PROGRAMS

For Art Educators

The Art Center is a certified professional development provider of the New Jersey Department of Education and offers a variety of innovative ways for art educators to earn professional development hours.

Our programs are designed for pre-K to 12th-grade art educators and incorporate innovative exhibitions, interaction with contemporary artists, and access to our renowned Studio School. We help educators enhance their skills and enliven their classrooms! In addition, our gallery education tours and in-school custom programs provide a unique opportunity to bring students out of the classroom and in touch with contemporary art.

Teachers’ Symposia

The Art Center’s Teachers Symposia are unique professional development opportunities for art educators to come together and learn new creative skills to bring back to their classrooms.

Studio School Professional Development Credit

All Art Center classes and workshops are eligible for professional development hours. Upon completion of a course, students will be awarded a certificate detailing their participation and the number of hours they have earned. A typical 10-week course equals 25 professional development hours; a typical workshop equals six professional development hours.

Upon completion of a class or workshop, contact Rachel Aponte, Director of Education & Community Engagement, at raponte@artcenternj.org for your professional development certificate.

VIEW UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES

Lesson Plans for Teachers

The Visual Arts Center of New Jersey strives to be a resource for our community. We develop lesson plans in partnership with our gallery exhibitions so that art educators can take the mediums and concepts explored by the contemporary artists on view into their classrooms, deepening the learning experience for child and adult students alike. Below are lesson plans based on the work of artists Julia Jacquette, Matthew Jensen, Alice Momm, and Casey Ruble.

Lower School

Best Playground Ever
Activity: Students will create an illustrated booklet that tells the story (real or imagined) of a great experience in a playground.
For lower school students: Julia Jaquette LS Lesson

How can our environment inspire us?
This lesson is based on the work of Matthew Jensen, a multidisciplinary artist who begins his work by wondering about a place, then exploring it, on foot, being open to “wonder” and things that are mysterious and unknown.
For lower school students: Matt Jensen Lesson Plan LS

Everything Has a Name
Activity: Students will create an illustrated booklet that tells the story of natural objects as if they were alive
For lower school students: Alice Momm LS Lesson

Middle School

What is Beauty?
Activity: Students will make drawings of what they consider beautiful and write accompanying texts.
For middle school students: Julia Jaquette MS Lesson

Surrealist Wunderkammer
Activity: Students will create individual or group Wunderkammers, either as shadow boxes, mixed media collages, or digital collages.
For middle school students: Alice Momm MS Lesson

Picturing the Present via the Past
Students will discover the hidden history behind the scene of one of Casey Ruble’s artworks, research a local historic site, and, using similar artistic techniques, create their own collage.
For middle school and high school students: Casey Ruble MS/HS Lesson

Hidden History
How can we explore the hidden history that surrounds us? Students will analyze collages and imagine what might have happened at these sites. Learning more about the actual events that are “hidden” in these scenes, students will be inspired to share that history with a wider audience.
For middle school and high school students: Casey Ruble MS/HS Lesson

High School

Painting a Glass of Water
Activity: Students will learn to use shadow and highlight to paint a glass half filled with water.
For high school students: Julia Jaquette HS Lesson

Equivalents
Students will explore abstract and mimetic possibilities of photography.
For high school students: Matthew Jensen HS Lesson

Every Picture (Silently) Tells a Story
Students will explore two collages and articulate what story the artwork is telling. The historical background of each scene will allow students to analyze whose story gets preserved in history.
For high school students: Casey Ruble HS Lesson

Picturing the Present via the Past
Students will discover the hidden history behind the scene of one of Casey Ruble’s artworks, research a local historic site. and, using similar artistic techniques, create their own collage.
For middle school and high school students: Casey Ruble MS/HS Lesson

Talking Pictures
Exploring the link between literature and history inherent in the artwork, students will further explore how art can tell stories by creating a story of their own based on one of the collages in Everything That Rises.
For high school students: Casey Ruble HS Lesson

To read a lesson plan from Kerrie Bellisario (Morris County School of Technology) based on Elisabeth Smolarz’s artist talk, click here.

To read a lesson plan based on Spandita Malik’s artist talk, click here.

To read a lesson plan based on Nancy Cohen’s artist talk, click here.

If you have any questions please contact Rachel Aponte, Director of Education & Community Engagement, at raponte@artcenternj.org.