K-12 Field Tripsat the Dennos Museum
The program provided free transportation for K-12 students and teachers to visit the museum, fostering educational engagement with the exhibition.
True Stories – Visions of American Life
The Dennos Museum Center partnered with Here:Say Storytelling and students enrolled in the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District’s Front Street Writers program to record personal stories responding to the artworks in “Visions of American Life: Paintings from the Manoogian Collection, 1850–1940.”
Funding Categories
Technology
Marketing & Outreach
partner
The Dennos Museum Center
location
Traverse City, MI
About
In partnership with Here:Say Storytelling and the Front Street Writers, the Dennos Museum Center produced and recorded short stories to accompany artworks in “Visions of American Life: Paintings from the Manoogian Collection, 1850–1940.” The stories ranged from light-hearted, humorous reactions to works in the exhibition to meditations on traumatic experiences. The recordings were made available in the gallery and online through the museum’s website.
Intended Outcome
The overall goal of this project was to broaden and diversify the perspectives on American life. The Dennos Museum Center hoped to record 15 student stories and have at least 10,000 people experience these stories in the gallery.
Actual Outcome
The Dennos Museum Center and Here:Say Storytelling recorded 21 student stories to include in the exhibition space and welcomed over 8,000 visitors into the gallery. Museum staff reported that the storytelling program with Front Street Writers was a transformative project. One student stated: “Just by telling a simple personal story, we share a part of ourselves with the world. This not only opens our minds, but it truly impacts other people as well. I was honored to be part of such a unique and inspiring project.”
Advice Post Project
Museums hoping to create a similar storytelling project at their institutions should consider partnering with organizations to engage students in their learning spaces and during exhibition visits, creating a scaffolded learning pathway. Students build foundational skills and confidence within familiar learning spaces, deepen their understanding through encounters with the artworks firsthand, and then apply what they learned as they craft their own stories with guided support.
Discover More
K-12 Field Tripsat the Dennos Museum
The program provided free transportation for K-12 students and teachers to visit the museum, fostering educational engagement with the exhibition.
Live Storytelling at LibrariesOutreach at Asheville Art Museum
Asheville Art Museum reestablished relationships with six local public libraries, bringing outreach performance and storytelling programs to their locations.
Learn MoreAbout This Activity