The Benefits of Intergenerational Programming (They're Not Just for Seniors!)

According to Erik Erikson, the primary developmental/psychological event for adults in their senior years is a reflection upon their lives and the imprint that their life has made upon the world. If they look back upon their life and accomplishments as feel a sense of productivity and fulfillment, they will achieve “ego integrity” and attain a sense of wisdom. If they look back upon their life and do not find that sense of fulfillment or purpose, they may fall into despair and be plagued by feelings of regret, sadness, or fear of death.[1]

Intergenerational programs that encourage an interaction between senior adults and schoolchildren can help to foster an increased sense of ego integrity for the senior participants, as sharing their experiences and abilities with the younger generation can reinforce their feelings of accomplishment in their lives. Having these conversations and building these relationships can increase the seniors’ perception of self-worth and can provide a constructive, novel outlet for them.  It can help them challenge and redefine their pre-conceptions about the younger generation and their relationship to them. But perhaps most interesting, it can help them create new relationships that provide a real sense of value and purpose in their later years.[2]

An older woman participating in New York’s Community Agency for Senior Citizens (CASC) Senior Pen Pal program received a letter from a little girl who expressed sadness about her recently separated parents and having to alternate between them each weekend. The woman felt a special connection to this girl and felt that she could be a unique support to her, as her own granddaughter did not have a relationship with her father after her parents’ divorce. The woman used her letters to the little girl to build up the girl’s feelings of self-worth by writing “you are very lucky that your father and mother both want to be with you.”[3] Programs such as this one that encourage intergenerational conversations and relationships offer strong outlets for ego integrity development, as the seniors are creating new relationships that have impacts on both themselves and their partners. The CASC Senior Pen Pal program is now operated by the New York Department for the Aging as Platinum Pen Pals, a partnership between high school students and seniors.

What might not be as immediately apparent is that the benefits for the younger participants are just as far-reaching as those for the elder participants. As modern lifestyles and families change, family members are more likely to live at long distances from each other and children are less likely to be regularly exposed to the older generations of their families or other seniors. When children participate in intergenerational programming that encourages conversations and partnerships with senior citizens, the children create relationships that, at minimum, help them break down stereotypes they may have about elderly people, and at best, provide them with unique, role models that have rich life experience different from their own.[4]

Since 1997, the NewCourtland Elder Services network in Philadelphia has been taking intergenerational programming a step further with “Comfort and Joy: Celebrating Intergenerational Artistic Achievement.” This multi-generational program pairs senior citizens from six area nursing homes, school children, and professional artists to explore and create a variety of different art forms. In 2004, the products of this program, which included handmade dolls, mosaic murals, quilts, documentary films, and even a small scale village that captured the seniors memories of the past.[5] 

To facilitate a positive experience and enhance the opportunities for relationship building, all participants (Seniors, children, and artists alike) attend sensitivity training before beginning the program. These training sessions are designed to help the participants learn positive ways to engage with others and learn from their perspectives and experiences. And indeed, the relationships that result have been strong and have provided great benefit to all participants. According to Pam Mammarella, creator of the Comfort and Joy program at New Courtland, “[b]lending elders with students gives both groups unprecedented opportunities to learn, teach, interact, and react not only to each other, but also with the professionals guiding the various projects.”[6]

The various projects are designed to promote this cross-generational learning, but using students as interviewers who tap into the seniors’ memories and experiences, which are then used to develop the art. In this sense, the students gain unique insight into not only the histories of the seniors, but their personal perspectives as productive, insightful individuals. At the same time, the seniors are learning new artistic and narrative talents through the program. “For many, their lives are now richer and more diverse,” says Mammarella.[7]

Locally, the Kreeger Museum hosts a monthly intergenerational version of its Conversations program for seniors with dementia and their caretakers.   Modeled on the successful “Meet Me at the MoMA” program, Conversations pairs observation and discussion of the museums’ art with poetry and music. The Kreeger hosts four Conversations sessions per month, one of which is an intergenerational collaboration with Sweet Readers, a New York based non-profit that pairs middle school student readers with seniors with dementia. Sweet Readers provides the training for the student facilitators in how to speak about the pieces and relate to the senior audience.[8]

During the 90-minute program itself, each student is paired with a senior couple and the students take an active role in engaging their partners in the discussion. During the session I attended, the senior participants were split into three different rooms, according to their artist preference (Monet, Pissaro, Sisley). Each room was assigned a pair of students. During the program, I observed one pair of students actually leading their groups’ observation and discussion of the paintings, and two other pairs facilitating the seniors’ participation by asking leading questions and providing their own answers to help spark connections for the seniors. 

