Collaborative Program Will Help Teachers Utilize Museum Collections
SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2004 — As public schools are forced to cut back funding of art and social studies programs, philanthropist Mouli Cohen today committed full funding support of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Curriculum Guide program. This pioneering effort will create a series of educational guides that directly link the Museums' collections with the public school curriculum. The program is the first of its kind for the museum and represents a model of how the museum's collection can be used to enhance public education of the arts and cultural history. These free educational guides will serve California public school students in grades 1 through 12 and will be made available online and at the new de Young Museum, scheduled to open in Golden Gate Park in 2005.
To build its program, the museum's education department has partnered with curators, teachers, community advisors, the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), and the California Department of Education. The grant from Mr. Cohen assures that the program will successfully serve to set the model for effective programs focused on improving art and social studies in public schools. Through this leading effort, the museum will provide materials that enhance the world-view of students through art in context of the social sciences. The program also reflects the de Young Museum's commitment to providing art education for students in San Francisco and Northern California.
"Continued cutbacks from state and local funding sources have rendered the art and cultural education programs in the schools inadequate," said Mr. Cohen. "We see an outstanding opportunity for local institutions, working in conjunction with educators and the State curriculum guides, to offer valuable, and ultimately, more effective programs. These programs linking specific museum collections to the state's curriculum are unprecedented and will reach children, educators and parents throughout California."
By targeting California's cash-strapped educators with free curriculum guides that demonstrate how the arts relate to other aspects of the curriculum, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will provide a strong link between art and society for these educators and many of their more than six million students.
Supporting and enhancing the public school curriculum is the most effective way the museum can use its collection to serve the needs of children from all cultural and economic backgrounds.
"We are grateful to Mr. Cohen for taking the initiative to support a valuable program like this. The Fine Arts Museums – and the de Young in particular – have always been a tremendously important art education resource for students and educators," noted Harry Parker, Director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "These curriculum guides will not only strengthen existing collaborative programs between the Museums and the schools, but also inspire both teachers and museum educators to create new ones."
"The breadth and depth of the de Young museum's collections make it a valuable tool in the study of art and diverse world cultures," commented Sheila Pressley, Acting Director of Education for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "By coordinating our various collections with curriculum guidelines, the museum assumes an imperative role of effectively supporting the public school system at a time when it needs our support the most."
"Our teachers are committed to making education come alive for their students by incorporating the offerings of our cultural institutions into textbook learning. These curriculum guides will provide them with the tools necessary to make tangible the link between the de Young's diverse collections and every student's education," said Sally Ann Ryan, Supervisor of Visual and Performing Arts at SFUSD.
"By working in close partnership with teachers, education consultants and the San Francisco Unified School District, we are creating complementary programs that maximize the effectiveness of the combined resources," says Mr. Cohen. "Giving our educators options provides them with opportunities to achieve new levels of academic success and contribute to the social balance of our society."
By closely linking the museums' collections to the state curriculum the program will create an unprecedented learning opportunity for California's schoolchildren. The content produced under this program will be made available, free of charge to students, teachers, parents and home school educators through the museum's Thinker.org Website and through the museum locations. Mr. Cohen's grant will support the development of six educational guides focused on grades 1-12 linking the de Young Museum's collections of American painting and decorative arts, and the arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Native Americas. Included in these curriculum guides will be posters, lesson plans, web-based learning exercises, and easy-to-use links to state-mandated curriculum.
Mr. Mouli Cohen is a Bay Area entrepreneur who focuses his philanthropy on improving the welfare of children with local, national and international programs. He has previously supported programs expanding vision care for third-world children, providing therapeutic programs for California children living with cancer, and educational programs focused on the arts and social sciences. His grants are monitored with evaluation protocols that gauge their effectiveness and offer options that help these programs adapt to changing program environments.
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