By Heather D’Andrea
Every day is different as a museum educator at KMAC, which always keeps my job exciting and rewarding. On any given day I could be teaching in a classroom as part of our in-depth curriculum program offered to area schools, touring students through the Museums’ exhibitions, instructing a hands-on art project in the Education Studio, facilitating a drop-in art workshop or visiting one of our artist in residence at a school. I get the opportunity to engage with people of all ages through art, which is truly awesome! I thought I would give you all a look into a typical day for me at KMAC:
Wednesday:
9:00: Arrive, get settled, check my email and run downstairs to clean up a bit from yesterday’s workshop.
9:15: Museum staff meeting!
9:50: Leave the staff meeting early; the kids will be here in 10 minutes, so I quickly get everything together that I need for my lesson.
10-11:30: Teach 4th graders from Lebanon Elementary about the art in the museum. I always try to get the kids to think critically and creatively when looking at art by prompting them with questions and tasks. I ask them to imagine themselves in the artwork and to talk about their adventures or to listen to the sound of the recorded Matthew Ronay performance and think through how that sound was made with his artwork. I also give the kids the opportunity to draw from the artwork and do a few activities. This always leads to new ideas and great interpretations.
11:30: Leave for one of my artist residencies at The Kentucky School for the Blind. (KMAC sends a professional artist to work in schools for a hands-on art project. This is truly an amazing partnership that has been going strong for years). I arrive every Wednesday and help the teaching artist, Suzy Hatcher, with the largest and youngest class at KSB, the K-3 class. Today we make pinch pot monsters. They are awesome!
1:15: Return to KMAC from KSB and help out at the front desk and shop during lunch shift. Everyone at KMAC pitches in to help out.
2:15: Head to the 3rd floor Education Studio and get prepped to facilitate an art workshop at Humana. Fund for the Arts is providing Humana employees a coffee and art making break session to thank them for their generous donations. These donations help to fund the arts in Louisville, KMAC included.
2:45-3:45: Arrive at Humana headquarters and prepare for a fun art drop-in workshop. Today we are doing a printmaking workshop where participants will make their own prints from their own custom designed stamp. So fun!
3:50-4:20: Return to the museum, unload my supplies and quickly run to check my email and make a few phone calls.
4:25-5:00: Prep for my printmaking workshop tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. with La Rue County High School and bring up some new clay for our members of ClayWorks for their next month in the studio.
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