Derya Samadi, the director of Conversations, encourages the students to take an active role, for example, asking the intergenerational groups to compose a poem collaboratively. During the session I observed, one group composed a haiku in response to depictions of trees in their painting. The students then read the haiku to the full group when they all gathered back together at the end of the program to discuss their observations. Samadi suggests that the Sweet Readers’ 6^th-8^th grade age bracket makes them particularly effective facilitators for the seniors, as they have an appropriate level of maturity and empathy, but are not yet distracted by the concerns that come with high school.[9]

Currently, the intergenerational component of the Conversations program is limited to seniors with early stage dementia, though Samadi notes that she is eager to extend the intergenerational participation to the versions of the program for seniors with late stage dementia as well. The intergenerational version of Conversations has been extremely successful thus far, as can be seen by the high proportion of senior “regulars,” and the low proportion of student regulars. The program is such a popular volunteer option at local schools Holton Arms and Langdon that there is a line to participate all year long.[10]

The Conversations program is held at the Kreeger Museum on the 2^nd and 3^rd Mondays of each month (except for August) at 10:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.  The program is free, but reservations are required. Call 202-337-3050, ext. 10. For more information on the Conversations program, click here.

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[1] Erikson, Erik. (1963). Childhood and Society, 2^nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. 247-274.

[2] Hopkins, George. “How Important are Intergenerational Programs in Today’s Schools?” Phi Delta Kappan 82. 4 (Dec. 2000): 317-319.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Hoban, Sandra. “An Intergenerational Debut at the Art Gallery.” Nursing Homes. 53, 12. (Dec 2004): 34-36.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Samadi, D. (Nov. 5 2012). Personal interview.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Ibid.

What is Community Engagement and Why is it Important?

A Google search on “community engagement” yields many, many different results.  Principles of community engagement, strategies for increasing community engagement, organizations that focus on leadership and community engagement -- the list goes on and on. But what is community engagement, really? Though specific definitions vary, community engagement is typically described as the process of forming a mutually beneficial, ongoing partnership or relationship between an institution and its surrounding communities.

So what role does community engagement play in museums? The Colchester + Ipswich Museums in Ipswich, UK consider community outreach and community engagement an important part of their core vision and values. On their website, they do an excellent job of explaining why community engagement is essential in museums:

“As part of the process of attracting new audiences it is necessary to have more inclusive and accessible services, and ones that reflect the diverse histories and stories of the whole community.  A way to produce more inclusive services is to directly involve the community in helping to develop and deliver a particular project or service, display or exhibition.  This helps bring about a feeling of ownership, break down initial perceptual barriers as well as creating a better end result.  Empowering the community to play a part, to continue to be involved and to have an influence on service development can only be of benefit to a publicly funded organisation.”

Our group's blog posts will focus on the many ways in which museums are involving different communities through their programs, exhibitions, and events. We will present case studies, look at how museums are engaging specific audiences and communities, and discuss some of our own personal experiences as students in the Museum Education Program. To kick off our blog about community engagement in museums, we thought that we could each share what community engagement means to us:

Joo Lee: Actively engaging the community has become very important as museums have evolved. Its survival and growth had been previously depended on the elite and had been closed off to the public. Now the museum relies on the support of its community for its survival and has taken on a different role. By focusing on the importance and the benefits to its community, it better advocates for our museums.  This blog will focus on successful case studies analysis of why they worked and what the  museums are doing now to reach out to specific audiences. building a strong relationship with the community strengthens trust and provide a sense of  ownership of the museum in which museums rely.

Julie: To me, community engagement is all about building relationships -- with individuals, with other institutions or organizations, and with the community as a whole. I believe that education and open, honest dialogue each play a major role in achieving these kinds of sustained relationships.

Kaitlyn: Like Julie, I believe community engagement is about building relationships. Museums must take a special effort to nurture the connection between groups that visit the site often, in addition to those that visit less frequently. Hopefully, by making a conscious effort to support all members of the community, they will encourage diverse audiences to participate in programs, events, etc. This participation between and among groups is an important component of community engagement.

Shadayna: I  agree with  the statements already written by my fellow colleagues. I believe the two most important factors of  community engagement within the museum setting  is establishing trust  with communities and providing an open environment for diverse visitors and discussions. Once a museum achieves these two factors they will  continuously have new and loyal visitors for the museums duration.

Yi-An: Like those had been said by our group members, community engagement is every effort made consciously by the museums, to get the communities museums might be involved with most comfortably engaged. Both providing a welcoming environment and atmosphere for a diversity of visitors, and have diverse members from the communities join the design and display of the exhibitions and programs are very important. To me, I honor the idea of having community representatives engaged from the early stage of program, exhibition and education development. The input of community members can no doubt lead to a more successful community engagement. The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Multicultural Audience Development Initiative is an example of increasing community’s awareness of the museum’s programs and collections.

As we close this post, we invite you to consider your own definition of community engagement. Feel free to comment and share your thoughts!

