Education Division Records

The Brooklyn Museum's Education Department can be traced to late 1913, when a docent named Mary B. Morris was hired to work with the public, teachers, and staff. In the annual report for 1914, Morris wrote that she gave tours of the collections to over 6,000 school students. From the very start, a close connection was forged with the public school system. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, Museum staff worked to supplement and enrich the school curriculum by providing gallery talks, nature study walks, by circulating illustrative materials to the school, developing courses of study for repeat visits and slide and film programs were coordinated with gallery visits. Hands-on art courses ranged from weekend classes for children to programs for advanced design students. By the late 1920s, a wide variety of leisure programs had also grown, from story hours to treasure hunts, study clubs, and student lectures. Attention was given to teachers and adults as well as students: a credit-granting Teachers Institute was established for in-service training; curriculum guides prepared; monthly talks for art teachers given; cooperative projects undertaken with organizations such as the School Art League and the People's Institute; and extensive lecture series scheduled. The germ of an internship program took root in 1929 with a group of volunteers from Pratt Institute.

By 1930, a staff of three docents was serving some 87,000 students and lecture attendees a year with the goal of provoking "an active response to art rather than a passive one." Recognizing the importance of this work, the Museum established a formal Education Department, appointing Herbert J. Spinden, Curator of Ethnology, as Supervisor. Spinden's appointment also reflected the close relationship between curatorial and educational staff; this unique collaboration--an inseparable partnership between curator and educator--has been a hallmark of The Brooklyn Museum's program ever since. Throughout the thirties and early forties, Spinden, John I.H. Baur, and Michelle Murphy maintained and expanded many of the initiatives of the twenties. A varied series of programs highlighted world cultures and included not only art but music, dance, and theater. College programs were developed with Pratt and City College. Studio art classes expanded greatly. The Museum's circulating collection of pictures, slides, films, and School Service Units enjoyed much increased demand.

When Hannah Toby Rose became Curator of Education in 1946, a new era began that reflected the growing professionalism of the field of museum education. During her tenure, Brooklyn Museum programs received national recognition for their excellence and innovation. Young artists were hired as studio teachers; experimental programs were developed for children with disabilities and artistically and intellectually gifted children; adult education was expanded and the Museum reached out into the community; graduate courses and professional seminars were held at the Museum; experiments in film, educational television, and circulating exhibitions took the Museum to a broader audience. By the time Miss Rose retired in 1972, Education Division attendance had topped 150,000 visitors per year. However, the problem of funding programs for this enormous audience became serious during Miss Rose's tenure. In order to accomplish its goals, the Division began to seek funding from agencies such as the National Endowments and NYSCA, as well as from private foundations.

A massive reorganization of the Museum's administrative structure in 1970 again recognized the continuing and growing importance of museum education. A Vice Director for Interpretation oversaw the Education Division, which is significant in that this was the first time that the Education department was represented in the highest level of adminsistration for the Museum. Exhibitions now reflected a "total approach," with the interpretation staff working with curators to develop didactics and labels for the exhibition itself, audio-visual programs, lectures, and activities that would augment the exhibition's impact. During the 1970s, Brooklyn Museum prototype programs continued to serve as national models: an in-depth program for public school students took museum education beyond curriculum enrichment; half-day visits combined studio and gallery experiences; themed pre-visit kits for teachers to use in their classrooms; and the creation of a formal internship program to train museum educators. The Community Services division was created within the Education department during the mid 1970s. Working with the Brooklyn Arts and Culture Association (BACA, now the Brooklyn Arts Council) and the Brooklyn Education and Cultural Alliance (BECA), the museum supported local artists, arts organizations through voucher programs, and brought museum activities to day cares and senior centers. Additonally, the Community Gallery, which had been operating independently, was brought into the Community Services division. While the Brooklyn Museum has always supported local artists and local arts organizations, the 1970s can be seen as a true investment in Brooklyn based communities, and one that the Museum continues to strive to maintain today.

