Museum in the Classroom

What does entering a museum feel like? Why? What types of architectural language are used in the museum, and to what effect? How are the objects lit? Why are they displayed in a certain way? Why do we preserve objects like this? For whom? Why does one museum look very different from another?

Break the confines of the classroom: use our Museum Video section to prep your students for their museum response paper with videos that explore the spaces of New York City museums, large and small.

In spring 2011, Karen Shelby wanted to find a way to discuss the museum spaces she asked her art history survey students to go visit for their class assignments. Why not discuss said sites while standing in them? Karen’s classes were 100+ “jumbos” and it was impossible to have a considered discussion of the museum site and the museum objects together on site.

The answer? Existing videos of the museums were either too long, had too much extraneous commentary, or didn’t really focus on the architecture and interior galleries. Karen applied for a Teaching and Technology Award at Baruch College and, along with Michelle Jubin as a project consultant and film-maker Thomas Shomaker, has been capturing the interior and exterior of NYC museums.

Now, she and her students can discuss the site before they visit, and then recap and share experiences after the visit through these short films that bring the museum space into the classroom as a site ripe for critical discussion. In conjunction, innovative projects such as the Met’s recently-launched 82nd & Fifth allow students to take the museum home and continue thinking off-site.

Want to share your local museum? Send us your video and we’ll upload to the site.