Valentine School Programs: Fall round up!
Student Programs and Tours Manager Marisa Day provides an overview of some of the exciting and innovative student programs the Valentine will be offering this fall.
How does the Valentine continue its mission to educate, engage and challenge a diverse audience? Through our robust selection of school programs, of course! This past fall, our Valentine educators and tour guides served nearly 7,000 students in the Richmond metro region through museum programs, outreach visits and walking and bus tours. All of our programs are led by our wonderful educators who use their love of history and interactive components to encourage students and teachers to explore Richmond’s story – past and present.
A few of the programs the Valentine will be offering this school year includes:
Let’s Make History: Inspired by the wallpaper recently installed in the McClurg Bedroom and supported by funding from the Virginia Commission for the Arts, this new program explores the creation of home décor found in the 1812 Wickham House. Students discuss 19th century design and create an actual print with woodblocks based off the wallpaper design in the 1812 Wickham house and made by Jake Urbanski of Studio TwoThree. Students and teachers have enjoyed engaging with the museum in a new way and trying their hand at an artisanal skill. For more information on this program, click here.
Jake Urbanski of Studio TwoThree walking students through the printmaking activity.
History Makers in Richmond: Mapping the Monuments: In this program, first and third graders learn about a number of Richmond history makers (Maggie Walker, Thomas Jefferson, Arthur Ashe and others) who shaped local and national history. This field trip also includes a visit to Edward Valentine’s sculpture studio where educators discuss the process used to create and construct monuments. The program culminates with an opportunity for students to design their own monument.
Students exploring the Edward Valentine sculpture studio.
Our Changing Community: Who doesn’t want to play games in a museum? In this program students tour the 1812 Wickham House, play games and participate in activities to learn about how the lives of children in Richmond has changed over the last two centuries.
Students playing historical games as part of the Our Changing Community program.
Nuestras Historias: Latinos in Richmond School Visits: This fall, with programming created and coordinated by our curator Wanda Hernandez, the Valentine has been offering student visits of Nuestras Historias: Latinos in Richmond, the region’s first bilingual exhibition. Recently, students from JR Tucker’s ELL and Spanish Immersion programs toured Nuestras Historias in Spanish and English and participated in activities that encouraged them to think critically about different moments in U.S. history that involved or impacted people of color, including Mendez v. Westminster and Brown v. Board of Education.
Wanda Hernandez touring a school group through Nuestras Historias: Latinos in Richmond.
Of course these are only a selection of what we are excited to offer the students of the Richmond region. The Valentine Public Programs team is always willing to work with teachers to offer materials and programming that is relevant to the classroom curriculum and important to educating engaged and thoughtful citizens. If you are interested in learning about ways that you can bring students to the Valentine (or bring our programs to your school) please visit our website, https://thevalentine.org/programs-tours/student/ or contact education@thevalentine.org.
Marisa Day is the Student Programs and Tours Manager at the Valentine
The New York firm Adelphi Paper Hangings worked from this scrap coupled with another nearly-matching full section of wallpaper from Historic New England’s archives to create our “Wickham Stripe” wallpaper. Located in Sharon Springs, New York, Adelphi Paper Hangings is a small, artisanal manufacturer of historically accurate block printed wallpapers. The “Wickham Stripe” wallpaper was block-printed by Adelphi staff using custom-carved pear wood printing blocks and distemper paint on a special French-made paper which is hand-seamed using rabbit glue.
Wallpaper installation is an artisan craft that requires years of experience to become a master hanger. Adelphi recommended Brian Conn of Oceans Wallcovering LLC for our current project. We could not have been in better hands this past week as the paper literally rolled out and up onto our walls – a first in our restoration of the Wickham House!
