pARTners

A group of children sit on the floor sculpting clay. A boy with dark hair in a green shirt holds white clay shaped like a coiled-up snake

About pARTners

The pARTners program brings every fourth-grade student in the Salt Lake City School District to the UMFA each year. Tours explore creativity in our world through hands-on, engaging experiences that connect the Museum's global and diverse collection to Utah Core Standards and students' personal experiences. Teachers prepare students for their field trips with short creativity warm-ups in their classrooms; at the end of their visits, students wrap-up with an in-museum art-making activity. As one of UMFA's longest-running programs, the goal of pARTners is to provide valuable arts learning experiences that foster visual literacy, creativity, critical thinking, and effective communication. 

Tour Theme: How to Look at a Work of Art

Train your artistic eye and develop visual literacy as we practice looking closely at details to interpret works of art using visual evidence. Our world is full of images and it is important that we can read them, discover their meaning, and examine why artists make the choices they do. We will discover how to look at works of art through sketching, storytelling, and games, asking questions about what we see, and making looking at art fun! 

Pre-tour Lesson:
How to Look at a Work of Art
 

pARTners tours are: 

  • Interactive, engaging, question-based, object-centered.  
  • Aligned with Utah Core Standards for fourth-grade and 21st-century learning skills promoting critical thinking, creativity, and communication.  
  • Available by appointment Tuesday–Thursday, and need to be scheduled at least 2 weeks in advance. Limited space is available.  
  • Tour lasts an hour but can be adapted to shorter or longer periods of time by request. 
  • 30-minute art making activity after tour.
     
Schedule a Partners Tour button cyan with white text

 Pops logo

 

Beverley Taylor Sorensen Foundation

Hemingway Foundation

Junior Explorers

 

 

The Jeffery & Helen Cardon Foundation

 


Partner's Tours Curriculum and Lesson Plan Archive

Winter 2023 | Storytelling

Come explore a world full of stories at UMFA! This semester SLCSD's 4th grade students will experience different types of stories and storytelling methods to look at and discuss art. Stories from around the world and our new special exhibition, Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea, will be highlighted. Students will learn about visual narrative and uncover clues and details hidden in works of art that reveal secrets, mysteries, facts, and questions. Thanks to our friends at the UofU Book Arts Program, each participant will make a comic book and create their own incredible story!

Pre-tour Lesson: 
Storytelling
University of Utah Book Arts program

Fall 2022 | How to Look at a Work of Art!

This fall, students and their teachers will train their artistic eye and develop visual literacy as we practice looking closely at details to interpret works of art using visual evidence. Our world is full of images and it is important that we can read them, discover their meaning, and examine why artists make the choices they do. We will explore how to look at a work of art through sketching, storytelling, and games, asking questions about what we see and making looking at art fun! After our tour, we will make art that we can carry inspired by the new exhibition, Air.

Pre-tour Lesson:
How to Look at a Work of Art!

Winter 2022 | Pattern!

UMFA is thrilled that pARTners tours will be back in the galleries beginning February 2022! This semester, 4th graders and their teachers in SLC School District will explore the Museum's global collection through pattern. Patterns are everywhere! They can be simple or complicated, inspired by nature or math, and can even be symbolic of an idea or feeling - a secret idea hidden in a work of art! Explore amazing patterns from around the world as we dice into repetitions of colors, dots, lines, and spots!

Pre-tour lesson:
Pattern!

Fall 2021 | How to Look at a Work of Art

This fall, students and their teachers will train their artistic eye and develop visual literacy as we practice looking closely at details to interpret works of art using visual evidence. Our world is full of images and it is important that we can read them, discover their meaning, and examine why artists make the choices they do. We will discover how to look at a work of art through sketching, storytelling, and games, asking questions about what we see and making looking at art fun!

Pre-tour lesson:
How to Look at a Work of Art

Winter 2021 | Elements of Art

For their second pARTners digital field trip, 4th grade students and teachers in SLCSD will discover the elements of art: line, shape, color, texture, and space! This digital field trip will introduce the elements of art as building blocks for artistic expression and investigate different ways artists use these elements to communicate ideas and tell stories. Students will gain confidence in their ability to connect with and talk about works of art, as well as cultivate their own creativity as they use the elements for inspiration and relaxation. 

Pre-tour Lesson:
Elements of Art

Post-tour Lesson:
Elements of Art

Fall 2020 | How to Look at a Work of Art 

This fall, students and their teachers will train their artistic eye and develop visual literacy as we practice looking closely at details to interpret works of art using visual evidence. Our world is full of images and it is important that we can read them, discover their meaning, and examine why artists make the choices they do. We will discover how to look at a work of art through sketching, storytelling, and games, asking questions about what we see and making looking at art fun!  

Pre-Lesson:
How to Look at a Work of Art

Winter 2020 | Storytelling

Come explore a world full of stories at UMFA! This semester, SLCSD’s 4th grade students and teachers will experience different types of stories and storytelling methods to look at and discuss art. Stories from around the world will be highlighted as students learn about visual narrative and uncover clues and details hidden in works of art that reveal secrets, mysteries, facts, and questions. Thanks to our friends at the UofU Book Arts Program, each participant will make a comic book and create their own incredible story! 

