Horizons at the University of Mississippi
In addition to the Museum’s morning summer campers and Passport to Art day care participants, the Museum hosted 45 Horizons students in grades K-2 each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon this summer. For six weeks, participants traveled back in time and explored new cultures and art as they connected with exhibits and stories and created their own art projects. Horizons is a full-day summer learning program that combines academics including reading, literacy, and STEM activities, with enrichment and recreational activities. This unique program will add a new grade level each year until students in grades K-8 are reached to help eliminate summer learning loss for underserved students. The Museum’s educational team looks forward to continuing to grow this partnership each year as students return and experience new exhibits and activities.
Horizons Director Emma Tkachuck says, “The UM Museum has been one of Horizons’ key partners from the beginning, and we are incredibly grateful for all of the support. The Museum provides valuable experiences for our students, working with a variety of mediums and connecting the activities to the exhibits. Reading and literacy are main components of the Horizons program and the UM Museum does an excellent job of incorporating literacy concepts into the lessons and provides tools for our teachers to use to build important connections. Our Horizons students absolutely love the variety of activities and have brought some very special artwork home to their families! We could not provide our students with such a quality of art programming without the incredible UM Museum staff.”
On October 11, 2014, we had a unique opportunity to reconnect with our summer Horizons participants as the program organized a school-year reunion that featured a Theora Hamblett inspired printmaking activity at the Museum.
If you are interested in learning more or supporting Horizons, you can contact Emma Tkachuck at etkachuc@olemiss.edu or 662-915-2713, or visit the Horizons website. You can also like Horizons at UM on Facebook!
MIDDLE SCHOOL AND TEEN
Milkshake Mash-Up
The Museum launched a new program this fall aimed at reaching students in grades 6-12 with a fun-filled monthly workshop that mashes up two different artists or themes into one fun art project. While they are mixing art themes, participants also get the opportunity to make their own milkshakes with delicious mix-ins. This has quickly become a popular program, and it has been wonderful to see the art room packed with teens listening to music, sipping on milkshakes, and engaging with the Museum. Click here for Spring 2014 Milkshake Mash-up dates!