Inspired Teaching Demonstration School 2017-2018 School Year
Community Exhibition
Founded in 2011, the Inspired Teaching Demonstration Public Charter School (ITDS) currently serves approximately 440 students from preschool through 8th grade. Now in its seventh year of partnership with the Inspired Teaching Demonstration Public Charter School, the Art Links: Museum-in-Residence program includes pre- and post-museum visits, in-classroom workshops led by Phillips Educators, and ongoing arts-integration coaching for teachers.
Throughout the 2017–2018 school year, preschool, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, first, second, third, fourth, seventh, and eighth grade students participated in the Art Links: Museum-in-Residence program, connecting works of art in the museum’s collection to classroom learning. This year, ITDS teachers chose the theme of the program for their own classrooms and drove their own timeline of events. Collaborating with a Phillips educator, teachers developed arts-integrated lessons that connected to themes such as “home,” “community,” “biomimicry,” and “identity and heritage.”
Art Links to Learning is The Phillips Collection’s portfolio of educational programs for District of Columbia Public and Public Charter Schools (DCPS and DCPCS). To meet our community’s need for more productive teaching and learning, the Phillips has developed innovative methods that have been shown to enhance teaching and to increase student engagement and understanding. Art Links programs weave visual arts education with other core subject areas such as English/language arts, social studies, and science, while helping students develop 21st-century skills, including critical thinking and problem solving.
The creative, hands-on Art Links approach reflects the spirit of inquiry, experimentation, and intimacy advocated by museum founder Duncan Phillips. The program has been recognized for its success by local and national organizations, including the National Art Education Association and the American Alliance of Museums. Art Links takes a whole school approach and is designed to adapt to the needs of individual schools, educators, and learners.