Overview
The Wellin Museum welcomes K–12 school groups to engage with our exhibitions and collection. K–12 school visits are designed to encourage creative engagement with art through close looking, imaginative activities, and dialogue. These visits support all areas of learning by helping students strengthen critical skills such as observing, describing, reasoning with evidence, questioning, connecting ideas, responding, and creating.
Docents at the Wellin Museum
As a teaching museum at Hamilton College, the Wellin Museum is a site of experiential learning. K–12 school visits are led by docents, or educational guides, in collaboration with museum staff. The Wellin's docents are Hamilton College students who have a wide range of academic backgrounds and an interest in teaching, museums, and art. They provide an engaging and personable experience for K–12 students and, in turn, they gain valuable teaching experience.
Scheduling
The Wellin Museum of Art would be delighted to organize a visit for your group. During fall 2024, K–12 school visits can be arranged Tuesday–Friday, 9:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m. from September 17 – November 22 and December 3 – 13.
In spring 2025, visits will be available February 4 – March 13 and April 1 – May 8. Availability is limited, so reserve early to secure your preferred date.
The museum can accommodate up to ninety students in one visit. Depending on the size of your group, it may be necessary to divide your students into smaller groups to accommodate everyone. Museum staff will design an itinerary that will ensure a positive learning environment for all students.
In order to accommodate as many groups as possible, we ask that all requests be made at least two weeks in advance of the intended visit date.
Use this form to request a K–12 school visit.
The Wellin Museum is free and open to everyone. Wellin Museum K–12 School Visits are free of charge.
Fall 2024 K–12 School Visit Topics
This year's School Visits will be based on the exhibition Menagerie: Animals in Art from the Wellin Museum. Topics include animals in myth and storytelling, scientific and technological documentation of animals, and creating art from one's environment. All School Visits will include a hands-on artmaking component. Please feel free to indicate themes or areas that would be of interest to your class on the K-12 School Visit request form.
PRIMARY TOPIC - Unleashing Your Inner Dragon
In this program, students will learn about animals in myths from around the world as depicted in art from the Wellin's collection. Inspired by Alexa Hatanaka's contemporary carp sculpture Koinobori (eggs in the belly), they will dive into the Japanese myth of the carp, which for one thousand years attempts to jump over a waterfall. Through great persistence, some carp eventually make it over, turning into a golden dragon. Like the carp, students will consider how they wish to grow and will create a clay figure based on an animal they admire.
LOWER SECONDARY TOPIC - Animals and Art and Innovation, OH MY!
In the jungle of Menagerie, students will be encouraged to look for the intersection of art and innovation. With close looks at Albrecht Dürer’s Rhinoceros print, naturalistic renderings of animals, and an indigenous fishing tool in the Wellin's collection, students will learn about the role of art in technological advancement as well as the universality of animals across artistic mediums. Through hands-on printmaking, they will experiment with one of the most innovative technological processes in world history.
UPPER SECONDARY TOPIC - Engaging With Your Environment Through Art
An artist's environment has always served as inspiration for creating. Focusing on artists who take inspiration from the natural environment, the political environment, the entertainment environment, and their home environments, we will look at the ways that artists have been inspired by the animal world and find inspiration for our own artworks. Participants will create an animal inspired environment in the form of a tunnel book diorama.