In the 2022–23 school year, KAM educators deepened their landmark school partnerships through a year-long collaboration with Booker T. Washington STEM Academy (BTW), an elementary school in Champaign. The project began in spring 2022 when we were invited to participate in BTW’s Fabulous Fridays, a program in which local organizations and community groups visit the school on Fridays to engage students in different activities. In partnership with BTW fourth grade teachers and STEM coordinator Jennifer Jamison, we dreamed up a long-term, two-way partnership centered on enriching art experiences and relationship building. The typical museum education experience often takes on the form of an hour-long field trip, so the opportunity to learn and grow with the same students over an entire year was novel and exciting.
KAM’s education coordinator, Kamila Glowacki, and graduate assistant Tim Abel designed and co-led each program with attention to the emerging needs and interests of the three classrooms of fourth grade students. Over time, we built trust as students learned to rely on our presence and felt safe to ask for things like more work time on projects, specific art materials, and other elements that the nature of our long-term partnership allowed for. We were no longer limited to the museum space or short time frames, allowing relationships with art and each other to deepen and grow. The foundation was built by first meeting students where they were at, in the safety and familiarity of their school.
Gradually, our two-way partnership also brought students to KAM. Over fall 2022, students visited the museum twice to focus on Black on Black on Black on Black, a multidimensional exhibition exploring Black identity, collectivity, positionality, healing, innovation, and education. This exhibition featured Black faculty in the School of Art & Design at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, who also enthusiastically engaged with BTW students: Stacey Robinson introduced and demonstrated his graphic design work exploring Afrofuturism, and Nekita Thomas led a project to design a different kind of school uniform that showcases a positive role students play in their classroom community.
The work created by students over the fall was showcased at KAM in the exhibition In the Making. In the spring, the culmination of this work came together in Art on Parade, a showcase for families and fellow students at Douglass Community Center. At the event, students paraded wearable sculptures that they had sketched, sculpted, and covered with papier-mâché, spray painted, and embellished over several weeks.
We are thrilled to continue this collaboration as we follow the same cohort of students into fifth grade. Through dynamic museum engagement and classroom teaching, Krannert Art Museum will invite students to continue to experiment, express, and grow as they build relationships through art. We look forward to continuing to explore how this work expands our understanding of what museum education can be.
Authors: Sylvia Yang, Graduate Assistant, and Kamila Glowacki, Education Coordinator