Museum-School Partnerships

Museums are natural partners with schools; they provide opportunities that deepen formal curriculum, often in a more interactive, hands-on environment. These partnerships exist in a variety of ways - some work with only certain schools, others are more informal and open to student applicants from the area. We as museum educators need to continually advocate for this special relationship between museums of all genres and students. Our group has compiled a list of several interesting and effective partnerships between schools and museums to illustrate their benefit to students.

1. Oakland Museum of California and Korematsu Discovery Academy and La Escuelita (Oakland, California)

http://museumca.org/museum-school-partnerships

The science education department of the Oakland Museum of California partners with three fifth grade classes from Korematsu Discovery Academy and La Escuelita throughout a school year. The program, Water Striders Junior Guides: From Creeks to Coastline, helps students better understand the ecology of local watersheds and the affect their own actions can have on the surrounding habitats. Over the course of the year, students visit a creek, salt marsh, bay, and coast to observe both fresh and salt water environments. The students then use their observations and discoveries to create tours for the Natural Sciences Gallery at the Museum. Additionally, the students work with docents to design activities for younger students and lead students from their own school on tours to teach them about what they have learned during the project. Finally, the students use their new skills and knowledge to participate in a family event where they host their friends and family on a tour.

On-line exhibits of students’ work:

http://tinyurl.com/http-rosa-com
http://tinyurl.com/http-ali-com
http://tinyurl.com/http-rusche-com

2. The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum Student Docent Program (Ridgefield, Connecticut)

http://www.aldrichart.org/education/docent.php

This program is not a partnership with a specific school, but rather open to students from local schools. There are two levels of the program - Student Docents in grades 5-12, and Varsity Docents in grades 9-12. The Student Docent Program trains students in small groups to facilitate discussions with their own peers about contemporary art. The hope is that when their own classmates lead them on a tour, students are “more likely to make connections between the work on view and their own experiences.” Students who have gone through the docent program twice and are willing to make a more serious commitment are eligible to apply for the Varsity Docent Program. This program functions similarly to an internship, and introduces students to additional aspects of the museum environment, including multiple programs and audiences. This on-site experience is combined with discussions with staff members, field trips to New York, and artist workshops, and is intended to give student participants a strong foundational understanding of museum work.

3. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, Massachusetts)

http://www.gardnermuseum.org/education/school_partnerships

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum partnerships with a small number of schools each year in order to build deep working relationships. This year they are working with Boston Latin School, Maurice J. Tobin K08 School, Edward M. Kennedy Academy for Health Careers, Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School, and Rafael Hernandez K-8 School. Isabella Stewart seeks to help students explore art in a way that they can make connections through their own experiences and knowledge. They do this using Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a discussion-based pedagogy that asks three questions: “What’s going on in this picture?” “What do you see that makes you say that?” and “What more can we find?” Through this discussion, students develop skills in reading artwork, becoming more flexible thinkers, and learning ways to become better speakers and listeners. The program is a true partnership between school and museum, as teachers must  present 10 VTS lessons, and students visit the Museum multiple times. These visits last for several hours, and include an art-making project in the Education Studio or Greenhouse Classroom.

4. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (Los Angeles, California)

http://www.nhm.org/site/for-teachers/teacher-resources/education-arts-roundtable/history

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has created the Education and Arts Roundtable, a partnership that connects Los Angeles-area schools with mid-sized arts organizations. This new initiative developed out of a strategic plan that sought to more deeply engage the community with museum programs. Staff and board members asked, “what sorts of student learning opportunities would emerge when unencumbered by practical needs and logistics.” These partnerships work with grades K-12, and they develop learning projects inspired by the Museum’s collections and resources. The Natural History Museum also includes an area on the first floor, Inter/Act which shows both the students’ work as well as the process they used to reach their questions and discovery. The goal of the Roundtable is help students learn to “use visual and performing arts as a catalyst to learn about the natural and social sciences.”

5. Early Elementary Science Partnership (Chicago, Illinois)

http://fieldmuseum.org/schools/school-partnerships

This partnership is a different from those listed above in that its purpose is to provide K-3 teachers with professional develop opportunities to improve their abilities to teach science. Ten schools have partnered with the Field Museum, Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, Children’s Museum, Lincoln Park Zoo, CPS Office of Science and Northwestern University as part of a two-year intensive plan of 76 professional development hours. One hundred teachers participate in this professional development, along with university-based coursework, collaborative teacher teams, and field trips, that will eventually reach 3,000 teachers. The goals of this partnership are to improve science content knowledge for both students and teachers, teachers’ ability to use museums as informal learning environments, and to pilot this cooperative partnership between schools, the University, and informal learning environments.

To finish this post, we wanted to provide you all with a website that provides a background, practical ideas, and resources for museum and school partnerships:

www.artbeyondsite.org/handbook/az-museum-school.shtml