Avonworth Galleries Project

Developed by: Dr. Kenneth F. Lockette
Subjects:  Art, Design
Estimated Time:  Varies (Can be done in one month or spread out throughout a semester or school year)
Grade Level: 9-12
Download the lesson plan and related materials (PDF) →

About This Lesson Plan:

The Pittsburgh Galleries Project, a project of Avonworth High School, is a program in which students design, create, curate, and manage exhibition spaces on the Avonworth High School campus. Partners across the city’s cultural map include the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, Toonseum and the Mattress Factory. These organizations serve as mentors for students throughout the school year, as they work to fully curate spaces at Avonworth that reflect the characteristics and mediums of the partnering museums.

About Avonworth School District:

The Avonworth School District, located in suburban Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has established a reputation for providing excellent educational opportunities for its students and ensuring their needs come first. Our teachers and staff are dedicated and highly skilled professionals as evidenced by our Top 15 Reasons Why We’re Proud. Parents and community members are encouraged to become involved with the district.

 Pro Tips:

This project involved partnering with local arts institutions. How might you do the same in your own community? Consider partnering with arts organizations in your own community, like a museum, gallery, or local fine arts organization. You might also consider connecting with individual artists, either from your school’s own fine arts department or from your community.

Pittsburgh Galleries Project, a project of Avonworth High School, is a program in which students design, create, curate, and manage exhibition spaces on the Avonworth High School campus. Partners across the city’s cultural map include the Pittsburgh Glass Center, Carnegie Museum of Art, Toonseum and the Mattress Factory. These organizations serve as mentors for students throughout the school year, as they work to fully curate spaces at Avonworth that reflect the characteristics and mediums of the partnering museums.

Lesson Plan:

• Museum Visit(s): Students will visit their partnering museum and tour the museum/specific exhibit and collect data on their visit (See “Exploratory Visit”).
• Design/Team Building: Using human-centered design strategies (affinity clustering, fly on the wall, etc.), students will begin to develop ideas into an initial plan for an exhibit with their partnering museum.
• Mentoring/Iteration: Working with a mentor from their partnering museum and a school sponsor, students will develop a multimedia presentation to pitch their plan.  The plan must include their vision and inspiration, a design/layout, a budget (set by school district), and a timeline for implementation. Students will go through several drafts before completing their final pitch.
• Presentation to Authentic Audience: Student teams will present their designs and implementation plans to all the museum mentors, the Avonworth central administration team, and the head of buildings and grounds, among others.  There is a written feedback form and an oral Q & A.  The teams then regroup with their mentors to discuss feedback and to begin next steps.
• Installation/Art Show Opening: All exhibits are shared at the district-wide art show.

• Open Avonworth Galleries Project Proposal Feedback Form.pdf
• Open Avonworth Pittsburgh Galleries Project Application.pdf
• Open Exploratory Visit (diagnostic).pdf
• Open Galleries Project Final Rubric.pdf
• Open NTN Collaboration Rubric.pdf

Standards, Knowledge, Skills, and Understandings

Standards

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
• Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas:
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.4: Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization, development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.5: Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.
  • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.6: Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

P21 Learning & Innovation Skills

• Creativity and Innovation Think Creatively
  • Use a wide range of idea creation techniques
    • Create new and worthwhile ideas (both incremental and radical concepts)
  • Evaluate, refine, analyze and evaluate their own ideas in order to improve and maximize creative efforts
• Work Creatively with Others
  • Develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others effectively
  • Be open and responsive to new and diverse perspectives; incorporate group input and feedback into the work
  • Demonstrate originality and inventiveness in work and understand the real world limits to adopting new ideas
  • View failure as an opportunity t learn; understand that creativity and innovation is a long-term, cyclical process of small successes and frequent mistakes
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving Reason Effectively
  • Use various types of reasoning (inductive, deductive, etc.) as appropriate to the situation
• Communication and Collaboration, Communicate Clearly
  • Articulate thoughts and ideas effectively using oral, written and nonverbal communication skills in a variety of forms and contexts
  • Listen effectively to decipher meaning, including knowledge, values, attitudes and intentions
• Collaborate with Others
  • Demonstrate ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams
  • Exercise flexibility and willingness to be helpful in making necessary compromises to accomplish a common goal
  • Assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and value the individual contributions made by each team member

Enduring Understandings (What do you expect your students to understand and what misconceptions do you need to overcome?)

• Art both shapes and reflects the culture in which it is created.
• Objects, artifacts, and artworks collected, preserved, or presented either by artists, museums, or other venues communicate meaning and a record of social, cultural, and political experiences resulting in the cultivating of appreciation and understanding (National Core Art Standards)

Essential Questions    

• How does the presenting and sharing of objects, artifacts, and artworks influence and shape ideas, beliefs, and experiences?
•  How do objects, artifacts, and artworks collected, preserved, or presented, cultivate appreciation and understanding?

Knowledge

• Students will know how an exhibit is curated
• Students will know the different jobs/occupations in a museum

Skills

• Students will be able to design and implement a museum exhibit plan
• Students will be able to create a formal presentation
• Students will be able to collaborate with a design team