Young Masters

It’s that time of year – summer camp! Our American West Adventure Summer Camp introduces children to the time period known as the Great American West. Each day is themed around a different subject matter represented in the museum’s collection consisting of Native Americans, explorers and pioneers, cowboy culture, and artists, such as Charles M. Russell and Frederic Remington, who forever captured the essence of life in the 19th century America. Offering a 5-day camp provides students the chance to explore these themes in a deeper, more meaningful way than they might in a typical 45 minute school tour. Each [...]

This summer during our Art of Story children’s program, participants learn about the elements of storytelling by exploring the artwork in our galleries. To help illustrate the power of narrative, our docents often tell a story inspired by some of the paintings. A favorite among the collection is Russell’s Utica. Charles M. Russell, Utica (A Quiet day in Utica), 1907, Oil on canvas, 24 1/8 x 36 1/8 inches Utica and the upper Judith River country in Montana were among the last frontiers to be settled because of the frequent Indian raids and their great distance from the [...]

Last month we had a visit from the FWISD American Indian Education Program during their summer cultural camp. We caught up with AIEP Liaison Alice Barrientez to learn more about this program. What is the American Indian Education Program? AIEP is a grant funded program through the Office of Indian Education, U.S. Department of Education.  It provides academic support and cultural education for identified students who attend FWISD. Our goal is to ensure that each American Indian student successfully completes high school prepared for higher learning. The program was implemented into school districts nationwide during the Kennedy administration. Research revealed [...]

Throughout the summer, in partnership with the Fort Worth Library’s Worth Reading Program, the museum is presenting Art of Story children’s workshops. This program is an opportunity for kids to explore the American West while learning how to compose a story. Storytelling is important because stories help us connect with each other and are central to our mental processes for understanding, remembering, and communicating. Stories make it easy to learn and teach us the history and values of our people and other cultures. Plus, stories are fun! Remington and Russell were great storytellers, as is evidenced in their paintings. Each [...]

In our children’s programs, so often we study the People of the West: cowboys, American Indians, soldiers, pioneers, explorers, etc. This year, our children’s spring break workshops focus on the animals featured in our collection, allowing the students to think about the wild life that lived in the West and consider how important each animal was to the people living in that region. Man’s relationship with animals is a universal theme that knows no time boundaries. Children today can relate their own experiences with animals to those who lived in the old West, placing the 19th Century into a context [...]

Every year, thousands of young students visit the Sid Richardson Museum to tour our collection and experience hands-on learning activities in our studio. Many of our school group field trips are made possible through Imagination Celebration Fort Worth. To learn more about this organization, we talked with Executive Director Lauri Bevan. What is Imagination Celebration Fort Worth? LB: Imagination Celebration of Fort Worth (ICFW) started as part of an initiative by the Kennedy Center to celebrate the arts in communities in a festival format. We incorporated in 1989 to provide arts and cultural programming for K-12 students in Fort Worth. [...]

Field trips are a great way to enrich a child’s education outside the classroom. Recently, a group of education researchers conducted the first large-scale randomized-control study designed to measure what students learn from school tours of an art museum. They discovered that students who visit art museums possess more knowledge about art, have stronger critical-thinking skills, exhibit increased historical empathy, display higher levels of tolerance, and have a greater taste for art and culture. The benefits are quite notable! Every week, the Sid Richardson Museum hosts hundreds of students from FWISD and outlying school districts. Docents guide the children through the [...]

To celebrate the spirit of the American West and the new Sundance Square Plaza, last weekend the Sid Richardson Museum hosted Cowboy Squared, a free family event. Children of all ages stopped by the museum’s studio to design their very own cowboy bandana. To personalize the bandana, the kids learned how to make their own brand, from the Rocking R to the Lazy M. And of course a cowboy would not be complete without his or her very own cowboy hat!  Afterwards, families corralled into the galleries to enjoy a scavenger hunt through the new exhibit, Western Treasures. 

In partnership with Fort Worth Public Library’s Worth Reading Program, we hosted Storytelling at the Sid Richardson Museum. During this family fun event, participants enjoyed hearing stories related to paintings in the collection as told by our docents. In the process, the children learned how paintings like Remington and Russell’s inspire other art forms like writing, drawing, and storytelling. With their very own storytelling kit, each participant had the opportunity to continue the tradition and create their own stories based on works from the museum’s collection. Every painting is worth a thousand words! To learn more about the Fort Worth [...]

In partnership with the Fort Worth Library’s 2013-2014 Worth Reading initiative, the Sid Richardson Museum offered a children’s workshop about the Art of Story last weekend. Storytelling in the gallery Our docents guided the children through the galleries, exploring the various narrative elements in paintings. Kat instructing on the art of landscape painting After spending time with the museum’s collection, the children moved to our studio classroom, where they used their recently acquired knowledge to create their very own landscape painting. Young Masters at work Kat Yount, Director of School and Family Programs, believes [...]