Weisman Art Museum

Purpose: Supporting Lifelong Learning In 1997, the Minneapolis Public Schools approached the Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum to help support Fourth Write, a districtwide writing initiative for fourth graders. Workshop tours, planned with teachers, were led by museum volunteers. Using original artwork from the museum's collection, the students learned to respond to, analyze, and interpret works of art as they built vocabulary and composed poems and stories. In this two-year project, the museum will develop a more sequenced series of workshops for fourth through twelfth grade students. In the project, Artful Writing, the museum will partner with teachers and students to offer writing and language arts experiences with resources that integrate the study of visual art. The goals of the project are to build and strengthen visual and verbal literacy skills through the catalyst of observation, response, reasoning, and interpretation of art objects; to enhance and deepen teaching skills through the development of professional training for classroom and language arts teachers; and to create a flexible sequence of experiences, resources, and opportunities that meet the diverse needs of educators, apply to various learning levels, and encourage new participants.