ABSTRACT
The first part of this chapter maps museum education programs that highlight interactivity and practices to empower museum audiences from diverse communities and disciplines. Using digital models to shift roles of interpretation to families, scaffolding teen programs so that teens transition to college and creating the first ever graduate degree between The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) and the School (SAIC), a museum and school collaboration, the paper outlines the potential to educate a new generation of learners and leaders founded on Jane Addams principles of cultural communities. The second part of this chapter examines how the proximity of SAIC to the galleries of the museum allows for inspired curricular initiatives. How can schools continue to use the museum as a study collection (as does SAIC as one of the last remaining museum-schools), while updating the pedagogical possibilities through expanded investigations of theory and practice? What can the study of objects bring to experiential learning in relation to the broader humanities? How does unpacking the display strategies of the museum raise important questions about identity and nationhood, cultural influence, the canons of art history, and globalism? Examples from unique courses taught in the galleries, joint programming of SAIC/AIC social spaces, and the School’s first massive open on-line course using the museum collection are a few projects discussed.
