| Dennos Museum Center > Education > Teacher & School Programs | Revised 5/21/08 |
2008-2009 K-12 Museum Education Programs
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Students with Blues Musician Joe Bonamassa during a 2007 educational concert.
Students at a 2006 Taiko drumming workshop with Kiyoshi Nagata.
Students at a drumming workshop during an African Cultural Tour in 2007. |
Milliken Auditorium Educational WorkshopsAll workshops in the Milliken Auditorium are approximately 50 minutes in length. The charge is $3 per seat. Contact us for costs of in-school workshops. All attendees of workshops in the Dennos Museum Center are welcome to visit the Museum galleries to view exhibits before or after the workshop. Guided tours are typically not offered during these times due to the large number of students in the building. If you would like a printed gallery guide or activity for the students during this time please contact us ahead of time to make arrangements. Drawing with pencils is permitted in the galleries with the prior knowledge of the Museum Education Department. Mauvais Sort: French Canadian Folk Fusion
Times Available for Workshops in the Schools:
Tiempo Libre: Authentic Cuban Timba Band Adam Solomon: Celebrating Black History Month with African Music An Da Union: Mongolian Folk Music
Times Available for Workshops in the schools
Nagata Shachu: Japanese Taiko Changing ExhibitionsFall 2008: Twelve Voices: Quilts from the Studio Arts Quilt
Association Winter 2009: Ancient Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands from
the Arthur M. Sackler Collections Spring 2009: Contemporary Chinese and Japanese Ceramics from
the Dai Ichi Gallery (Tentative) Ongoing: Permanent Exhibit of Inuit Art Guided and Self-Guided ToursThe Dennos Museum Center offers guided tours on Monday, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 9:00 and 3:00, Tuesdays between 12:00 and 3:00, and Fridays between 9:00 and 12:00. These tours are guided by our group of volunteer docents who are trained to lead students in discussions about current exhibitions. Tours are interactive and give students an opportunity to analyze artwork, draw connections between the arts and their lives and make informed decisions about artwork. Self-Guided tours are available anytime during out open hours. Arrangements for guided or self-guided tours must be made at least two weeks in advance. The group admission rate is as follows: $2/student, teachers and aides free, one chaperone for every 10 students in free, all others are charged $4/person. Art projects are offered with guided tours for the extra cost of $1/student. All K-12 educational programming at the Dennos Museum Center addresses the Michigan and National Content Standards for Arts Education. We especially strive to provide experiences that will fit into a curriculum for the New Michigan Merit Curriculum for the Visual, Performing, and Applied Arts. Click here for a complete list of content standards addressed. Contact Diana Bolander at dbolander@nmc.edu or (231) 995-1029 to book a tour or event. |
Mauvais
Sort come to the Dennos Museum Center as part of the Arts Midwest
World Fest. Accordian, violin, guitar, bass, mandolin, drums, percussion,
feet and voice come together in energetic fashion in the French
Canadian ensemble MAuvais Sort. The group combines talent, accessibility,
and enthusiasm with a love for music, specifically traditional music,
to capture the hearts of its audience. Using bygone tunes and lyrics,
anecdotes of its own making, contemporary melodies, and legends
or stories of yesteryear all of which combine into a blissful mixture
of rhythms from around the globe. For more information and sample
curriculum go to 
Grammy-nominated
Tiempo Libre is one of the hottest young Latin bands today. Equally
at home in concert halls, jazz clubs and dance venues, the Miami-based
band has become known for their incendiary, joyful performances
of timba - an irresistible, dance-inducing mix of high-voltage Latin
jazz and the seductive rhythms of son - true modern heirs to the
rich tradition of the music of their native Cuba. For more information
go to 
Adam
Solomon was born in Mombasa, Kenya, and began performing at an early
age, playing kivoti (flute) and kayaamba (shaker) at village celebrations
and festivals. He established his vcareer playing lead guitar and
singing on recordings and videos with Kenya's most popular bands
and musicians. This multitalented musician is a 2005 Juno Award
Winner and a double winner at TAMA (Toronto African Music Awards)
for Best Release and Best New Performers in 1997. Solomon has performed
in the Milliken Auditorium before as part of the African Guitar
Summit.
An
Da Union comes to the Dennos Museum Center as part of the Arts Midwest
World Fest. "Anda" means "good friends' in Mongolian.
An Da Union was formed in 2003; its 14 members all hail from the
Xilingol Grassland area of Inner Mongolia, a semi-autonomous region
of China. At the Inner Mongolia Ethnic Opera and Dance Theater,
the members of An Da Union studied the folk music they now perform
and traditional instruments they now play, such as the horse-head
fiddle or tsuur, an ancient bowed instrument. The ensemble
members also play the maodun chaoer, a three-holed flute,
as well as Mongolian versions of the dulcimer, zither, lute, and
mouth harp. The main singing style performed by An Da Union is khoomii,
commonly referred to as throat singing, a traditional type of Mongolian
overtone singing , which replicates the sounds of nature. For more
information and for suggested curriculum, go to 
Nagata
Shachu (the former Kiyoshi Nagata Ensemble), based in Toronto, Canada,
has enthralled audiences with its mesmerizing and heart-pounding
performances of the Japanese drum (taiko) since its formation in
1998. While rooted in the folk drumming traditions of Japan, the
ensemble's principal aim is to rejuvenate this ancient art form
by producing innovative and exciting music that seeks to create
a new voice for the taiko. Their playing is the combination of unbounded
spirit with the highest levels of musicianship and discipline. The
result is an unforgettable experience that is both powerful in expression
and heartfelt in its sincerity. For more information go to 
Studio
Art Quilt Associates, Inc.'s Twelve Voices exhibition will
give viewers a rare, in-depth look at twelve of the best quilt artists
working today. Some are internationally known, and as mid-career
artists are familiar. Others are fresh faces displaying a strong
and promising talent. Most live in the United States; but the organization's
international membership was coincidentally reflected by the selection
of two international artists as well. The Twelve Voices exhibition
from SAQA is juried by Penny McMorris, the art curator for Owens-Corning
Fiberglass Corporation, the host of the WBGU/PBS national television
show, Quilting with Penny McMorris and the current vice president
of The Electric Quilt Company. 
Ancient
Bronzes of the Asian Grasslands reveals how the ancient, horse-riding
cultures of Mongolia and Central Asia used the animal world as a
source of symbols to indicate tribe, social rank and connection
to the spirit world. The exhibition shows how these complex cultures
helped facilitate travel and trade along the Silk Road during the
first millennia BCE. The exhibition features more than 80 masterpieces
of steppe art, including bronze belt buckles, plaques, pendands,
ornaments and weapons. Animal motifs such as antlered stags, wild
boars and birds of prey are a primary theme.
The
works in the Dennos Museum Center's Power Family Inuit Gallery present
a survey of Inuit stonecut, stencil and lithograph prints, fiber
art, sculptures and artifacts from the late 50s to the present.
Selected from over 1000 objects in the Museum's permanent collection,
the exhibition features artists from numerous communities within
Nunavut. As a whole, the exhibition is intended to reveal the vision
and scope of Contemporary Inuit art, not only through first generation
masters such as Parr, Pudlat, Kenojuak Ashevak and Kananginak, but
second and third generation artists as well.