Program Overview: The Junior Docent School Program (JDSP) is a multiple-visit experience for 3rd through 5th grade students. Participating students engage with the Collection of the Milwaukee Art Museum for ten themed tours over the course of three years.
Tour experiences are designed to develop awareness and understanding of the visual arts with historical and cultural context. Students expand and practice verbal, visual, and critical-thinking skills to discuss works of art. We hope students gain a sense of ownership and belonging to a vital cultural institution in their community that encourages lifelong learning and inspiration from art.
- JDSP has been a long-standing partnership program for almost 50 years!
- Curriculum includes 10 themed tours that align with state and national standards for Arts Education.
- The program is flexible and has been successfully implemented in public, private, charter, homeschool, and gifted and talented organizations.
- Over 1,000 students graduate from the program annually, and some graduates attribute creative career paths to this experience.
- Cost: $8 per student per field trip + transportation.
JDSP Classroom
For participating JDSP Educators, insert login credentials to access program resources including tour request forms, planning guides, optional activities, videos, and more.
In Year 3 to become a Junior Docent, students will:
- Select a favorite work of art from the Museum’s Collection for further investigation
- Create a reproduction and a creative response to the selected artwork
- Research and develop a 3-5 minute presentation of the selected work of art
- Deliver the presentation, artistic reproduction, and creative response to a group of peers, family, and Museum staff as Junior Docents during the graduation tour
For more information, email teachers@mam.org or call the Manager of School and Teacher Programs at 414-224-3818.
Junior Docent School Programs are supported by Herzfeld Foundation, Daniel M. Soref Charitable Trust and We Energies Foundation.