Museum-based Programs

Museum-based programs are available for school and after-school groups.
 
Programs feature

Programs promote

To learn how to schedule a visit, click here.

To view more information on the following Museum-Based Programs please see our Activities and Lesson Plans.There you will find background information, curriculum connections, classroom activities, and further resources for each of these programs.

For more information about Museum-Based Programs please contact Diane Myers, Manager of School and Tour Services, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or (203) 413-6741.

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Temporary Exhibition-Related Programs
Grades Pre-K, K
Grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Middle School and High School


Temporary Exhibition-Related Programs

A tour or interactive art program may be developed to focus on any of the Museum’s changing exhibitions. All Museum-based programs feature inquiry-based learning, hands-on activities, and connections to school curricula. All programs are 60 minutes in length. 

June 18th, 2011 – October 16th, 2011
Picasso’s Vollard Suite: The Sculptor’s Studio
In 1932, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) purchased the château Boisgeloup in Normandy, where he set himself up with a fully appointed studio for sculpture, a medium to which he would devote himself in the years to come. The excitement of working in the three-dimensional art form, which had always been subsidiary to pictorial art for Picasso, inspired one of the great series of modern prints, “The Sculptor’s Studio,” forty-six etchings made over the course of a year, from spring 1933 to spring 1934. Rendered in the purified linear style that he first began to exploit during the First World War, these extraordinary images bring the classical world of the artist-and-model, as Picasso imagined it, fully to life. This exhibition will feature key images of The Sculptor’s Studio etchings from the group of 100 prints he made for the legendary art dealer and publisher Ambroise Vollard. These superb works from the Vollard Suite demonstrate Picasso’s ability to please and astonish with equal intensity.

July 16th, 2011 – February 26th, 2012
Bijoux: The Origins and Impact of Jewelry
The exhibition celebrates the long history of personal adornment through jewelry and explores its impact on our culture and environment. The exhibit showcases exquisite jewelry from both local and international private collections which are displayed together with some of the Bruce Museum’s most spectacular mineral and gem specimens.

September 24th, 2011 - January 8th, 2012
Drawings by Rembrandt, his Students and Circle from the Maida and George Abrams Collection
School programs are available beginning on October 4th.  Over five decades, George and Maida Abrams assembled the finest private collection of Dutch drawings in the world.  This show will feature ten works by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) as well as forty drawings by his pupils and followers, and will also investigate the functions of drawings in Rembrandt’s studio and their relationship to his teaching practices.

October 2nd, 2011 - February 19th, 2012
The Prints of Martin Lewis: From the Collection of Dr. Dorrance Kelly  
School programs are available beginning on October 11th.  This exhibition will feature approximately 35 etchings by Martin Lewis (1881-1962) from the collection of Dr. Dorrance Kelly of Connecticut. These fine art prints depict scenes of New York City and the Connecticut countryside dating from around 1916, up to the early 1950s. The prints of Martin Lewis are not as well known as those of his contemporaries, such as Edward Hopper. Lewis was a master printmaker in the intaglio processes including etching, aquatint, engraving, mezzotint, and dry point. The Bruce Museum exhibition will provide a brief biographical account of Martin Lewis and showcase some of the best of his prints.

October 29th, 2011 - January 29th, 2012
Divided Light and Color: American Impressionist Landscapes 
School programs are available beginning on November 8th.  The exhibition highlights paintings from the permanent collection of the Bruce Museum and beyond that show the appeal and seasonal beauty of the American panorama.

January 28th – April 22nd, 2012
Walter Wick: Games, Gizmos and Toys in the Attic
School programs are available beginning on February 7th. This retrospective exhibition features the innovative work of award-winning author and photographic illustrator Walter Wick. Author of Can You See What I See? and co-creator of the I Spy book series loved by millions of children and adults around the world, Wick has a keen interest in puzzles, games, science and illusions. The exhibition will feature a selection of Wick’s early photographs, which provided a foundation for the artist’s interest in illusions. It will include several of the handcrafted, meticulously detailed installation models accompanied by his large-format color photographs that are the illustrations in his children’s books. Together they will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the artist’s creative process and a window into the puzzles and illusions for which he is so well known.

