Teachers
Come to the Barnes, or we’ll come to you. Our programs will nourish your students’ imaginations and serve your curricular goals.
Partner Programs
The Barnes provides free in-depth programming to partner schools in the School District of Philadelphia (pre-K and grades 3, 5, and 7), Catholic schools in the Delaware Valley (grades 3, 5, and 7), Camden Catholic Partnership Schools (grade 3), and Camden public schools (pre-K). Students receive a field trip to the Barnes and two in-school lessons. These programs include materials, busing, and admission costs.
Look! Reflect! Connect! (Pre-K)
Look! Reflect! Connect! emphasizes the role of visual arts in the lives of pre-kindergarten students, educators, and parents by expanding the typical early childhood concept of art, which focuses on making, to the experience of looking at and talking about art and artists.
Program by invitation only. Email us for details.
Pictures and Words (Grade 3)
Third graders create artworks that cultivate individual expression using a variety of artistic processes and materials and learn to identify, through strong observational skills, how elements like color and lines in an artwork work to convey a story. During their Barnes visit, students learn to “read” paintings by making claims about the setting, characters, and the main idea represented in the artist’s work. More about the program and curricular standards.
Art of Looking (Grade 5)
This STEAM program (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) explores the elements of composition—light, line, color, space, and shape—and their connection to other subject areas, including English language arts and visual arts. Students become art detectives, examining works from both artistic and scientific perspectives and creating claims about meaning in artworks supported by evidence. More about the program and curricular standards.
Artist Voices (Grade 7)
Artist Voices will return in the 2023–24 school year. Seventh graders learn how works of art express an artist’s voice and view of the world. Students explore the Barnes collection and discover artists who were radical rule-breakers in their time, defying convention to express their viewpoints. Students explore their own artistic voices in writing and artwork, both in their classrooms and at the Barnes. More about the program and curricular standards.
School Program Donors
The Barnes gratefully acknowledges its donors for their generous support of pre-K–12 education programs in the Philadelphia region. This list reflects gifts made between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021.
The 1830 Family Foundation
Eugene and Joann Bissell
The CHG Charitable Trust
Robert Cohen and Deborah Peikes
Dr. Andrew F. Drake
James Fernberger and Mary Walto
Julia and David Fleischner
Nancy Gordon and Stew Bolno
Hamilton Family Charitable Trust
Dr. Herbert Kean and The Honorable Joyce Kean
Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation
The Christopher Ludwick Foundation
Samuel P. Mandell Foundation
Sam and Laurie Marshall
Louis Nayovitz Foundation
Caroline J. S. Sanders Trust 2
Jerome and Sandra Schwartz
Ethel Sergeant Clark Smith Memorial Fund
Syde Hurdus Foundation
The Dean and Ann Witter Fund for Charitable Giving
Anonymous
The Barnes is grateful for the lead support of Puentes a las Artes / Bridges to the Arts provided by the William Penn Foundation.
The Barnes smART Fund for Education, established by GSK, is an endowment that provides substantial annual support for K–8 education programs in the School District of Philadelphia.
Thanks to a generous endowment gift, Puentes a las Artes / Bridges to the Arts and all of the Barnes’s community engagement programs are made possible, in part, by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation has provided essential endowment support for pre-K–12 education programs.
Subaru of America Foundation, Inc. critically supports education programs in Camden, NJ, and has generously donated a vehicle for Barnes educators to use for travel to Philadelphia and Camden schools.
Connelly Foundation provides important support for the Barnes’s education programs serving Catholic school students in Philadelphia and Camden.
Pre-K–12 education programs for School District of Philadelphia students are generously supported by gifts made through the Educational Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) program. The Barnes gratefully acknowledges the following donors for their support:
