You may have heard of Art-to-GO, the OJAC’s K-10 Campus Outreach Program that provides monthly arts and culture enrichment to students across our region of West Texas.
But did you know that this program has a counterpart that serves Spanish Language classrooms specifically?
Art-To-GO Español is a sister-program to the original, sharing the same mission and structure:
OJAC Educators make monthly visits to participating campuses within an hour radius of the museum. There, our instructors provide a multi-media presentation including the observation and discussion an artwork or artifact, followed by a studio activity inspired by that object or theme.
Each 45 session engages student visual thinking skills, provides layers of interdisciplinary context, and an opportunity for ‘meaning by making.’
After 8 monthly visits to these campuses, the museum provides full travel subsidy for these students to visit the museum for their ninth and final program, exploring and creating in museum galleries.
At the completion of the school year, participating classroom teachers are invited to attend an In-Service where they are introduced to proposed lessons/ themes of the coming year. At these workshops, these teachers provide valuable insight to the needs and interests of their students that help shape the final plan for the coming school year.
Though this program follows the same format as the original, it is completely unique in terms of inspiration and curriculum!
Instead of visual culture through a fully global lens, each monthly session connects to works and traditions of Latin and Hispanic origin.
Both ancient artifacts and contemporary artworks are utilized to introduce themes of social and cultural awareness. And as an added benefit, programs are conducted partially in Spanish, with elements of vocabulary review and writing.
2024 marks the tenth year of this focused outreach initiative, with over ten thousand rural students served (completely free of cost to their school campus.) We are excited for the themes of the coming year, which will include an exploration of:
murals as ahistorical tool of social protest
modern icon/emoji communication vs. ancient hieroglyphs
mysterious landscape and landmark art
preColumbian origins of modern body art/modification
Students will also enjoy STEM challenges inspired by the Flying Volodores of the Totonac, the royal litters of the Nayarit, and the floating Chinampas of the Aztecs!