County Public Schools, Virginia
Classroom to Museum
Student Artwork

Art Links to Literacy
Museum-School Partnership with DCPS and DC non-profit Turning the Page
Exhibition: June 7–June 31, 2007
Community Celebration: TBA

Aiton Elementary	King Elementary	M. C. Terrell Elementary
Garfield Elementary	Kenilworth Elementary	River Terrace Elementary
Gibbs Elementary

 

2005-06 Exhibitions

Inspired by the special exhibition Modigliani: Beyond the Myth:

The Lowell School, Washington, DC
Classroom to Museum
Student Artwork

Woodrow Wilson High School, Washington, DC
Classroom to Museum
Student artwork

Inspired by Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party:

Bryant Adult Alternative High School, Alexandria, VA
Classroom to Museum
Student Artwork

Horace Mann Elementary School, Washington, DC
Classroom to Museum
Student Artwork

National Cathedral School, Washington, DC
Classroom to Museum
Student Artwork

Audience and Outcomes

• Three-four exhibitions per year
• Represent approximately 10 schools locally and nationally
• Feature works of art by more than 500 students
• Reaches more than 800 students, teachers, school administrators, and parents annually

Contact
For more information about the Young Artists Exhibition Program, please contact The Phillips Collection at 202-387-2151, ext. 215 or swright@phillipscollection.org.

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Teacher Programs

Mentor Teacher Program

Deepening the museum's commitment to teacher and schools, The Phillips Collection Mentor Teacher Program is the museum's "best practices" teacher program. The museum's Education staff works with Mentor Teachers to learn their methods for interpreting the museum's artwork. The Phillips showcases the resulting student projects and teacher accomplishments, ranging from artwork to essays in the museum's Education e-Newsletter, website, the museum's new Young Artists Exhibition program, and in forthcoming teacher resources. Mentor Teachers also receive a stipend.

For more information, please contact Paul Ruther, Manager of Teacher Programs, at (202) 387-2151 x214 or pruther@phillipscollection.org.

2005–06 Mentor Teacher Profiles

To learn more about how these “best practices” teachers created and implemented their lesson plans and view their students’ artwork and projects, go to Young Artists Exhibition Program.

Inspired by the special exhibition Modigliani: Beyond the Myth:
Barbara Mandel, The Lowell School, Washington, DC
Carol Huberman, Woodrow Wilson High School, Washington, DC

Inspired by Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party:
Rachel Albert and Missy Haney, Bryant Adult Alternative High School, Alexandria, VA
Paige Byrne, Horace Mann Elementary School, Washington, DC
Sandy Leibowitz, National Cathedral School, Washington, DC

2006–07 Mentor Teacher Profiles

Inspired by Jacob Lawrence’s The Migration Series:
Joele Michaud, Shepherd Elementary School, Washington, DC
Carole Whelan, Oyster Bilingual Elementary School, Washington, DC

Inspired by the art of Paul Klee through the National Paul Klee
Summer Teacher Institute:
Keven Barett, Gayle Gerber, Penny Landreth, and Judy Weiskopf, Center for Early Education, Los Angeles, CA
Alison Squire and Georgia Stockdale, City Collegiate Public Charter School, Washington, DC
Mary Ellen McCabe, Kevin McCloskey, Marcie Miller, and Jacke Mumpower, Stafford Elementary School, Stafford, VA

Teaching Kits and Professional Development

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Now available the new Impressionists by the Sea Teaching Kit

The brand new Impressionists by the Sea Teaching Kit accompanies the special exhibition that features artists such as Cassatt, Courbet, Manet, Monet, and Renoir and includes over 60 seascapes from the coasts of Normandy and Brittany. These impressionistic views of modern life capture the region’s transformation from rural isolation to a late 19th-century seaside resorts.

