Professional development opportunities for teachers at the National Museum of the American Indian can benefit educators in all subject areas. Workshops span a range of topics and enable teachers to discover analytical approaches to connect our collections and content with classroom teaching strategies. These sessions might help you explore new content about American Indian cultures and history or encourage you to establish methods for teaching with objects in your classroom. Our workshops include take-home materials and classroom resources, as well as new ideas for interdisciplinary curriculum connections. We encourage teachers to sign up with colleagues!

Spring 2010 Teacher Workshops

Alike, but Not: Alexander Calder & Brian Jungen
A special collaboration with the National Gallery of Art

This two-part workshop invites comparisons between the kinetic sculptures, or “mobiles,” of two remarkably inventive artists: Alexander Calder, the American creator of the mobile, and Brian Jungen, a Canadian widely considered the leading Native artist of his generation. Jungen’s work is featured in the exhibition Strange Comfort at the National Museum of the American Indian, while Calder’s mobiles are well represented in the National Gallery’s permanent collection. This program encourages teachers to stretch their minds through challenging comparisons across time and cultures.

While the first session of the workshop series has been filled, there are still spaces available for the second session, to be held on February 20 at the National Gallery of Art, and February 27 at the National Museum of the American Indian. To register for the second session, please download the registration form for both workshops and write February 20 and 27 in the space provided.

I. Balancing Act:  Alexander Calder
This session features a meditation on the creative process itself as Kevin Reese performs his one-man play, A Perfect Balance, inspired by Calder’s experimental working methods.  Afternoon activities include mobile-making as a tool to help students work cooperatively and participate in group problem-solving.

Held at the National Gallery of Art
Saturday, February 6, 2010 (session full)
10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Repeated February 20, 2010 (spaces still available)

II. Strange Comfort: Brian Jungen
Brian Jungen often evokes the natural world through mass-produced materials that are imaginatively repurposed and rich in associations.  Crux (2008), a dazzling mobile featuring animals made from old and new luggage, and Shapeshifter (2000), a skeletal whale created from plastic chairs, provide a focus for exploring Jungen’s transformation of the ordinary into the strangely beautiful. This session will address Jungen’s interest in globalization, pop culture, museums, and the commodification of Indian heritage.  Exhibition curator Paul Chaat Smith will share his insights into these fascinating works.

Held at the National Museum of the American Indian
Saturday, February 13, 2010 (session full)
10 a.m.–3 p.m.
Repeated February 27, 2010 (spaces still available)

Crux (as seen from those who sleep on the surface of the Earth under the night sky) (detail), 2008. Suspended mobile depicting five animals. Steel, new and used suitcases, and wooden rowboat. 26/7253. © Brian Jungen.

IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas

For more information about educational programming associated with the IndiVisible exhibition, please call 202-633-6996, or visit the exhibition website.

The Great Shellfish Bay: Sustaining the Chesapeake and Its Peoples

Saturday, March 13, 2010
8:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
To Native peoples from the Chesapeake region, the Bay and its watershed are not only a natural resource but a central part of their cultural identities. Learn how the Great Shellfish Bay and its tributaries physically and spiritually sustained Native communities in the sixteenth century. Explore indigenous peoples’ enduring connections to this fragile ecosystem and some of their current environmental partnerships to revitalize and protect the Chesapeake. Download the registration form for this workshop.

Nanticoke bottle with herring and leaf designs, 1930-40. Oscar W. Wright (Nanticoke). Gourd, wood, corn cob, paint. 21/2681.

If you have questions or would like to know more about our services to teachers, please email NMAI-Education@si.edu or call 202-633-6996.

School Programs, Office of Education
National Museum of the American Indian
4th Street and Independence Ave, SW
MRC 590 PO Box 37012
Washington, DC 20013