DOTHAN, Alabama- Sept 6, 2024-The Wiregrass Museum of Art (WMA) will expand its beloved Bus on Us program to include Henry County Schools for the 2024-2025 school year. WMA launched Bus on Us in 2017 to remove barriers to access for students and educators interested in art education and arts integration. WMA will continue its partnership with Dothan City Schools (DCS) and Houston County Schools by providing reimbursement for bus transportation to the museum for school tours and hands-on activities for all schools across the three school districts. 

Tours at WMA are composed of both gallery and studio time and are geared towards K-6 grades, with flexibility built in for middle and high school students as well. WMA welcomes groups of public, private, and home school students throughout the year to learn from exhibitions, with the guidance of Art Educators and fun, volunteer tour guides. In addition to WMA’s Bus on Us program, museum staff will work closely with staff at DCS to align arts learning resources to address identified learning needs for crucial educational benchmarks at the 1st, 4th, and 6th grade levels.

Specifically, WMA is helping to address key areas of learning at these grade levels through its in-gallery tours and hands-on learning in the studio. On the tour of WMA’s galleries, students will be led by museum educators and trained tour guides as they learn about select pieces on display, are encouraged to ask questions, and share their thoughts in a fun small group setting. This method of content framing questioning boosts literacy, comprehension, and observational skills, which amplify students’ academic understanding and interpersonal abilities.

First graders will visit WMA for literacy focused tours, which place special emphasis on language arts and literacy in response to the Alabama Literacy Act. Students will create a work of art inspired by work on display and engage in a literacy activity, such as crafting an artist statement about their work, completing a sequencing worksheet, or writing a short story about the piece they created. WMA will also incorporate other strategies during the lesson, like word bubbles, retelling directions, and emphasizing good conversational skills, which are also aligned with the Alabama State Standards for Art and Language Arts. 

Tours for 4th graders will elevate STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) learning strategies, where art and science collide for an arts integration tour. After students tour the galleries, they will create a STEAM based art project, like DIY kaleidoscopes or line plot cityscapes. Sixth grade students will take tours all about visual art, to encourage their inner creativity and build on their visual arts lexicon and historical understanding. Students will tour the galleries and then create a work of art inspired by an artist or specific work they encountered on tour. Previous projects include monoprint landscapes and origami/watercolor mixed media pieces. Easy, yet engaging projects have been designed to instill confidence in artistic skills and inspire students to enroll in the advanced art classes at Dothan Preparatory Academy.

“We believe that art has the power to inspire, educate, and transform young minds. WMA continues to provide students with access to unique art experiences and through our partnership with DCS we can strategically address milestone years for learning in our students. Through this partnership we are committed to fostering creativity and enriching the lives of the next generation.” said Dana-Marie Lemmer, WMA’s executive director.

Participation in these tours also benefits classroom educators during their time in WMA’s galleries and studio, too. Teachers observe WMA art educators leading an art lesson with their students, learning each activity’s challenges for the classroom and time management, in order to model the activity for their students back in the classroom. DCS teachers also receive lesson plans with relevant Alabama State Standards, to reiterate and expand on ideas learned at the museum.

Tours with DCS are funded by Dothan City Schools and Bus on Us is generously supported by the Windgate Foundation, Gosselin Architecture, MidSouth Bank, and SmartBank.

Field trips and tours at WMA are available for public, private, and homeschool groups throughout the year, and museum staff, tour guides, and volunteers welcome students of all learning levels and abilities. To schedule a tour, and for more details, visit WMA’s website at https://www.wiregrassmuseum.org/schools/

WMA also provides free, Alabama State Standards-aligned lesson plans on its website at https://www.wiregrassmuseum.org/lesson-plans/. For more information about WMA’s annual arts programming and education initiatives, call 334-794-3871 or visit wiregrassmuseum.org.