February 11th – April 1st, 2012
100 Years of the Greenwich Arts Society

 

March 3rd – May 27th, 2012
Greenwich Lost and Preserved: Greenwich Preservation Trust

 

June 2nd - June 24th, 2012
iCreate! Teen Art
This third annual juried exhibition of paintings and drawings by high school students will be on view in the Museum’s Lecture Gallery.

 

June 30th -  September 23rd, 2012
Churches of New England

Grades Pre-K, K

All programs are 45 minutes in length.

Art Programs
  • Student art programs are based on current museum exhibitions. Students are encouraged to develop critical thinking skills through observation and interpretation of artworks. Programs can be adapted to focus on aesthetics, art history, history, sociology literature, writing etc. Let us know the objectives for your class when making a reservation.
Science Programs
  • Woodland Indian Life
    By listening to storytelling in the wigwam and handling Native American artifacts and reproductions, children can recreate the life of a Woodland Indian family before colonial contact. Games and a craft activity are included.
  • Animal Adaptations
    Different body coverings, colors and physical structures help vertebrates (mammals, birds, reptiles and fish) adapt to their environment, find food and escape from predators. Children learn these concepts and develop their observation and communication skills while handling fur pelts and animal mounts and through activities in our woodland gallery.
  • Crusty Crabs
    An introduction to marine life using basic observation, counting and classification skills. Is it alive? How can you tell it's a crab, seastar, seasnail, etc.? How do different sea creatures grow? Participants will learn to safely handle small live sea creatures and create a hermit crab craft.
  • Butterflies
    Explores symmetry in nature while learning about the structure and patterns of butterflies. The life cycle is also introduced. The program ends with a symmetry game and project.

 
Grades 1-5

All programs are 60 minutes in length.

Art Programs
  • Student art programs are based on current museum exhibitions. Students are encouraged to develop critical thinking skills through observation and interpretation of artworks. Programs can be adapted to focus on aesthetics, art history, history, sociology literature, writing etc. Let us know the objectives for your class when making a reservation.
Science Programs
  • Woodland Indian Life
    A full-size reconstruction of a Woodland Indian wigwam and artifacts from local archaeological sites help recreate the life of coastal Native Americans of our area. Students use critical thinking skills as they become history detectives and take part in an artifact interpretation activity.
  • I Am an Archaeologist (Grades 3, 4 & 5)
    How do archaeologists work? What kinds of artifacts do they collect and why? How do they interpret artifacts? Students make observations at a late Woodland Indian site exhibition and use critical thinking and communication skills as they work in teams, recording and interpreting artifacts in reconstructed test pits in our workshop. This program complements “Woodland Indian Life.” A discount is offered when both are requested for the same school group.
  • Coastal Ecology
    A program about connections and adaptations in the marine ecosystem. Students learn how to handle live invertebrates and plants in our marine tank and observe their structure and adaptations to the marine environment. They also participate in an intertidal food chain activity. A craft project is included.
  • Mineral Marvels (Grades 3, 4 & 5)
    What is a rock made of? How can you tell the difference between various rocks and minerals. Students will observe the Museum's mineral collection, learn to classify minerals based on their many properties, and then use these skills to identify the minerals in everyday objects such as pencils, makeup, and baby powder. Primary science skills (observing, recording and hypothesizing) are used as they handle and examine specimens.

    • The Bruce Museum's environmental galleries are excellent for lessons on conservation, the watershed, ecology, and the formation of Long Island Sound. Please inquire as to how we can develop a program to fit your needs.

Middle and High School

All programs are 60 minutes in length.
Art Programs
  • Student art programs are based on current museum exhibitions. Students are encouraged to develop critical thinking skills and visual literacy through observation and interpretation of artworks. Programs may be adapted to focus on aesthetics, art history, history, sociology, literature, writing etc. Please let us know the objectives for your class when making a reservation.


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