The Teaching Kit includes an array of excellent resources:

• Artist biographies and detailed information about artworks in the exhibition
• Step-by-step descriptions of teacher-designed lesson plans, classroom activities and worksheets
• Color reproductions and a CD-ROM, with digital images of fifteen of the exhibitions’ artworks and four images of primary sources from the impressionists’ era
• Three posters, including one poster that features a nineteen-century map of France, where locations are identified by impressionist paintings and postcards of the era
• Teaching Tips for ideas on how to incorporate one of these nineteenth-century postcards into your curriculum!
• Three teaching transparencies
  
  

  Cost:	$30 (includes shipping)
  Order:	Download order form
  Contact:	For more info, or to be added to our teacher mailing list, call (202) 387-2151 x247 or e-mail groups@phillipscollection.org

Jacob Lawrence and The Migration SeriesTeaching Kit
Explore Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series in a new full-color teaching kit produced by The Phillips Collection. The kit is packed with dynamic multi-media educational resources, which reach across the curriculum to meet National Standards of Learning, including:

• Three posters
• Color reproductions of 30 panels of The Migration Series
• CD-ROM with JPEGs of all works of art, primary sources, and a PDF of the kit
• DVD with two videos about Lawrence's life and work
• Music selections from Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, and Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter
• Classroom-ready PowerPoint presentation including The Migrations Series panels, primary sources, and music

Download excerpts from the Jacob Lawrence and The Migration Series Teaching Kit:

• Introduction and Table of Contents
• About The Migration Series
• Exploring Lawrence’s World
  The South
  Migration
  The North
  Rock Island Line (music selection)
  
• Teaching Tips and Tools
  From the Library to the Easel
  Taking the Train-Travel Math
  Talk It Up! Doing a Community Interview
• Visual Resources sample
  The Great Migration poster

  Cost:	$40 (includes shipping)
  Order:	Download order form
  Contact:	For more info, or to be added to our teacher mailing list, call (202) 387-2151 x247 or e-mail groups@phillipscollection.org

Luncheon of the Boating Party Teaching Kit
Renoir's masterpiece Luncheon of the Boating Party comes to life in a new full-color teaching kit from The Phillips Collection. The kit is packed with great educational resources that meet National Standards of Learning, including:

• Renoir's biography
• "Renoir's World"—primary sources for teaching impressionism from postcards to Renoir's paintbox
• Examples of student art, classroom handouts, and worksheets
• Three posters
• Two overhead teaching transparencies
• Color reproductions of related paintings
• CD-ROM with JPEGs of all works of art, primary sources, and a PDF of the kit

Explore these excerpts from the Luncheon of the Boating Party Teaching Kit:

• Introduction and Table of Contents
• Tab 2 "About the Painting"
• Tab 3 "Who's in the Painting"
• Tab 4 Exploring Renoir's World, primary sources
  Renoir and the Impressionist Process
  Impressionist Innovation and Renoir's Paintbox
• A Day in the Country
• Tab 5 Teaching Tips and Tools
  Sample Teaching Unit—French Lessons Based on Renoir's Le Déjeuner des Canotiers (Luncheon of the Boating Party)
• Sample Worksheets and Handouts
• Tab 6 Visual Resources sample
  Renoir and the Impressionist Process poster

Examples of student art inspired by Pierre-Auguste Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party:

• Bryant Adult Alternative High School, Alexandria, VA
• Horace Mann Elementary School, Washington, DC
• National Cathedral School, Washington, DC

According to the Arts and Activities media review, " One would be hard-pressed to find a
resource that provided a more in-depth means to explore and understand a
famous work of art..." more (© Arts & Activities. Reprinted with permission from the September 2007 issue, www.artsandactivities.com)

Art of the City Teaching Kit and Professional Development
Art of the City, an award-winning teaching kit for educators (K–12), presents innovative educational approaches to urban works of art from The Phillips Collection including Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, and Paul Klee. From train stations to sports stadiums, these images have been selected for their accessibility to children. By addressing themes such as transportation and community, the Art of the City Teaching Kit and teacher programs connect art to social studies, language arts, math, French studies, and ESL. To meet specific National Standards of Learning, this kit was developed with teachers across the curriculum.