Pre-tour Lesson:
Storytelling

Book Arts Program at University of Utah logo

 

 

Fall 2019 | Compare | Contrast

Inspired by UMFA’s dynamic exhibition Power Couples: The Pendant Format in Art pARTners fall curriculum sparks a fun, interactive exploration of artworks created as pairs. This curriculum that integrates Utah Core Standards provides opportunities for close looking, critical thinking, and a careful investigation of details that will get students thinking about what makes works of art similar and different. Students will develop their artistic eye and flex their creative brains as they discover the stories artworks tell and the connections they can make between individual pieces, each other, and the world around them. Join us for this hands-on learning experience around doubles & duos, opposites & lookalikes—and stay for an art-making workshop where students roll the dice to make their own pendant portraits!

Pre-Tour Lessons:
Compare | Contrast 

Post-tour Art-Making Workshop:
Instructions
Roll a Portrait Game Card 
Dice Template

pARTners winter 2019 | Elements of Art

For their second pARTners visit, 4th grade students and teachers in SLCSD will explore the galleries through the elements of art: line, shape, color, texture, and space. Tours will introduce the elements of art as building blocks for artistic expression and investigate different ways artists use these elements to communicate ideas and tell stories. All curriculum integrates Utah Core Standards and will focus on cultivating creativity and helping students gain confidence in their ability to connect to and talk about works art. Pre-tour lessons highlight the elements of art through a series of short “brain break” activities, and the program culminates in an art making workshop in UMFA’s classroom exploring line and color to create an agamograph.

Pre-Tour Lessons
Color
Line
Shape
Space
Texture
Museum Manners

Post-Tour Lessons
Agamograph art-making activity

Fall 2018 | How to Look at a Work of Art

The UMFA galleries are perfect for finding inspiration in art from around the world. This fall, 4th grade students and their teachers in Salt Lake City School District will discover different ways to look at and interact with works of art. From sketching to storytelling, from movement to games, we will each train our artistic eye and cultivate creativity. All curriculum integrates Utah Core Standards and will focus on literacy and communication skills, encourage friendship and understanding, and illustrate how looking at works of art can be fun!

Pre-Tour Lessons

WHAT IS ART? pre-lesson 

CLOSE LOOKING pre-lesson

COMPARE & CONTRAST pre-lesson

MATERIALS pre-lesson

SKETCH pre-lesson

STORYTELLING pre-lesson

Post-tour Lesson | Thaumatropes art-making workshops

Museum Manners 

Winter 2018 | Elements of Art!

For their second UMFA visit this year, 4th grade students and teachers in SLCSD will explore the galleries through the elements of art: line, shape, color, texture, and space. They will discover the elements of art as building blocks for artistic expression through games, art activities, and hands-experiences, and will explore how and why artists around the world make works of art. Throughout their tour, students and teachers will increase their comfort in talking about art, and ultimately see themselves as creative people! All curricula is integrated into Utah Core Standards and pre and post curricula highlights ways to incorporate the elements of art into other subjects through short bell-ringer activities and mindfulness workshops.

pARTners poster

COLOR pre-lesson

LINE pre-lesson

SHAPE pre-lesson

SPACE pre-lesson

TEXTURE pre-lesson

Museum Manners

Sample Tours

Color Meditation

Post Lesson

Fall 2017 | The Senses!

We are thrilled to welcome back 4th grade students and their teachers in Salt Lake City School District to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts after our 18-month renovation! This fall the pARTners program will explore our reimagined galleries using The 5 Senses to engage, connect, and critically reflect on the art and ideas between the Museum’s walls. We will explore artworks through exciting art making, discussions, and hands-on experiences with sound, smell, sight, taste, and touch and leave our own mark in UMFA’s new ACME Lab exhibition Las Hermanas Iglesias: HERE, HERE. All curricula is integrated into Utah Core Standards and pre and post curricula highlights ways to incorporate the 5 senses into other subjects through short bell-ringer activities and mindfulness workshops.

pARTners poster

MUSEUM MANNERS! pre-lesson

SIGHT! pre-lesson

SOUND! pre-lesson

SMELL! pre-lesson

TASTE! pre-lesson

TOUCH! pre-lesson

Sample UMFA tours

Post-lesson

Winter 2017 | Careers in Art

This curriculum highlights careers in art through a Museum experience delivered to the classroom. Students will handle authentic art objects from the education collection, get a sneak peek into our Modern and Contemporary gallery reinstallation, and curate their own digital exhibition. Pre- and post-lessons will guide students in role play as professional artists, curators, and art critics

Fall 2016 | Land Art, Landscape and the Environment

During the hour-long presentation fourth-grade students will investigate the way artists use texture, color, repetition, space, and movement in landscapes; handle and examine authentic art objects from around the world; and engage collaboratively in a range of discussions to build connections. The presentation will culminate with a technology-based project, allowing each student to create their own photograph to be part of a whole-class artwork.
                    

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