The 1980s opened with new education facilities on the first floor. This new space allowed for varied programming for youth and families, in addition to the more traditional school programming. In the 1960s art classes for youths operated under the moniker of the Junior Membership Program, which was rebranded in the early 1970s as the Workshop. In 1985 the Education department reinvigorated these youth workshops as the Raiders of the Fine Arts program which focused on providing children with a wide variety of media classes and a focus on object based learning. In the 1990s Raiders of the Fine Arts was rebranded as the Gallery/Studio program. Additionally, a series of programs for children called "Meet the Artist" were developed that included artists like Jacob Lawrence. In order to broaden the Museum's audience, starting in 1989, the Education department developed extensive film and video programming series that highlighted hollywood films, indpendent films, and video art. Films were often paired with exhibition programming, but there were a series of video art programs that explored the use of video as an art form. The Brooklyn Museum also participated, along with 6 other museums, in the Museum Education Consortium, which received grant funding to explore how video and other A/V interactives could enhance learning in the museum and in the classroom.

In the 1990s, the Education division activities focused on object based learning and increased access to the Museum, its collections, and educational activities in general. Summer Teachers' Institutes were reinstated as training with scholars, museum educators, and artists for classroom teachers. In 1996 the Brooklyn Museum launched its first website. In 1997, the Education Department collaborated with the Brooklyn Public Library, and the Brooklyn Children's Museum to created the educational website Brooklyn Expedition. The website could be accessed in the Museum's Learning Center, at home, or at school, effectively increasing accessibility to educational activties. The Learning Center was a space inside of the Museum that had a wide range of children's books, exhibition catalogs, and computer access for educational programs and websites for Museum visitors. Additionally the Education department created and published guides to exhibits and permanent collection galleries for families. This allowed families and others to explore the Museum by themselves, but to have an anchor for learning and guided exploration. Lastly, in 1998 the museum created the now iconic First Saturday programming. On the first Saturday of the month, the Museum was open late and hosted art making events, lectures, poetry readings, dancing, and live music. First Saturday programming was and is a chance to support and showcase local artists and community organizations while having a great time.

In the 2010s members of the Education department participated in museum collaboratives and collectives studying what the role of museums can be in anti-racist and social justice initiatives in order to suggest avenues forward for the Brooklyn Museum. These efforts led to gender neutral bathrooms on the first floor, a DEIA department, improved accesibility for museum users, and staff committees for trainings in bias and racial discrimination. Similarly to the 1970s rebranding to Interpretation, the Learning and Social Impact Division was implemented in 2021 to implement social action frameworks towards climate change and mass criminalisation and other social justice issues.

The history of educational programs at The Brooklyn Museum is rich and varied, but several common threads unite it: commitments to the community, to the interpretive value of the collections, to working in partnership with the curatorial staff and outside educators, and to innovative and responsive program development.

*The chronology of Directors of Education was fact checked using press releases and annual reports.

1930-1933

Herbert J. Spinden, Director of Education

1934

Herbert J. Spinden, Acting Supervisor

1935-1936

John I. H. Baur, Supervisor of Education

1937

Walter Abell, Supervisor of Education

1938-1942

Michelle Murphy, Supervisor of Education

1944

Arthur P. Moore, Curator of Education

1945

A. Elizabeth Chase, Curator of Education

1946-1970

Hannah T. Rose, Curator of Education

1970-1971

Hannah T. Rose, Vice Director for Education

1971

Dr. Kenneth L. Mathis, Assistant Director, Interpretation

1972-1976

Julia Hotton, Assistant Director, Interpretation

1976-1981

David Katzive, Assistant Director for Education and Program Development

1981-1988

Gerard LeFrancois, Vice Director for Education

1988-1989

Helen Ferulli, Vice Director for Education

1989-2000

Deborah F. Schwartz, Vice Director for Education

2000-2004

Joel Hoffman, Vice Director for Education and Program Development

2004-2016

Radiah Harper, Vice Director for Education

2016-2021

Adjoa Jones de Almeida, Director of Education

2021-2024

Adjoa Jones de Almeida, Deputy Director for Learning and Social Impact

2021-2023

Lindsay C. Harris, Director of Education

2023-

Shamilia McBean Tocruray, Director of Education

2024-

Keonna Hendrick, Deputy Director for Learning and Social Impact