The following excerpts from the Art of the City Teaching Kit may be downloaded.

Introduction and Table of Contents - 89 KB

Sample Works of Art:

• Honoré Daumier - 300 KB
• Jacob Lawrence - 440 KB
• John Sloan - 483 KB

Sample Themes:

• Transportation - 234 KB
• Neighborhood and Community - 419 KB
• Pattern - 196 KB

Sample Poster:

• Timeline Poster - 2.1 MB
  
  

Art of the City professional development training can be scheduled for your school, district, or professional association.

Art at Home Teaching Kit
For educators (grades K-12), Art at Home—Scenes of Friends and Family from Milton Avery to Horace Pippin studies artists' images of home life and portraits of friends and family. This teaching kit highlights Milton Avery's interiors and portraits in the context of other masterpieces from The Phillips Collection including Horace Pippin's Domino Players, Edouard Vuillard's Woman Sweeping, and William Merritt Chase's Hide and Seek. The Teaching Kit includes slides, color prints, teaching transparencies, and an Educator's Guide with extensive background information, primary sources (artists' quotes, historical photographs, literature selections), and classroom applications for curriculum connections-that meet national standards of learning-to language arts, social studies, English as a second language, and the visual arts.

Art at Home professional development training can be scheduled for your school, district, or professional association.

Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris, 1870–1910 Teaching Kit
In conjunction with the Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris, 1870–1910 exhibition, this teaching kit will explore connections between French and British artists in the late nineteenth century while presenting interdisciplinary links to social studies, language arts, English as a second language, and foreign language studies.

The teaching kit includes:

• 4 posters
• 4 teaching transparencies
• CD-ROM with 30 JPEGs of all works of art
  
  

Educator's Guide includes:

• Detailed information on each artist and work of art
• Thematic groupings
• Teaching suggestions
• Worksheets
• Four Lesson Plans written by teachers for elementary, middle and high school level classes
  

The Phillips Collection Presents at 2005 AAM Conference

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Uncommon Bonds: How Innovative Cross-Disciplinary Museum Collaborations Strengthen Teacher Programs
On Wednesday, May 4, 2005, at the annual American Association of Museums conference, The Phillips Collection chaired a session on innovative museum partnerships. Representatives from Turning the Page, the Missouri History Museum, and the DC Public Schools joined staff from The Phillips Collection Education Office to discuss interdisciplinary museum education partnerships including collaborations between schools, art museums, historical societies, science institutions, and literacy organizations. Session participants learned some of the compelling and surprising ways diversity can enhance understanding of a subject, and how museums and other institutions can work together to support and strengthen programs for teachers.

PowerPoint presentation
Part 1: Introduction, Art Links to Literacy, Turning the Page
Part 2: Missouri History Museum
Part 3: Calder Miró Teacher Program

Outreach

Art Links to Literacy

Art Links to Literacy is a new education outreach initiative from The Phillips Collection that combines programs for elementary school students and their parents/caregivers with professional development for their teachers in underserved District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), particularly in Wards 7 and 8.

The program emphasizes the ways in which art instills a life-long love of learning and promotes literacy, demonstrating its educational value. Art Links to Literacy, developed in partnership with the non-profit community resource organization Turning the Page, includes teacher training and family nights at DCPS schools and The Phillips Collection. Family nights incorporate workshops for parents and projects for children at the schools with activities at the museum where families discover works of art together on specially designed tours.

Launched in 2002 with a National Leadership Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the program was designed as a national model demonstrating how community organizations, museums, teachers, and families can collaborate to help children meet high academic standards, create stronger schools, and strengthen ties between museums and their community.

The Phillips Collection recently concluded the first year of programs in eight DC public schools including: Benning Elementary School, Garfield Elementary School, Kenilworth Elementary School, and Merritt Educational Center. During 2004-05, the museum and Turning the Page will work with eight underserved DCPS elementary schools, serving a total of 1,000 students.

For more information, contact the Education Office at (202) 387-2151 x216.