The Museum Classroom is a collaboration between the Autry Museum and two local schools: Mount Washington Elementary and Castelar Elementary. The Autry officially adopted these Los Angeles Unified School District schools to work jointly with our school and community partners. Now in its fifth year, The Museum Classroom gives fifth-graders the opportunity to use the Autry throughout the school use to explore family and community history. An important aspect of the program is how it encourages students to examine the relevance of history to their own lives. Anahi, a Mount Washington Elementary student, commented: “I had an interview with Docent Winnie Lew – she told us about her grandfather who traveled from China to America; he was an herb doctor and told them what kinds of herbs to take to get better. He was important in history because he was a person who was Chinese and became Chinese American.”

Students use the museum’s galleries as classrooms to emphasize Western United States history, geography, and diversity following California’s education guidelines and frameworks. They conduct interviews with community members, create family photo albums, and speak with individuals whose family and community history is currently presented within the museum. Students work closely with the Autry’s museum educators, curators, collection managers, and exhibit designers to learn about the different aspects of creating a museum exhibit. At the end of the program, the students design and create an exhibition about their own familial, cultural and community history.

Explore the past two years of The Museum Classroom through our Website at http://www.autry-museum.org. These on-line exhibits give an in-depth view of the students’ work through their personal essays, observations, and artwork. This program has received national attention of the years, and our new accompanying electronic version allows us to reach and international audience. We hope that others across the nation and beyond will be encouraged to explore museum-school partnerships using this successful model program.

Come help celebrate the accomplishments of the students who created this year’s Museum Classroom exhibition, from June 11 – October 17, 1999, in the Showcase Gallery.

Exciting, interactive presentations include performing and visual artists, community members, and storytellers. Beginning on June 12 with Danzas Mexicanas and June 19 with African American Genealogical Society: Finding Your Family Tree, these activities continue through mid-October on selected Saturdays. The Museum Classroom exhibit activities are free with paid museum admission. For more information, please call (323) 667-2000, ext. 341.

Published in the Autry Museum’s (currently the Autry National Center) publication: Spur, 1999

by Alyson Meyer, Education Programs Coordinator