Education & Arts | Natural History Museum of Los Angeles

The beginning of the Roundtable . . .

Click here to learn about the history of the Roundtable.

The Roundtable recognized for excellence in museum education programming!

The Education & Arts Roundtable program is the winner of the 2009 EdCom Award for Excellence in Programming. Awarded by the American Association of Museums (AAM), the Excellence in Programming Award recognizes exemplary creativity and innovation in museum educational programming. AAM’s Standing Professional Committee on Education (EdCom) advances the purpose of museums as places of lifelong learning, serves as an advocate for diverse audiences and educators, and promotes professional standards and excellence in the practice of museum education.

We thank all of the committed community, arts, and education collaborators who have contributed their time and resources to building and sustaining the Roundtable and its activities.

How does the work of the Roundtable enhance students’ understanding of Museum content?

1)  Roundtable projects allow students to engage the Museum content in depth and over extended periods of time

2)  The Roundtable’s interdisciplinary projects allow students to consider this content in multiple dimensions--through visual art, through dance or theatre, through language, or through history as just a few examples

3)  Students’ sustained, flexible engagement with Museum collections gives them an opportunity to identify what inspires them most about the Museums’ content and use it to catalyze new learning

4)  Artistic media allow students to express and share their learning with others

5)  The artistic process supports students in making connections between the ideas that they are exploring and their own lives

What is the community saying about the Roundtable?

". . . most compelling is the creation of a setting for true innovation in the conceptualization, design, and implementation of educational experiences for students and teachers in the museum and in their classrooms.  To create and sustain a 'hothouse' of this capacity is fantastic and so rare in any realm of educational practice, but particularly extraordinary in museums."
— Steve Seidel, Patricia Bauman and John Landrum Bryant Lecturer in Arts in Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

"Though museums have been reaching out to the communities for several decades, these institutions remain wary of opening up processes, especially those that might question curatorial decisions.  Can curators and institutions share this power with their constituents? . . . Work done by the Natural History Museum is proof that museums have stopped being places of privilege and can become democratic spaces."
— Cristina Lleras, Art and History Curator, Museo Nacional de Colombia

"I think there's a real elegance in the simplicity of the Roundtable.  There are no predetermined ideas and structures, which often make things far more complicated.  In a stuctured model, you spend time on things like logistics and scheduling rather than spending time thinking about the real possibilities."
— Jo Ann Isken, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Lennox School District